Sketching With The Collectif In Ste-Foy

I’ve mentioned the Collectif before, whose complete name is Collectif des ateliers libres en arts visuels de Québec because people here love long, impossible to remember names.  They are mostly a portrait group and like nothing more than to sit around a naked person while they draw in a stuffy room.  In recent years, though, they’ve discovered that sketching outdoors is fun, too, and so have started scheduling outdoor events during the summer.

They scheduled an event at a large garden in Ste-Foy, or rather Quebec City.  Which name you use depends on whether you acknowledge the aggregation of the small cities into what now makes up metro-Quebec City.  For me it will always be Ste-Foy though I realize that people reading this blog might be confused by my using the two names to refer to the same place.  Such is life on planet Quebec City.

The garden is a large one but mostly rows and rows of different species of plants, and thus most of it is not the same as a typical botanical garden.  If I knew more about gardens I’d probably know why this is the case.  In any event, it’s a great place to draw flowers but I didn’t do that on this day.  Instead, I drew a small kiosk and the surrounding vegetation.  It was a nice day and the sketching was relaxing.  When I was done I walked around to talk with everyone and to look at what everyone was drawing.  By the time that was done my knee was screaming at me and so I settled for the one sketch for the day.  I hope you like it.

Fabriano Artistico (7.5×11), Pilot Cavalier, R&K Sketch Ink (Lily)

Croquistes de Quebec: January 6th Sketchcrawl

Almost forgot to announce the upcoming sketchcrawl.  Yvan has arranged for us to visit the Université Laval Collections.   If you’ve never been there, this is the place where the entire collection from the long-defunct Natural History museum is houses so there are, by my estimate, around a gazillion stuffed animals waiting to be drawn.  In addition, there is a vast collection of plaster casts that were once used by the Laval art department, back when drawing was part of the fine arts curriculum (grin).

Anyway, there’s a LOT to draw there and the atmosphere is really nice as it’s a limited access facility so you don’t have to worry about people (except maybe me) looking over your shoulder.  Anyone who has been to one of the sketching events we’ve had there will tell you, it’s fantastic.

Sadly, we do have to break from our normal Sunday sketchcrawl habit because the Collections are only available Monday through Friday.  This event will be this Friday, starting at 9:30AM.  For more details, check Yvan’s posting of the event here.  I hope to see you there.  I’ve colored this post up a bit with a couple of the sketches I did during last year’s sketchcrawl.

June Sketchcrawl at Galerie Louise-Carrier in Levis

levis-galerie-louise-carrier

Our next monthly sketchcrawl (June 19) should be fantastic.  We’re holding it in conjunction with an event that’s held every other year at Galerie Louise-Carrier in Levis.   In addition to the gallery’s exhibition of nature artworks, the artists of those works will be on site and other activities will take place in a park area next to the gallery.

I went two years ago and they had art demonstrations, acrobats, activities for kids, and a woman doing trick horse riding.  It was a real circus atmosphere and very much a target-rich environment for sketchers.  if you’re interested in drawing architecture, the entire neighborhood can be your playground as the gallery is in the older part of Levis and the architecture is stunning.

2013-06-24YvanBreton_smYou can get more information on the event from the Croquistes de Quebec website or the Louise-Carrier gallery website.  Whatever you do, don’t miss this one.  Bring a lunch, your pointy devices and some paper and be prepared for a great day.

Rain In The Alleyways

Last Sunday was our May sketchcrawl through the alleyways of Limoilu but things didn’t go as planned.  My first sketch was interrupted by rain, big drops hitting the sketch before the ink had dried that created ink splats to form on the page.  A quick run to the coffee shop where Yvan and Ginette shaking off their own rain.

This was Ginette’s first sketchcrawl and we had a great time getting to know each other as we sat in the cafe, sketching people.  Clearly she was the highlight of this sketchcrawl as it just went downhill from here.

We are almost desperate to sketch outdoors and the sketchcrawl was supposed to be our first outdoor sketchcrawl of the year, so when the rain stopped we headed out again to do the proverbial try, try again.  Same results, and in my case it was worse – another sketch ruined.  We decided to pack it in and that was probably a good thing because almost immediately the rain started coming down in buckets.

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

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

The attempts to sketch alleyways put me in the mood to try again as in Quebec City alleyways provide large shape-clusters that are both appealing to me and challenging, particularly all the stairways going up the back of the structures.  So, when the weather turned nice on Wednesday, I headed out to sketch.  Here are two sketches I did that day.  They don’t have any color on them because I forgot to put my watercolor kit in my bag.  Hope you like them.

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

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

 

May Sketchcrawl Down Limoilou Allies

 

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Some of the most fascinating parts of a city are behind the scenes, the back doors if you will.  In parts of Quebec City, most notably Limoilou, these are accessible to the artist through the ruelles or allies.  Most parts of Quebec City don’t have them but Limoilou has them and that’s where we’re headed for our next sketchcrawl, on Sunday May 8th.  For details of the event, head to Croquistes de Quebec website  for details.  If you need motivation, here’s a wonderful video that the Ottawa Urban Sketchers did when they did an similar sketchcrawl.  See you there.