Museum Sketching Exercise

Posted on November 7, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Stillman & Birn Beta, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

We’ve got a sketchcrawl coming up on Saturday and it looks like an unexpected blob of warm weather in early November is going to reward us for scheduling an outdoor event this late in the year.

But, truth be told, outdoor sketching is mostly over so I’m making regular trips to the museum to draw. The big exhibit right now is Egyptian and composed, mostly, of small statues, jewelry, and some miscellaneous goods. I’m in a mood right now to work on speeding up my sketching so rather than doing slow, precise drawing of these items, I’ve decided to draw a bunch of them more quickly. I’m not quick-sketching (2 min or less) but rather I’m spending 10-20 minutes per item, trying to capture them as accurately as I can in that time. Given my normal snail-like pace, I admit to feeling rushed. It’s fun and I’m hoping that this exercise will add something to my skill set. Here are a couple of the sketches I did during the first exercise session.

Stillman & Birn Beta, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Eventually I’ll do more detailed renderings of some of these pieces, but I feel that varying the time I give myself to do sketches has really helped me improve and I want to continue playing with that variable. Do you do that?

Sometimes It’s More Than Sketching

Posted on October 29, 2015 by Larry Marshall

The change of seasons, for me, means transition from street sketcher to museum sketcher. It’s a sad time, but also an exciting time. There’s so much shape variation in museum exhibitions.

Our Musee de la civilisation has a new exhibit just opened that presents Australian/New Zealand aboriginal art and as I play didjeridu and love aboriginal art, I’m quite excited about it. Most of the exhibit is paintings, rugs, and such but there are some statues and masks that I’ll be taking advantage of this winter.

I was there a few days ago, drawing a large wall-hanging mask. So were a bunch of kids on school outings. The kids were great as they’d come to see what I was doing and when I talked to them I got half a dozen more coming to see what was going on. This begat more and more kids to the point where I was mostly just talking to them about the watercolor pencils, waterbrushes, and how much fun it is to draw. Kids “get it.” They haven’t learned the feelings and emotions about art that adults somehow acquire.

Eventually they wandered away, though, and I got back to drawing. I was really enjoying the music and serenity of the room. A mother and her two young daughters (I’d guess they were 4 and 6) came by and, again, the kids were interested and, as is often the case with parents, the mother told them to leave me alone. I told her it was fine and I showed them what I was doing.

The older girl had some sort of writing/sketching book with her and started to draw with me. The younger one, of course, wanted to draw too, which sent mom scrambling for paper and pencil. She found some paper but had only a Seattle Seahawks pencil with her and it needed sharpening. I sharpened it and we chatted as I did. They were on vacation from where some of my favorite urban sketchers live – Seattle.

The kids drew a bit and I finished my sketch. The older girl came over to show me her drawing and I asked her if she wanted to use my watercolor pencils to color her drawing. Her look was priceless and I loaned her one pencil at a time. The same thing happened with the younger girl. We had a regular sketchcrawl going on.

I wish I had been smart enough to take some photos. Sadly, all I can share is the sketch I did, but it was the most insignificant thing that happened on this day.

Stillman & BIrn Beta (9×12), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black, Albrecht-Durer watercolor pencils

A Token Autumn Tree Sketch

Posted on October 26, 2015 by Larry Marshall

As I follow Facebook groups and Instagram one thing is clear. Sketchers sketch autumn colors, often as a single tree. I’ve never done that but as I was out walking yesterday it occurred to me that I should.

Why? Because there were steps I could sit on at the bank. Across the street there was a red maple, showing off how it got its name. I was only carrying my ‘short kit’ which amounted to small sketchbooks with inexpensive quick-sketching paper but I sat down and drew it. The drawing took only a few minutes and I had to add the color at home, very carefully as the paper buckled quite a bit. Regardless, here is my autumn tree. The U-shaped things are supposed to protect the trees from errant snow plows. Somewhat of an anachronism as it’s not going to snow any more – is it?

Reporting From Outside Quebec City Hall

Posted on October 24, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I was on the beat and walking in front of Quebec City’s City Hall when I came across this. It looked like the mayor had moved one of the offices (or lab) outside, just to the left of the main entrance to the building. There was only one administrative assistant as far as I could tell.

What is underway here is unclear. I know that Mayor Lebaume is pulling out all the stops to get an NHL hockey franchise for Quebec City. Maybe this is his latest attempt. The mainstream press have said nothing at all about this, so I hope I don’t become the next Ed Snowden for exposing these activities.

Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Sketching For InkTober 2015

Posted on October 19, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Every year the internet is treated to a stream of sketches in the name of Inktober and this is is no exception. I don’t formally take part as I already draw constantly in ink and so I just continue to post my normal drawings. But I was out the other day, having filled a Pilot Prera with DeAtramentis Document Brown ink and I thought about Inktober and did several sketches while on my walk. Here are a couple of them.

Right now the St. Charles RIver is at very low levels. I thought these rocks warranted a sketch.

Bassin Louise did a major service upgrade this year with the addition of these power stations that allow boats to plug in. Now that the boats are being removed from the water for winter, the stations are available for me to draw. So I did.

Maybe I’ll do a few more of these before October is over. I enjoyed the ink/pen combination and the tiny nature of these sketches.