News Flash: Sobab Coffee Takes On High-Price Coffee Vendors

Posted on October 27, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Remember when buying coffee meant digging out a coin or two? Ever since Starbucks convinced people that coffee was more about being empowered to make infinite choices than drinking something brown and warm, we’ve been forced to pay ridiculous amounts of money for a cup of coffee.

And it’s clear that there are high margins from this business model. Not only is there a Starbucks on every corner, every third store up and down the block is a coffee house. The choices are endless, at least if ‘choice’ means choosing who is going to charge you a lot for a cup of coffee.

Not so any more, at least not in Quebec City. I walk down 3rd Avenue regularly and drop into the Brulerie to do quick-sketches of the people and get a ‘cuppa’ as Liz Steel is fond of saying. I can expect to leave $3-4 lighter every time. But across the street is a new place, Sobab’s. I was out walking and decided to give it a try.

I only had a few minutes as I ordered a café au lait. I was asked whether I wanted a small or a large and I chose large. If you’re going to splurge on high-priced stuff, you might as well go all the way. Time to pay. Should I break a twenty? Probably have to. “That’ll be $1.50,” she said. Huh? I handed her a 2-dollar coin and dumped the change in the tip jar.

I sat down and, still in pleasant price shock, I scribbled out this little sketch of part of the counter area. The coffee was good. It was cheap, and a steady stream of people seemed to know all about it. As I enjoyed my coffee I did some quick sketches of people ordering their own inexpensive coffee.

All sketches done in a Field Notes notebook using a Pilot Prera and De Atramentis Document Brown ink

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.

Megacerops In Ottawa

Posted on October 18, 2015 by Larry Marshall

My daughter was coming home for Canadian Thanksgiving (it’s in October) and rather than have her take a train, I wisely reasoned that it wouldn’t cost any more for me to drive to Ottawa to pick her up and bring her back to Quebec City. Yes, it would mean ten hours of driving but heck, I could spend a couple hours sketching in the nature museum (I have a membership). And yeah, maybe that is a bit crazy but I am, as Steve Martin used to say, a “wild and crazy guy” when it comes to sketching.

So, at 3:30AM I drove out of town so that I could arrive at the museum when it opened at 9AM. This insanity was rewarded with a wonderful early morning sketching session where I got to hang out with a family of Megacerops. Well, actually they were life-size models of them. They roamed Manitoba and some of the plains states, but they went extinct a while ago, maybe even before I was born. They sure were big, though, and he wouldn’t fit on my paper and I decided that this end was better than the other end.

Stillman & Birn Beta (9x12), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

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

When I finished I had to leave to meet my daughter for lunch. We had a great lunch and then continued to chat until her afternoon class. At that point I repeated my 20-minute walk back to the museum, intent on doing more sketching.

It was not to be. When I arrived I learned about something called a PA day. I don’t really know what PA means but it happens in schools. What it meant to the museum was that every young kid in the Ottawa area was at the nature museum, or so it seemed. The nature museum is designed for kids to get excited, have fun and with so many of them there the decibel level in the museum, accompanied by the frenetic movement of little bodies around the rooms suppressed any notion I had of drawing. I made the best of it by actually visiting the museum like a normal person, reading the plaques and learning a few things about the exhibits.

So, please do me a favor. Look at my Megacerops a few extra seconds; I drove ten hours to draw it (grin).