Urban Sketcher Communes With Nature

Posted on July 10, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I had a wonderful time last Saturday. I was invited to the house of long-time friend, Pierre Therrien, along with two other sketching buddies, one of them being Pierre’s constant companion and main squeeze, Celine.

I picked Yvan up and we headed to Pierre’s house, which is just south of the North Pole, I think. We drove and drove and drove. Pierre lives in a forest. His home looks out on gorgeous forested landscape areas and is near Jacques Cartier River, a very sketch-ogenic river. It is a sketcher’s dream.

We spent the first hour chatting about everything and anything and spent some time drooling over his art library. Then we decided that maybe sketching time was wasting away so we headed outside and broke out the pointy devices. Yvan, Celine and Pierre set up in front of the house to draw the ‘paysage’ that splays out in front of it and ends with a backdrop of the Laurentian mountains which, to a Rocky Mountain guy like myself, have always more resembled hills than mountains. Everything’s relative, I guess, and so are mountains.

But I’m an urban sketcher so I started wandering around. I found myself in a far corner of a field, looking back at Pierre’s house. Photo is courtesy of Yvan. You can see that I was very comfy as I had a full chair rather than my stool.

All alone was I, except for the curious ants, too many biting flies and a Theridid spider. I tried to strike up a conversation with the spider but she didn’t say much. She just glared at me for plunking my chair down so close to her web.

Here’s the view I had and the partially completed sketch:

I had decided to try out my new Uniball UM-151 (.28mm) pen on Stillman & Birn Alpha paper and I’ve concluded that it’s a wonderful combination. I’m going to be ordering some more of them ‘real soon.’

After lunch I returned to my perch, with the addition of a portable umbrella that shaded me from what was now a very hot sun. I completed the ink sketch and added color, using a waterbrush and W&N artist colors. I’m a hack watercolorists but I’ve got to get back to using real brushes. Here’s the finished sketch:

Sketching On A Summer Morning

Posted on July 9, 2013 by Larry Marshall

It’s fun to be out sketching early in the morning. Quebec City wakes up slowly and if you are out walking at 7AM, you’re mostly alone. Of course this morning I met up with my buddy Yvan and we found ourselves on Rue des Remparts, a great sketching street that skirts the upper portion of the old city. We chose a scene, that was really the backyard and garage areas of several houses. The location also provided a nice shade tree under which I could sit.

The sketch was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbooks using a Pilot Prera and Platinum Carbon Black. W&N artist watercolors and a a waterbrush were used to add color. Before it was done I was wishing I’d brought my real brushes along.

Sketching Tiny Town

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Larry Marshall

The Ursuline Convent in Quebec City was founded in 1639, which makes it the earliest learning institution for woman in North America. It’s also seems that they owned half the old city at one point. Ok…maybe that’s an exaggeration but they owned a lot of land and buildings and still do. But most of the private residences and some of the other large buildings have been sold off. The curent compound is home to the convent, a school, and it’s a popular tourist stop.

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One of the private residences still held by the Ursulines is this place. I’m not sure how big it is but it’s got to have the smallest entrances of any on Quebec. Its unique nature made it a great sketching subject, though gray on gray isn’t the ideal color scheme, I suppose.

The building on the left if the Ursuline library and museum. If you get to Quebec City, be sure to visit, if only to talk to the very nice people who work there. After we were done sketching, they let us browse through their library where we found several books used to teach drawing to students. While I’ve yet to tour the museum, they told me that there is a section on how drawing was taught to students. I’ve got to get back there to see that.

I did the sketch in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook using a TWSBI Mini with Platinum Carbon Black ink. I added some color… well, gray… with W&N artist watercolors.

2013-07-02Ursulines

Sketching Between Rain Days

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Larry Marshall

We’re still getting more rain than we should and certainly more rain than I want. But we got a weekend that only started under rain and high winds. We ended up with slightly damp conditions and warm temperatures. There was this scary yellow ball in the sky. Not sure what that was but it seemed harmless enough.

Yvan and I took advantage and we went to Artillery Park, an area in old Quebec City that has a bunch of old military buildings and fortifications. It’s also where a munitions factory operated until 1964. Now the large buildings are museums surrounded with park areas, cannons and high walls – a great place to sketch. And we did.

I sketched a building called Redoubte Dauphine. It’s an impressive structure and I set up at the base of it, sitting on the edge of a parking lot. I sort of botched the perspective by placing a couple lines incorrectly. As I didn’t want to restate them in their correct locations, I made the best of it and finished it with the wonky angles. Do me a favor and squint a lot when you look at the sketch. Maybe you won’t notice (grin). The sketch was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook with a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray.

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It was very hazy and cloudy so I decided to return to add color/details, when there was some sun to provide contrast. I packed up and went looking for Yvan. I located him, sitting high above me on a wall. In fact, I noticed that you can see him as a tiny orange blotch on the right of the photo above. He was sketching something and I thought it’d be fun to do a quick sketch of him. I did it in my Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) with a Pilot Prera and Platinum Carbon Black.

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I climbed the hill you see in the first sketch and entered a tiny park area associated with what was once an officer’s quarters. I liked the shape of the end of that building and so quickly sketched it. Same small sketchbook; same pen/ink.

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2013-06-29OldBuildingSite The eastern edge of Artillery Park is bordered by an old rock fence. On the other side of it there’s a grand old apartment building that’s no longer inhabited and, sadly, it’s crumbling from neglect. It pokes its second story above the rock wall and I liked the view, of the back of the building and so I sketched it. Same sketchbook, same pen, same fun experience. Every sketching day is a great day.

2013-06-29OldBuilding

Rain and Wind – Will It Ever Stop?

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Yvan and I were supposed to go sketching but it was very windy and rain was threatening. Since the new Paris exhibit had opened at our Musee de la Civilisation, we headed there instead. They have some great vehicles there that I want to sketch but geez they’re complicated.

This one is a 3-wheeled steam-powered vehicle produced by Dion-Bouton in 1885. It just oozes ‘cool’ in my opinion, but I’m sort of biased towards anything that’s steam-powered. Clearly a vehicle that would be comfortable putting around in a steampunk novel.

This was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook using a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray ink. It provided a great hour and a half of fun. Hope you like it.

Cheers — Larry