Quebec: Spring 2014 Worldwide Sketchcrawl

Posted on April 20, 2014 by Larry Marshall

April 19th was the date of the 43rd Worldwide Sketchcrawl. Selecting an appropriate location for this spring event is tough for us in Quebec City because we typically have to wear heavy coats and learn to shiver. This year has been particularly bad in that regard so we decided that holding the sketchcrawl at the Quebec Aquarium, where we’d have the option of indoor or outdoor sketching, was a good idea. As it turned out, it was.

While I announced the beginning of the outdoor sketching season in my last blog post, it was too cold for me to want to sketch outdoors at the sketchcrawl, though a few of the participants braved the cold to sketch the walruses and seals that were in outdoor enclosures. I found the nice warm buildings to be the place I wanted to be.

One thing we didn’t count on were the crowds. It was Easter weekend and there were hundreds of people at the aquarium, having come from Montreal and elsewhere because of the long weekend. This made it hard to get access to the exhibits and you had to like lots of kids looking over your shoulder while you sketched. I always like that but admit that the crowds made the day a bit stressful.

Our aquarium, however, is wonderful. Not only does it have the typical fish swimming behind glass but there is a multi-story HUGE aquarium with fish who pose for sketchers. I think I’m going to get an annual membership so I can go back when it’s warmer (lots of outdoor sketching opportunities) and where I can go during the week to sketch a lot of the inhabitants.

I started the day by sketching a surgeon fish and leopard shark. I wish they were better but they were fun to do. Stillman & Birn Alpha sketchbook, Pilot Prera and Lex Gray ink.

I spent a lot of the morning just looking as I hadn’t been to the aquarium for many years. That was probably a mistake as the crowds started to build about the time I was ready for lunch. After lunch it was near impossible to sketch leisurely.

But lunch time it was and while eating I had a great view of rocks, trees and a trail that went by the large window I was sitting next to. Once my face was fed I sketched the rocks, creating this vignette.

A couple of us found a spot on the upper floor of the large aquarium and we tried to sketch the fish as they cruised by in front of us. I found it a bit difficult but lots of fun. What kind of sketching isn’t fun? It was a fun end to a great day.

Sketching With The Three Musketeers

Posted on April 8, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Snow has started to melt but it’s still piled high, so Athos, Porthos, and Aramis (the Three Musketeers) decided to meet and draw indoors at Celine’s house. She has a studio full of plaster casts that provide fodder for sketching fanatics. They invited me, d’Artagnan, along as the token anglophone of the group.

We had a great time sketching, looking at art books and talking about our upcoming road trip to Ottawa’s National Gallery. More on that later.

I sketched a couple smaller, painted plaster figurines in a Stillman & Birn sketchbook using a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray ink. Faber-Castell Albrecht-Durer watercolor pencils were used to add a hint of color. I love these pencils more everytime I use them as you can completely eliminate the lines made by the pencil.

It’s not location sketching but it’s sure good practice and goodness knows I need that.

Sketching in 1900s Toronto

Posted on April 4, 2014 by Larry Marshall

While there is evidence that spring will arrive, it’s not here yet and so as I watched Murdoch Mysteries I thought, why not go to Toronto in the 1900s and do some sketching. Isn’t that why they give me a pause button? Sure it is.

If you’re unfamiliar with Murdoch Mysteries, it smacks of P.G. Woodhouse farce while depicting the Detective Murdoch, of the “Toronto Constabulary” as he uses his brilliant mind and impeccable manners to solve crimes. Set in the early 1900s, the staging is a sketchers dream.

Here’s my initial attempt at capturing just a bit of the ‘action.’ Done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) using a Pilot Prera and Lex Gray ink. This was lots of fun. Maybe I should head to CSI: Miami. I bet it’s warmer there.

Biding My Time Til Spring

Posted on March 31, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Tomorrow is April Fool’s Day but Quebec City is still waiting for spring. It is the case that Mother Nature gave us clear skies today but, like my attitude toward politicians, I’ve taken a ‘fool me once…’ point of view of Ma-dam Nature.

And so as I wait for her to stop playing with my sensibilities, I’ve look for places and things to draw. I’m not much of a people sketcher as they just don’t interest me very much but what’cha gonna do when the snow is falling and the temps are below freezing. I quick-sketch people. It’s fun but the results somewhat embarrassing (grin).

Here’s a couple sketches from a recital I attended recently. They were done in a Strathmore ‘toned gray’ sketchbook with a Pilot Prera. If there’s shading it was done with waterbrushes with a few drops of ink added to them.

The larger one was an attempt to capture audience and musician but time ran out and the cellist walked away before I was done so he and the cello remain unfinished. Such is life of a real-time sketcher.

I include this tiny sketch because I thought it funny. Not sure what I was thinking. Well, actually I do. These legs were attached to a trombone player and between her being short, the woman sitting in front of me being tall and her music stand, these legs were my only connection to the “action”, seen between two member of the audience.

A couple days later we were invited to a read-thru rehearsal for a play by the Quebec Art Company. Yvan does the marketing posters for them. I found this a near-impossible challenge as the actors were moving around on stage almost constantly and my people art ‘vocabulary’ is insufficient to draw people who are changing their positions every few seconds. I took advantage of one guy who was supposed to be dead (spoiler alert – he wasn’t) and drew him but, as you can see, I resorted to drawing some of the props. I did a fantastic chair but I won’t bore you with chair and sofa drawings (grin). These were done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) using Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray.

All in all, it’s all good. The more I move pointy devices across paper, the better I get at it. Working at different speeds is like cross-training and all speeds seem to benefit. Still, I’m hoping spring comes “real soon.”

Mo Music, S’il Vous Plait!

Posted on March 17, 2014 by Larry Marshall

We’re back in the deep freeze here in Quebec. Will it never end? But we’re also in the middle of recital season, a time when the students at Conservatoire de Musique give recitals and what a joy they are to attend. Today it was pianists…amazing pianists. Marie Robitaille, Sophie Doyon, Brigitte Legendre, Bruce Gaulin-Boilard, Manuella Gagnon, Corolane Tremblay, and Ariane Filion-Thériault each graced us with their musical prowess.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4x6); Pilot Prera, Noodler's Lexington Gray ink

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6); Pilot Prera, Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink

And while they did, Yvan and I sketched, though I have to admit that at times I just stopped, listened and watched magical hands on keys. But here are a couple sketches I did during the nearly two hours of music. Thanks to the Conservatoire, the students, and Suzanne Beaubien-Lowe (their teacher) for making a very cold day seem just a little bit warmer.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6); Pilot Prera, Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink