Sketching Rue Champlain

Posted on June 12, 2015 by Larry Marshall

The tourist season is heating up and places to put my tripod stool are already getting harder to find. But I love the hustle and bustle of tourist season. And there’s no place with more hustle and bustle than Rue Champlain, the street that runs along the St. Lawrence River and wraps around old Quebec. This is where the cruise ships dock and where the ferry shows up every half an hour with another pile of tourists, each wandering around while looking up to see the buildings high on Cap diamant, the location of the walled city. Lots of outdoor cafes, stores, and historic buildings give them plenty to do.

I was there on Wednesday and decided to draw one of my favorite buildings. It looks like something from a fairy tale, with larger buildings on either side of it, squeezing it into its tall, thin form. I wanted to sketch it with its windows bulging out from the pressure but decided that reality was good enough. Instead I did the black window thing and I don’t think I like that approach very much. Live and learn.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10x7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

A Great Day At Trait Carre

Posted on June 10, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Quebec City is a mosaic of small enclaves, one of which is Trait Carre, an area filled with big, beautiful elms and maples that surround beautiful old homes, some of which have become art galleries. There’s a library with grass on its roof, a large dual-steeple cathedral and an ambiance of a very rural community, though it sits in the middle of the hustle and bustle of our city.

The sketchcrawl was coordinated by Daniel Chagnon and was part of the schedule of activities organized by Le Collectif (http://calvaq.com). We weren’t a large group this day but, in a way, that’s what made it fun. I got a chance to chat a bit with Lucien and Diane, who do most of the organizing for the group. My French is very poor and I get lost when there are a lot of people speaking French simultaneously so the low turnout this day was a bonus for me.

Daniel knows the area well and we got a tour of the area before we each headed off in our own directions to sketch. I decided to sketch this house and did it in a small format (3×5).

Moleskine watercolor notebook (3×5), Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon ink, Daniel Smith watercolors

We met for lunch, chatted about upcoming events, fountain pens and ink and we shared the sketches we’d done thus far. We decided to get back to sketching and I headed to a scene I wanted to sketch. It called for a larger format and the largest book I had with me was a Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8) so I decided to do a two-page spread. I spent nearly two hours on this one and thoroughly enjoyed the time spent and the conversation I had with a young guy who was interested in my work. Hope you like it too.

Stillman & Birn Beta (6x8), Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon ink, Daniel Smith watercolors

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8), Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon ink, Daniel Smith watercolors

Why Is Confuscius In Quebec City

Posted on May 31, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Quebec City is a great place for sketchers as we have a lot of stuff to draw. It’s the same stuff that tourists point their cameras at, snapping endless photos, hardly taking the time to actually “look” at anything.

One thing that has always baffled me about Quebec City, however, are the statues. We have statues of EVERYBODY. Gandhi, Churchill, Japanese Emperors, what seems to be every South American general that ever lived – EVERYBODY. Why this is I can’t fathom a guess. More odd is that there are many prominent Canadian and Quebec historical figures who don’t have a statue. Go figure.

Anyways, the members of our group decided we were going to draw Confuscius. Yep, we’ve got a statue of him. When we showed up, it was decided that it would be best to wait an hour or so for the sun to move and maybe, just maybe, we could get some contrasting shadows. As it turned out, we didn’t have enough sun to make a difference but that’s how street sketching goes sometimes.

The group decided to draw De Gaulle (yep…got a statue of him too) but I wasn’t interested. Instead, I wandered around the area and never did get inspired, probably because all my buddies were huddled around the De Gaulle statue.

Ultimately I returned to find them about half done with their sketches so I sat down, got out my doodle book and started drawing his hand, which I did poorly. Then I started drawing a lamp and did so until everyone was ready to move on.

These doodles were done with a Pentel Kerry 0.5mm pencil with Faber-Castell red lead. This lead is less pink than most others I’ve tried and I really like how it looks. The brown paper is in the cheap ‘mustache’ books I talked about recently. I’m really enjoying those but have only found them in one of our dollar stores. Not sure what’s up with that but I now own a dozen of them. I’m a shameful notebook hoarder. Oh…sorry about those black marks. I guess I was testing a pen or something as those marks were there before I started drawing on the page. These are doodles, after all.

On to Confucius. Surprisingly, he was waiting for us, with the same pose as when we left him. Statues are like that. We all set up on the sidewalk across the street from him and started making marks. Sketchers always have the same pose too. This was my effort. Thanks to Confucius for standing still so long.

Stillman & Birn Beta (9x12), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Sketching Is A Windy Business

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Larry Marshall

It’s very windy here at this time of year, but the temperatures and sun (heck, it was all the way up to 16C this day) has caused my emergence from hibernation and I’m dancing in the streets.

I headed towards the port area. At this time of year the boat yard operators are like squirrels, looking for nuts. There’s a constant scramble to set up the marina docking system (removed for winter so it’s not destroyed by ice) and to get the boats back in the water.

But this day it was very windy. I tried to find a place to sit out of the wind that also gave me something interesting to sketch and I failed. In the end, I was sitting at a picnic table that sits in front of the farmer’s market. My thought was that if I was going to sit in a 30 km/h wind, it might be nice to have a platform for my sketchbook. The platform was nice – the 30 km/h not so much.

I drew the Telus (cell phones) building, hiding a lot of it behind trees, which are much more interesting than the building. It was done in a Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8) with my Pilot Falcon and Platinum Carbon Black.

Sketching St. Jean Baptiste Church

Posted on May 26, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Le Collectif (CALVAQ) organized a sketchcrawl at the Eglise St. Jean-Baptiste on rue St. Jean and we all met at 11:30 after the mass was over. It was a really nice day and I had a hard time with the thought of going inside to sketch but in I went.

I confess that I find few places less inspiring than the inside of a Catholic church. I think it must be the gaudy gold everything that turns me off. But they have one of their old bells on display so I drew it in my Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8) with my TWSBI Mini.

The other sketchers seemed more inspired than I was and everyone was deep in sketching mode when I finished. All I could think of was the sunshine I was missing out on. Maybe I was a plant in a previous life. Anyways, I went outdoors.

Ahh…..”Good morning sunshine…the Earth says Hello…” Who sang that song? So long ago. I wanted to stick with the church theme as that’s what the sketchcrawl was about, but as I walked around the church I couldn’t find a location that gave me a scene that inspired me. So I walked further away and found a tiny park area that gave me a view of the really tall church steeple. I sat down in the sun and started drawing, this time with my Pilot Falcon but in the same S&B Beta book. We had a great day and I hope you like the sketches.