A Quick Monument Sketch

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Our sketching group arranged a tour of the architecture school. Sadly, they don’t teach drawing with pointy devices anymore. Everything is 3D graphical presentations, a shift that James Richards (an architect) says, in his great Freehand Drawing and Discovery, generates a lot of work for him as he’s often hired during planning/pitch sessions because he can do freehand sketches of proposed ideas.

But we live in a “latest must be greatest” world. Like the trains and warehouses we dismantled when gas was cheap when we ‘knew’ that continuous streams of trucks on the road were ‘best’, I suspect architects will start learning to draw by hand again after there is a generation of ill-equipped architects who can’t.

The tour was fantastic as the architecture department is in one of the old “seminaire” buildings, with vaulted ceilings, Hogwarts-like staircases, and small doorways with, in some cases, the old steel doors you only see in medieval movies.

I got downtown about 15 minutes before we were supposed to meet so I sat down and drew this sketch. There’s a large statue in the square and it’s surrounded by a granite fence on three sides and at each corner one of these smaller monuments.

cheap brown sketchbook, TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black

Sketching Parliament

Posted on May 15, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9x6), TWSBI Mini, Noodler's Lex Gray

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9×6), TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black

The Quebec provincial parliament building is huge. The front of the building is actually the narrow side of the building and yet it’s a couple blocks long. When it gets a bit warmer I hope to find a view where I can capture the entire face of the building.

On Tuesday, though, the temperature was border line so I decided just to draw the main tower over the entrance. Even so, by the time I’d finished the ink sketch I’d cooled down enough that I felt the need to move so I quickly dashed on some color when I got home. It was good to see the sun while sketching. It’s been a long time coming.

Outdoor Table Tennis, Anyone?

Posted on May 9, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Seems there have been a few additions to my city since I roamed it last fall. I came across this one and had to sketch it. Nothing says ‘urban sketching’ like a concrete ping-pong table. The net is made of a thick, hard plastic and the playing surface is black concrete. Nothing to break, nothing to set up. You just show up and play.

Drawing in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (9×6) sketchbook with a TWSBI Mini and Platinum Carbon Black ink. Still a bit cool for watercolors on the street so these were done at home.

Sketching An Interesting Table Leg?

Posted on May 2, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Predictions of rain suggest I’ll be sketching at the museum for the next few days. Will spring every come? Thank goodness for the Masters of Olympus exhibit.

Today I was drawn (yeah…bad pun) to a rather bizarre human-creature with the head/body of a child/bird, a single leg from a three-toed something or other, and a large block sticking up from its shoulders.

I view sketching of such things as practice with seeing relationships and proportions and this one was a definite challenge to my limited abilities. As it turns out, the big block sticking up from its back is actually a compromise to its function as this 2-foot high statue (carved from stone) was a table leg. Maybe there are three more just like it wandering around Greece.

Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray ink, Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook

Winter Building Sketching

Posted on March 2, 2014 by Larry Marshall

I’m desperate. I really am a building sketcher and winter sends me indoors, to museums, concerts, etc. Not many buildings to be found inside buildings.

This is a view if you sit on the second floor of the McDonalds on St. Jean St. in old Quebec, McCafe in hand. Stillman & Birn Alpha 4x6), Platinum Carbon pen, Platinum Carbon ink

This is a view if you sit on the second floor of the McDonalds on St. Jean St. in old Quebec, McCafe in hand. Stillman & Birn Alpha 4×6), Platinum Carbon pen, Platinum Carbon ink

But when there’s a will, there’s a way, at least in a limited fashion. If one is lucky, one can sit by the window in a coffee shop and sketch the outdoors. I searched a bit and got lucky. Here’s a couple small sketches I did while looking out of windows. I’m ready for spring. How about you?

This one was hard to do as I had to lean over a bench and a heater so I could look out a small window in the old jail that’s now associated with the art museum in Quebec City. It was to see and balance sketchbook at the same time. Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), Platinum Carbon pen.