Are Sketching Doldrums A Thing?

Posted on October 31, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Every November I go through a down period when it comes to sketching. It’s sort of like I’ve got the clutch disengaged as I change gears. In the meantime my brain is spinning in neutral. My daily outdoor sketching routine comes to an end and I’m waffling around, trying to figure out how I’m going to survive the winter as a sketcher in Quebec City. This year is particularly bad because out provincial ‘austerity’ plan has gutted the budgets of the few local museums in Quebec City and so my typical winter haunts are nearly barren.

But I did meet our tiny group at the main library and we sketched one morning last week so I’ll share those little sketches with you. All were done in my tiny Stillman & Birn Alpha (3.5×5.5) softcover sketchbook.

The sketch on the left was the last outdoor sketch I did this year. I was leaning against a wall, trying to keep warm and I drew very quickly, but not quick enough as I gave up before I could start adding any details to it. It’s here only because it’s on the same spread as the sketch on the right which was the first sketch I did at the library. From the 2nd floor of the library you can see this building across the street.

When I finished I went hunting for my fellow sketchers and found them sketching a display in the kid book section. This winter will see me doing a lot of these quick sketches of people. Maybe, with the help of recent books by Pete Scully and Lynne Chapman I’ll figure out how to do them better.

When I finished with those sketches I went looking for a third member of our group and found her upstairs, sketching the street below. She was near to finishing and we were all going to meet for an early lunch, so I quickly did a few more real quick sketches of people who were reading. Here’s two of them.

As I’ve suggested, I’m not sure where my sketching will go this winter. There are several things I’d like to work on this winter and, I suppose, I’ll be doing a bunch of ‘studio’ sketching this winter. Wish I had a studio (grin).

Sketching A Mineral Display

Posted on October 25, 2016 by Larry Marshall

We’re entering sketching winter in Quebec City. This is when the notion of street sketching is absurd and so we’ve got to start looking for hard to find indoor locations to feed our urges to put pen to paper.

I got an email from Claudette telling me about permission she obtained for us to sketch a rock display in the lobby of one of the government buildings. My initial reaction was “huh?” and an assumption that I didn’t understand the French (my default reaction to most things because it is generally true). I love drawing rock cliffs and even piles of rocks but a geologic display of rocks? Didn’t make sense.

I almost didn’t go but I’m glad I did as it was a lot more fun than I thought it would be. Besides it was warm inside and raining outside. During the morning session I drew three rocks, a green one, an almost clear one, and a yellow one. I’d give you more details about these minerals but that’s all I know. Geology is not my thing. The results aren’t great art but they do represent a lot of fun and I’d love to have another shot at drawing some of these unique and complex shapes.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5x8.5), Platinum 3776

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Platinum 3776

Quebec Forests On Fire, But No Smoke

Posted on October 19, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Our harbor is clogged with cruise ships. It’s that time of year when everyone wants to float along the St. Lawrence River, looking at the hillsides on either side of the river and this is a particularly good year for autumn leaf watchers. While the trees have responded to changing day length by ceasing chlorophyll production, we’ve maintained enough warmth and lack of wind that the leaves have been late in falling, creating an amazing blaze of reds, yellows and golds. Some of the trees are so bright that they are hard to believe. Maybe someone is painting them.

Chantal and I have been driving around on the weekends, visiting different places under the auspices of sketching and adventuring, but mostly just to enjoy the sunshine and the trees. Mostly we just enjoyed being outside in the sunshine.

My arthritis has disabled my drawing hand so I haven’t really done a lot of sketching, but my heart’s in the right place and that’s something. I’m hoping the hand will return to normal soon and I can get back to sketching more. In the face of our excursions hither and yon to visit forests, there is some irony in the fact that the sketch I present to you here was done no more than a 10-minute walk from my house. I sat at the edge of a park and drew this amazing tree and its surroundings. Hope you like it.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8x10), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Late Fall Sketching Is The Best

Posted on October 13, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Ever notice that when things come as a surprise they’re just a bit better? We’re experiencing some late fall weather that’s been really great and it’s extended my outdoor sketching season. This surprise has been sweetened even more by my boss and true love (some call her my wife) wanting to sketch with me. Life is great.

We found ourselves on Ile d’Orleans, the island I’ve mentioned in recent posts and we were back in the park I discussed here. Chantal wanted to sketch the large hotel building and I sat down to sketch an old house on that sits on a hill in the park.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Pilot Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Brown

When I finished up I went looking for Chantal and found her working away on her sketch. Not wanting to interrupt her, I sat down and started doodling details of the building she was drawing. I need to do this more often cuz it’s fun… lots of fun. I probably could have organized them better on the page but I gave that no thought as I just kept scibbling until the pages were full. You might want to click on the graphic to enlarge it a bit. Do you ever do this?

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5x8.5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Getting Away From The Noise

Posted on October 4, 2016 by Larry Marshall

For the last few weeks our street has been under construction. The city is replacing sewer/water lines, repaving the street, replacing our sidewalks, installing new streetlights and, hopefully, they’re going to re-sod the parts of our lawns that are currently torn up.

What does this have to do with sketching? Not much I suppose except that Chantal and I were all full up with the noise, particularly the beep, beep, beep of trucks and machinery backing up. So we left.

We drove out to Ile d’Orleans, the large island I mentioned a couple posts ago. We headed directly to La Boulange, a little slice of heaven that overlooks the St. Lawrence and that has great coffee and pastries. During our visit we also learned that they have fantastic pesto pizza. We enjoyed good food, sunshine and some quiet as we at on their veranda.

The only sketch I did from that location was this little quickie (maybe five minutes) that I scribbled into a small Stillman & Birn (3.5×5.5) sketchbook. The bit of color was splashed on from a 4-color palette I carry, using a waterbrush as my splashing device.

When the pizza, coffee and pastry was gone we decided to head to the other side of the island (north side) to visit the large church, and its associated park because it’s a great place to sketch. Chantal wanted to sketch the gazebo that sits at one end of the park. I decided that was a pretty good idea and we enjoyed some more sun as we sat together sketching. This was my result. It was really nice to get away from the noise and we returned refreshed and ready for another round of beep, beep, beep.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (8.5x5.5), Platinum 3776

Stillman & Birn Alpha (8.5×5.5), Platinum 3776