Jupon Presse On Rue St. Jean

Posted on September 4, 2015 by Larry Marshall

We’re getting bonus summer here. Maybe it’s payback for the lousy June and July we had 🙂 In any case, I’ve been taking advantage of it and doing a lot of walking and sketching.

I found myself on Rue St. Jean, one of the iconic streets that lead from the old city through, coincidentally, the St. Jean Gate. A few blocks from the old city is an old church and an accompanying cemetery with headstones that date back into the 1700s. This was the ‘edge of town’ cemetery back then, I suppose.

It has become a park, as the graves were all moved at some point, though many of the original gravestones remain, it’s where downtown people go to eat lunch and enjoy the trees and park benches. I was going to draw some of the old head stones, but as I rounded the end of the church I saw this store across the street from the church. I’m sure I’ve walked under those awnings a bunch of times but I’ve never noticed them. From the cemetery the store was hard to miss and I found the place really cute. So I drew it.

ps – I was asked the other day what watercolors I use. I use Daniel Smith and love them. I wish they’d pay me to say that but they don’t. You can get their color chart here.

Stillman & Birn Beta (6x9), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

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

Sketching In St. Vallier

Posted on September 1, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Last Wednesday several of us drove to St. Vallier at the invitation of Louise Denault, one of our sketching buddies. This was very exciting because St. Vallier is a beautiful place, with a wide variety of sketching locations.

4x6 toned paper, Platinum Carbon pen, Platinum Carbon Black ink

4×6 toned paper, Platinum Carbon pen, Platinum Carbon Black ink

I took advantage of the fact that, for once, I wasn’t driving and so I did some quick sketches along the way. The bumps in the road added to the scribbly nature of the sketches but it was fun anyway.

We picked up Louise at her house and headed to a side road overlooking the valley and its agricultural fields. Everyone set up next to a wheat field with the expanse of the valley behind it, but I walked down the road to sketch an outbuilding I’d seen as we arrived.

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

Claudette and Louise came to where I was sketching just as I was finishing and we walked back to the group together. It had been determined that it was time for lunch and that we would head back to Louise’s house for lunch.

As everyone else was packing up I looked out at the valley and decided it would be an opportunity to do another one of those one-line sketch drawings and so I did one. I did ‘cheat’ a bit and lifted my pen a couple times to keep the drawing a bit cleaner, but by the time everyone was packed I’d done the sketch, added some darks, and was slopping paint on the piece of cheap Bristol on which I did it. I mention this last thing because it was a mistake. I thought I’d grabbed a piece of watercolor paper but instead I was trying to herd water on a piece of slippery, coated paper and I was using a waterbrush to do it. That was exciting. But this was a few minutes of fun and the result isn’t horrible (grin).

6x9 Bristol paper, Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

6×9 Bristol paper, Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Lunch was to die for, and if I’d eaten one more bite that might have happened. Louise provided quite a spread, with a beautiful salad, lots of cheeses, smoked sturgeon, quiche, baguettes, and wine… lots of wine. I was stuffed. And then Louise mentioned the pies…two pies. And, of course, we had to try both of them 🙂

Louise’s house is amazing but it’s the backyard, with its gardens, gazebo and view of the St. Lawrence that is the real jewel and we were eating in said gazebo. I’m used to a protein bar and a coffee when I go sketching. This was different, a really good kind of different 🙂

And now that we were done with lunch, it was time to get out sketching again. So, barely able to move, I left the gazebo completely delier, my new French word for the day. It means to be loosened up, and boy, was I loose. Any looser and I would’ve fallen down. I needed a nap.

Off we went, to a small nature park not far from St. Vallier. It was a parking lot, picnic tables, some trails and a gazebo set up for bird watching along the coast. Most of us decided to draw the gazebo. Here’s mine.

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

It was a great day but by then we were all pretty worn out and called it a day. Thanks to Louise for all her hospitality, her zucchinis, and that fantastic lunch.

Standing On The Corner…

Posted on August 27, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Standing on the corner…
…watching all the girls go by. — Four Lads

I’m old enough to remember a time before rock-n-roll. It was an era between big band music and Elvis Presley, where pop music came either from crooners or quartets of men or women. Lyrics were silly, but happy. Melodies simple and memorable. When I was a kid there was a song, Standing on the Corner, whose melody caught the attention of this kid. I must have been six or seven.

As an old sketcher I was standing on a corner and I suppose there were girls walking by, but what I noticed was the light pole and the block wall next to it. In the background and up the street a bit is where Rene Levesque lived, undoubtedly the best known and most beloved of Quebec’s Premiers. I did this quick drawing of the scene.

A Little Bit Of Paris

Posted on December 18, 2013 by Larry Marshall

If you’ve been following this blog you know that I’m spending some of my winter sketching time at our museum and its Paris 1900 exhibit. This week I decided, without giving it sufficient thought, that I should sketch a huge black and white photo that’s projected on a wall. It must be 12-14 feet tall and shows an indoor shopping area that, I understand, still exists today.

So I opened my Stillman & Birn 6×9 Zeta sketchbook, grabbed my TWSBI Mini, and started drawing. Somewhere in the early stages I realized that I’d either chosen too large a subject, a sketchbook that was too small, or the TWSBI nib wasn’t fine enough. Maybe the problem was a combination of all three of these things with a dash of my penchant for drawing everything. Leaving stuff out is hard for me. Whatever the reasons, the result was like the proverbial 10-pounds of potatoes in a 5-pound bag.

But I persevered because the process itself was fun – it’s always fun. Lots of stuff to organize, proportion, and to draw. I’m not sure what the woman in the middle was doing or carrying but you can see that several men were looking at her. While the photo was a bit vague in its over-sized presentation, there was a large ‘something’ flowing out from her hands. Maybe it was a shawl, a scarf or maybe a smoke bomb (grin). It was impossible to say. But I thought a bit of color would help center their gaze, and maybe yours.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9), TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black

From Oil Painting To Sketch

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I’ve discovered something new to do – to practice my eye. Being driven into museums by our cold weather, I’ve been staring at a bunch of oil paintings. I tried sketching from them, trying to grasp the artist’s intent. I’m not good at it and maybe it’s not even desirable to do so.

But I wondered what would happen if I didn’t try. Instead, what would happen if I tried to look at the painting and “convert” it to my sketching style. What would I learn? I wish I could tell you what the answer is but I don’t really know yet, but I felt something while doing the following sketch. I don’t know what it was but I think repeated treatments may change my sketching style, maybe even improve it.

Stillman & Birn (6x9) Zeta, TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn (6×9) Zeta, TWSBI Mini, Platinum Carbon Black