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?

Return To Museum Sketching

Posted on October 21, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I wonder what my dad would think if he knew that the thing I remember most about him was him saying to me (often), “You’d forget your head if it wasn’t attached.” The sad thing is that, decades later, he’s still right.

I headed off to meet sketching buddies at the Musee de la civilisation the other day, which amounts to full acknowledgement that outdoor sketching is finished, or nearly so, for the year. It’s starting to get cold and this Arizona boy doesn’t do cold. None of us is very excited by the current expositions at the museum but there’s always something to draw, if only to provide practice and opportunity to try different techniques.

Once at the museum and I started thinking of sketching, I realized that I’d forgotten my light and my stool. Most of the rooms are so dark that without a light clipped to my sketchbook, I can’t see what I’m drawing. And, oddly when you think of it, most of the displays are low, requiring a stool to get your eyes on level with what you’re drawing.

Lucky for me, my head was attached and I used it to decide to draw something from the main entrance, where the museum seems willing to pay the electric bill and thus there is sufficient light. I thought about the stairwells, they’d be an interesting drawing challenge. I thought about the old bones of a boat that’s part of the entrance display. To do it justice, though, would require a lot of hours. I thought about drawing the ticket counter, but I’d already done that once.

Instead, I looked out the window to the courtyard associated with the museum and did this sketch. I forgot a lot that day but because of this sketch I’ll always remember to be grateful that my head is attached.

Quebec City Museum of Civilization courtyard

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

A Bad Sketching Day

Posted on September 29, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Does it ever happen to you? You agree to meet people for a sketching session and when you arrive you’re just not inspired to sketch? It doesn’t happen to me very often but when it does, the results aren’t pretty (grin).

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

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

And so it was when I agreed to meet five of my sketching buddies at the Latin Park, or whatever they call the place where there are a bunch of statues of famous South American folks. The smiling faces and upbeat attitudes that always come with sketchers were there and the day was gorgeous, as it’s still considerably warmer than it should be this time of year. But, for some reason, I just wasn’t in the mood to sketch.

I sat down to draw this guy, or this hunk of stone that looks like a guy. I worked faster than normal, mostly because of my disinterest, I think. The drawing result wasn’t horrible but I decided to try something different with the watercolor and made a mess of it.

From there I started sketching one of the most boring buildings in Quebec, the bus station, which is also an expansion to the train station, one of the most beautiful buildings in Quebec. I’d only just begun when everyone finished their first sketches, so we headed into the Dept. of Justice, the back of which looks out on the park, and we found toilets, coffee, and then returned to the park to eat lunch. That was fun and we talked about film festivals, the weather and sketching.

Everyone decided to do some more sketching so I went back to my bus station sketch. Why do we build such bland, soulless structures? As I look around Quebec it’s easy to see that there was a time when people cared about the esthetics of the world around them. Now it’s all just glass boxes full of cubicles. So sad.

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

After I finished that sketch I did a couple quick sketches of statue pieces but it just wasn’t an inspiring day for me. Still, any sketching day beats a non-sketching day.

Relaxing At Mt Herman Cemetery

Posted on September 28, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

One of my favorite places in Quebec City is the Mt Herman Cemetery. It’s an old English cemetery that dates back at least to 1800 and is situated on a heavily forested, rolling hill landscape. People go to Mt Herman to read, meditate, walk around, have picnics, let their kids see a bit of nature. Of course, some come for a longer stay, which is the raison d’etre of a cemetery.

Me, I go there to sketch and to enjoy the quiet of the place, and that’s what I was doing about a week ago. During my time there I did a couple sketches. Nothing special, and not much to say about them except that both subjects were crafted during the 1860s. We do live our history here in Quebec.

Stillman & BIrn Beta (6x9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & BIrn Beta (6×9), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Citroen 2-CV

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Larry Marshall

The Citroen 2-CV (deux chevaux-vapeur), is something of a blast from the past. While not made in production numbers until after WWII, it was designed in the 30s to move a couple adults at a whopping 37 mph along French dirt roads. I don’t know if they ever made it to the US but I never saw one until I came to Quebec and even here, the only ones I’ve seen are display items at a large restaurant. But they smack of a pre-Volkswagon where inexpensive cars were kept light, low-powered and without power everything.

I went with Claudette to the north side of the city because she wanted to draw a large bear statue. When we got there I found the 2-CV and knew what I had to do. The subject I was looking at was painted bright red with white polka dots. Why they had insulted this vehicle in this way is beyond me but I colored the sketch in more traditional colors.

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

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