A Grand Day Out: Sketching With Others

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Larry Marshall

My favorite Wallace and Gromit film is A Grand Day Out. In it, Wallace finds that while he has crackers, he has run out of cheese. Of course, that means he and his dog Gromit need to go to the moon to get some more, as everyone knows the moon is made of cheese. Gromit builds a rocket and they head off to find some cheese.

Yesterday I was reminded of A Grand Day Out because I had one in the form of Quebec City’s version of the 42nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl. We’ve held several of these and while it’s hard to do when it’s -25C, we do what we can to bring people together.

This sketchcrawl was held at the Musée de la Civilisation. This museum is a very welcoming and accommodating place and it’s ideal for such an event. As with all of our sketchcrawls, this one was organized by Yvan Breton and Celine Poulin. One of my sketching buddies, Claudette Gauvreau, deserves some credit as well as she used her infectious laugh and sociability to convince several of her friends to join us.

Just beginning to gather in the lunch area. Hard choice between talking and eating being made by many

And what an event it was. We had a couple DOZEN people at this event. I emphasize the word dozen as when you can start counting participants in ‘dozens’ it’s sort of like being old enough to talk about how many decades you’ve been alive. And dozens we had, at least 24 people and while it was hard to get an accurate count, I think it was more. What I do know is that I found it impossible to remember the names of all the people I met for the first time. But I’ll always remember the smiles on their faces.

And did we have fun. The one downside of a museum sketchcrawl is documentation as they frown on photography in the exhibit areas (click on image to get a larger image). What I can tell you is that from 10AM until 12:30 there were sketchers everywhere you looked and it was quite exciting. Some people were surprised by how relaxed the atmosphere was and how “non-competitive” we were. You can tell ‘serious’ artists about this difference between sketching and fine art but until they experience group sketching on location, it’s hard to understand it.

Looking at sketchbooks, laughing and enjoying one another’s company

A group admiring Jacques Paquet’s sketch box

At 12:30 we gathered in a basement area to eat lunch and kibbitz about sketching, pens, watercolors, and to share our sketchbooks. I’m not sure we ever had everyone in one place so I can’t show you the typical ‘the gang’ photo but here are a few clusters of people and even a few sketches I managed to snap a photo of as they were laid out by some of the participants.

I found it hard to get photos of other people’s sketches because everyone was having so much fun flipping through everyone else’s sketchbooks. Pictures come second to fun in my book but I did manage to get these few snapshots.

Guylaine Côté’s bicycle. Love this view.

Celine (top) and Pierre’s (bottom) sketches

Group of sketches

After lunch, and after we couldn’t talk any more, most of us headed back out to sketch. We lost a few of our participants as they had afternoon appointments elsewhere. Once again we invaded the exhibits like ants on a sugar cube and while we were having fun, we were also becoming part of the exhibits, as folks were looking over our shoulders and saying nice things. Location sketching is good for the ego.

We wrapped up around 3PM, most of us quite tired but also exhilarated by the day’s activities. I’m still walking a foot or so above the ground. Did I mention we had a COUPLE DOZEN participants?

Oh…I did a bit of sketching myself, though not as much as some. And I did have the ability to scan them. Here are my sketches from the day. It was definitely a Grand Day Out.

I saw this drum display as an opportunity to practice orienting ellipses as each drum was positioned differently. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray ink

I saw this drum display as an opportunity to practice orienting ellipses as each drum was positioned differently. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray ink

These were part of a large poster of clown caricatures and I thought it might be fun to draw a few of them. It was. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray

These were part of a large poster of clown caricatures and I thought it might be fun to draw a few of them. It was. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray

You can find many more photos and sketches on the Worldwide Sketchcrawl site.

Sketching At The Library

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Larry Marshall

It’s turned bitter cold again, killing hopes of a mild winter. And at -33F I headed off this morning to meet Claudette at the library. Somehow the walk was longer than normal. I wonder why.

Done in Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) sketchbook, Pilot 78G and Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink

But we had a lot of fun sketching people at the library. Library people tend to stay put a bit longer than museum people so there’s a better chance of finishing a sketch before they wander off. I’m not much of a people sketcher but I thought I’d share a couple of the sketches I did this morning. It’s ok to laugh… honest. I wonder if the sleeping kid would have been embarrassed to know that he was snoring and that people were looking at him.

A Walk With The Gods

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Larry Marshall

The search for places to sketch in winter is continual here in Quebec City, so when Yvan said “Why don’t we go to Pavillion Laurentienne to sketch?” everyone immediately responded with “Sure!” Only later did we ask “What is Pavillion Laurentienne and what can we sketch there?”

Pavillion Laurentienne, as it turns out, is a relatively new building on the Université Laval campus. It’s used for conferences and larger meetings. What’s interesting about it is that it’s got a very large lobby area with a bunch of large plaster casts of statues that live in Europe somewhere. Another way of looking at them is that they’re big white naked people, though one of them, out of modesty no doubt. has a small sheep wrapped around his shoulders.

Yvan got permission for our motley crew to show up today to sketch. Sunday is certainly the day to go as except for the security guard, we were there alone, hanging out with the white naked people. It was a very meditative atmosphere.

Here’s a loose sketch of part of the lobby area. I did all these sketches on Canson Ingres papers that seems ideal for pen and ink drawing, though it’s too thin for watercolor.

Sketching statues is certainly not my forté but I sure had fun today. This guy’s name is Marcellus, though he and I never had a real conversation. His neck isn’t really that long – I was being “artistic,” I guess (grin).

I was getting a bit tired at this point, so I had some coffee and some great conversation. I decided to draw an arm and, I’m afraid, I worked one beat too fast and the poor guy’s hand looks like it went through a meat grinder, though in this case I guess it would have to be a plaster grinder. In any case, the result left something to be desired, as did my second, hand attempt. I guess I was just tired from trying to keep my gut sucked in around these well-muscled white guys.

All of these sketches were done with a Pilot Prera with either J.Herbin Lie de thé or Noodlers Lexington Gray ink. As we left for the day most of us agreed that we’d have to come back.

Sketching An Inuit Art Piece

Posted on January 12, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Quebec has a rich Native American community, from the Shawnee who helped Pre-Canadians fight Americans during the war of 1812 to the Inuit (Americans might still call them Eskimos) who manage to live in the very cold northern parts of Quebec.

Our Musée de la Civilisation has a large permanent exhibit dedicated to Native American history and art. This is a beautiful piece of wood and soapstone carving. It’s about two feet tall and the soapstone face has a long tail on it that allows it to sit in the hollow of the tree trunk. It’s quite stunning and I didn’t do it justice.

Done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9) with a Pilot 78G, followed with Albrecht-Durer watercolor pencils and a waterbrush.

Sketching Quebec’s Past

Posted on January 10, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Our Musée de la Civilisation has a permanent exhibit of Quebec artifacts. They are organized roughly along the lines of Quebec’s history, starting with the results of archeological digs and then progessing through 400 years of its history. Celine Dion is somewhere near the end of the exhibit.

I thought it might be fun to sketch a few of these antiquités and this is the result. Done in a Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9) using a Pilot Prera (Platinum Carbon Black) and a Wahl-Eversharp flex nib pen (Noodler’s Lexington Gray).