Pre-hibernation Behavior Of A Quebec Sketcher

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I think this may be my last outdoor sketch of the year. I was out this morning. The temperature was 3-4 C and it was windy. I did the basics of this sketch as quickly as my slow hand allowed. It’s a tiny, old ‘casse-croute’ (typically this means they sell fries and poutine) on Dorchester street.

By the time I had the structure drawn, I was frozen so I headed to the library, which was nearby. I’d snapped a photo of the building and used it to add details and color. I think this marks the beginning of indoor season for me.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9) sketchbook, Pilot Prera, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9) sketchbook, Pilot Prera, Platinum Carbon Black

Sketchcrawl Sketches And Then Some

Posted on October 23, 2013 by Larry Marshall

We held our fall sketchcrawl last Saturday and I reported on it on Monday. The post was getting so packed with graphics that I decided not to post the sketches I did during the sketchcrawl.

I did do a couple, however. Being a fan of mundane urban accessories, I decided to draw one of a dying breed of accessory, the phone booth. It was convenient as it was situated at the meeting place for the sketchcrawl so I could sketch and still meet people as they arrived. I learned this trick from my buddy Yvan. I did it in a Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9) using a Pilot Prera and Platinum Carbon Black ink. I found that I’d forgotten my watercolors so I did the color with Faber-Castell “Albrecht-Durer watercolor pencils. I like these as a substitute for watercolors because I can completely eliminate the lines made by the pencil.

In front of the Farmer’s Market was a large pile of pumpkins, stacked on hay bales. I drew a portion of those in my Singapore special toned-brown sketchbook that was sent to me by Patrick Ng. I’m still learning how to work with this paper but I’m really enjoying it. I used the Pilot Prera and watercolor pencils on this one as well.

I thought I’d throw in a couple other sketches I’ve done recently. The garage sits at the end of a little park I sit in while waiting for a study group I run to convene. I don’t think I ever posted it. It was done in a 3×5 Moleskine watercolor book.

When I was doing that sketch, they were tearing up the street in front of the park. By the next week they were ready to re-pave it and they’d just finished laying new curbing along its length. To do that, it seems, they had to remove the fire hydrant, which was hanging from a mechanized shovel. I’m a fire hydrant afficionado and this was akin to a bird-watcher seeing a rare bird. I had to sketch this and so I did, in my Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9) with my Pilot Prera. This was the tenth fire hydrant sketch I’ve done and certainly the most unique.

Hope you enjoy these. I sure had fun creating them. — Larry

Art Deco Period Houses in Quebec City

Posted on October 18, 2013 by Larry Marshall

One of the things I love about Quebec City is that there is an obvious location of the founding period of the city. Our “old city” is a UNESCO Heritage site, as it is the oldest walled city in North America, officially founded in 1608. The history is rich and evident.

And as Quebec City grew, people moved beyond the walls and the city spread outward as lava flows from a volcano. This outward movement was limited by the St. Lawrence River to western and northwestern expansion. The result of this slow expansion is a “map” of how architectural trends changed over the years from 1600 to the present and, as a sketcher, it can be examined much as an archeologist examines layers of rock.

I’ve spent most of my time sketching inside the old city, as the architecture there is both early and a combination of French and British influences. But, if one wanders away from the walls of old Quebec by just a few kilometers, one hits the motherlode of Art Deco architecture. Bay windows and corner towers give way to rounded walls, flat roofs, and frosted glass decorations – a completely different world from the French architecture of our Chateau Frontenac, the architectural symbol of Quebec City.

Here’s my first art deco house sketch but it won’t be my last. I love the cobblestone-like rounded wall and the door. I’m looking forward to mining the art deco layer of our architectural history. Sketching in Quebec City is exciting and fun.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9×6 landscape) sketchbook, Pilot Prera, Platinum Carbon Black ink

Quebec City Street Scenes

Posted on October 16, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Quebec City, particularly the older parts of the city, has many street scenes that are worthy of a sketcher’s time. Often the streets are narrow and the buildings are connected to one another.

These form great urban scenes and the only thing that limits a sketcher is time and the place to sit while doing the sketch. Time, scene and place to sit came together and I sketched this autumn scene.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9); Pilot Prera w/Platinum Carbon Black ink

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9); Pilot Prera w/Platinum Carbon Black ink

Fall Is Here; Just Say No To Snow!

Posted on October 10, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Fall officially came to Quebec a couple weeks ago. Many of the trees, and certainly Mr Weathermaker, didn’t get the memo. We’ve had very warm temperatures for a last couple weeks and the trees are very confused as daylength tells them to drop their leaves but the temps are saying “not yet.”

But, slowly and as surely as politicians will screw things up, winter is approaching. For me, a street sketcher, it’s a time of transition. It’s a time when I start figuring out what/where I’m going to sketch once it gets too cold outside to do what I love – sketch on the streets.

To that end I’m thinking about museums, have convinced myself that I should try, again, to sketch from photos, and that I should use Google Maps “pegman” to sketch in exotic places while snow blankets my world. We’ll see.

toned paper; Pilot Prera and Prismacolor white pencil

In the meantime I’ve been doing some sketching. I received a handmade tan-paper sketchbook from my buddy Pat Ng in Singapore and did this sketch to sort of break it in. The gulls love to sit on the lamp posts around here so I had plenty of source material for this sketch.

This sketch was done in celebration of the show the trees put on for us every year. Fairly simple, I combined a Uniball UM-120 black pen (.5) with a Uniball UM-151 brown-black (.38) pen and did it in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) sketchbook. The fence lets me call it an ‘urban sketch’ 🙂

I spent Monday night looking at a bunch of sketches done by Liz Steel, a very talented architect/sketcher. She talks about how she works very quickly and why. The next day I was walking down a street and saw this little house. I decided to try out Liz’s philosophy/approach and while I didn’t produce anything near the quality of her sketches, once I buried the ‘ooooo…that’s not right’ and ‘oops…left that out’ I found the results interesting and I’ll probably do some more like this. Took less than 10 minutes, including the time to get out my watercolor kit and waterbrush. It was done in my ‘el cheapo’ 3×5 notebook and my Uniball UM-120 (.5) pen.

Sketching, no matter how it’s done, is fun and after two years of doing it, I can’t imagine a day without it in my life.