I’m fortunate to have some sketchers that I can sketch with regularly but I confess that sometimes I feel isolated from things like urban sketchers, as we have no regional group here. So when Marc Taro Holmes said he’d like to come to Quebec City to sketch, I was pretty excited. I’m a big fan of his and have learned a lot from his book and from his Craftsy courses.
He and his wife Laurel were to arrive Sunday morning and so I was sitting outside their hotel, waiting for them to arrive. It seemed natural that I should sketch the hotel while I waited.
With that done, I did this quick sketch of a bronze bust of a famous Vietnamese guy, whose name eludes me.
I was getting a bit worried because they were very late in arriving. As it turned out, most of their hold up was due to problems finding a place to park. By the time they did show up, I’d done this sketch of a lamp post. It’s amazing how much you can find to draw without moving.
As Marc and Laurel had driven from Montreal, they needed a break before we headed out sketching and so we headed for a coffee shop. Anyone who has met Laurel and Marc know they are very laid back, and absolutely wonderful people. We talked about sketching, did the typical kibbitz about some of our sketching kit and then I made my confession.
“Marc, I’ve got a problem. We’re going to sketch in places where I can sketch any day of the week. I can’t look over Marc Taro Holmes’ shoulder any day of the week. It’s going to be hard for me to sketch today.”
I’m pretty sure Marc thought I was kidding but…well, I wasn’t. As it turned out, my statement was prophetic. While I was embarrassed that all my pen could produce was babble, and precious little of that, I learned so much from watching Marc draw and from our conversations. This is the only sketch I managed to produce while Marc produced four 16×20 sketches during the day. It was a bit embarrassing.
The conversation stuff was another “problem.” Marc can talk while he draws; I cannot, and our conversations were near nonstop. In spite of me dropping the sketching ball, the day was very special to me and I hope Marc and Laurel enjoyed themselves in Quebec City. Thanks, Marc, for a great day. I promise to sketch more next time.