Drawing Chapel Arches

Posted on April 15, 2016 by Larry Marshall

The Croquistes de Québec held their April sketchcrawl at the chapel associated with the Musée de l’Amérique du Francophone. It’s really hard finding indoor places to sketch in the winter and so I’ve been to this chapel enough this winter to say that I’m ‘all full up.’ Nevertheless, I always enjoy sketching with others.

Turnout wasn’t great, probably because others are as tired as I am of sketching indoors, but there were five of us in attendance and we had fun, though this sketchcrawl wasn’t as long in duration as our summer sessions will be.

I decided to draw some arches. I always have trouble drawing when I have to look upward. I wonder whether it’s because of the view itself or the fact that my sketcher head-bob up and down from subject to paper, is so extreme. Either way, it slows the sketching process and always results in some wonkiness working its way into my drawing. Next month we’re going to sketch the alleyways of Limoilu – outdoors. Spring had better be here by then.

Stllman & BIrn Beta (9x12), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Stllman & BIrn Beta (9×12), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Birds, Birds, Birds: Sketching While Waiting For Spring

Posted on April 6, 2016 by Larry Marshall

The Croquistes de Québec held their April sketchcrawl yesterday. There were seven of us in attendance. We got to sketch in Les Collections at Laval University. I love sketching there and because it’s not open to the public, it’s a special treat. Big thanks to Yvan Breton who organized it and to Mme. Wagner who permitted us access.

This is a place that is piled to the gills with great stuff to draw, which is great. If there’s a downside it’s that it’s piled to the gills with great stuff to draw. Way too little space holds what used to be displayed at a full natural history museum and a huge collection of plaster casts that used to be used by the art department when they cared about artists learning to draw. Les Collections is a storage facility, not a display museum.

Stillman & Birn Beta, Platinum 3776

I decided to draw some birds because 1) I’m really bad at it and 2) because I’m really bad at it. To do this required that I sit in a very narrow space in front of a cabinet full of taxidermy specimens. Lighting was rather poor so seeing feather tracts and other details was nearly impossible but it was fun to draw them nevertheless. I’ll show you two of my sketches. I started a third but didn’t get a chance to finish it.

Stillman & Birn Beta, Platinum 3776

Sketching At A Plant Nursery

Posted on April 2, 2016 by Larry Marshall

I had a great time on Thursday. Normally we meet at the museum to sketch but Claudette knows someone at one of the major plant nurseries and she arranged for us to sketch in their large greenhouses.

We arrived at 10AM and spent the next two hours sketching, chatting, and generally having a great time. As I entered the room I noticed a large concrete tortoise sitting on a shelf. He was gorgeous and I lamented to Yvan that I wished he were on a lower shelf as if I sat on my stool, he would have towered overhead. But luck was with me as they actually had several of them, one of which was sitting on a large flat table at my eye height as I sat on my stool. So I drew him. Isn’t he cute? I should have drawn some ground for him to walk on. I think he would have appreciated that.

Stillman & Birn Beta (9x12), Platinum 3776

Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Platinum 3776

When I finished, my back needed a rest so I wandered around, checking what everyone else was drawing. I’m nothing if not nosy. Francine is just back from a couple months visiting the sun in Mexico so it was fun to catch up with her. She’d sketched a stone fish that I liked very much so I decided to draw it too. I decided to do it in my red Field Notes book, a small book that’s providing me way too much fun. I suppose ‘serious’ artists don’t draw stuff like this but I had a lot of fun doing it.

Field Notes (Sweet Tooth Red); Platinum 3776, Uniball UM 153 white pen)

When I finished I realized that it was almost 11:30 so I checked with everyone again to find out how much longer they would be sketching. We typically break for lunch no later than 12:00 and it sounded like today would be no exception. So, I started wandering, looking for something else to draw.

I was in a nursery so flowers and plants were everywhere but I just wasn’t motivated to draw any of them. Not sure why but I was more in the mood to keep drawing garden decorations. I spent time looking at garden gnomes, nearly decided to draw a different turtle but then I saw these fat green frogs. I couldn’t resist. It was akin to drawing a ball with eyes. Hope you like him.

New Tuesday Museum Sketchers Group???

Posted on March 29, 2016 by Larry Marshall

This winter it has become a habit for five or six of us to meet at the museum for a sketching session on Thursday mornings. I really look forward to it. I go on other days as well but it’s fun to meet and talk with some fellow sketchers.

Field Notes (3x5), Pilot Prera F, Noodlers Polar Brown

Field Notes (3×5), Pilot Prera F, Noodlers Polar Brown

Claudette suggested that we meet on Tuesday this week as well, and while some of the ‘regulars’ couldn’t come on Tuesday, she managed to get a couple sketchers I don’t see often to show up so there were seven of us sketching this morning. Why is it so exciting for sketchers to gather together only to ignore one another for extended periods of time? Don’t know myself but it sure is fun.

I started the day with a little five-minute (maybe?) sketch to try out the yellow Field Notes book that comes with the blue and red books I’ve reported on recently. It’s a small wooden statue and I guess the yellow notebook passes the suitability test. I’ll probably do more in this book, though I prefer the red and blue books.

After wandering around a bit I headed to the new nanotechnology exhibit to draw a Mayan 3-tube flute. It’s made of clay and I haven’t a clue why it’s part of the nanotechnology exhibit. Maybe I should have read the plaque.

I’d filled my Falcon with Noodler’s Lexington Gray which I haven’t used in quite a while. I’d forgotten how much its “water-resistant” nature doesn’t work on papers with lots of sizing. I applied some color with watercolor pencils and a waterbrush and everything acquired a gray overcast from the ink. Back to DeAtramentis Document Black for me.

Stillman & Birn Beta (9x12), Pilot Falcon, Noodler's Lexington Gray

Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Pilot Falcon, Noodler’s Lexington Gray

Kids, Kids, Kids…Kids And Me In Egypt

Posted on March 2, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Yvan and I agreed to go to the museum Tuesday morning. Both of us knew that it was spring break for the kids of Quebec but neither of us knew that this particular Tuesday was also “free” day. When I arrived there were hundreds of people in the lobby. So many, in fact, that I didn’t even wait to check my coat because the line was too long. I just headed upstairs to the Egypt exhibit.

Realizing that the place would be crowded, I found a place where I had the side of a glass case at my back and a clear view of a statue and set up to sketch. I spent the next hour or so in that one place, sketching one statue.

But the sketching was the least important activity; I talked to kids. I love kids when I’m sketching. It’s hard to concentrate on drawing and my sketches sometimes suffer, but I still love them. They’re so inquisitive and I never have to listen to them tell me that they wish they had the talent to draw or that they’d love to draw but they just don’t have the time. Kids are the opposite of adults. For them, drawing is KOOL. They do it too. They’ll tell you what they like to draw. They’ll tell you that they like your drawing. They ask about my pen. A couple asked how long I’d been working on the sketch. But mostly they just stood around watching, at least until their parents came land hauled them away. Many of them dragged their parents over to see my drawing.

And on this day there were kids everywhere. I’ve never seen so many people at the museum. There were at least half a dozen kids around me at all times and I spent more time chatting than drawing. It was a lot of fun. As I packed up to leave I got to see what was really going on behind me. The exhibit room looked like a rock concert. People everywhere and as Yvan and I left we found there were lines of people waiting to enter the exhibit. It was extraordinary, but I had to wonder if I could have found a place to sit if I’d wanted to draw something else. I’ll never know as we left with smiles on our faces. Here’s the sketch I did during “free” day.

Stillman & Birn Beta (9x12), Platinum Carbon Black, Platinum 3776

Stillman & Birn Beta (9×12), Platinum Carbon Black, Platinum 3776, watercolor pencils