Sketchcrawl at Pavilion Laurentienne

Posted on December 20, 2015 by Larry Marshall

In what seems a recurrent theme, I’m way behind in blogging. Maybe it’s the season, or maybe I’m just slowing down. It was a week ago that we held our monthly sketchcrawl, this time at Pavilion Laurentienne, which is a building on the Université Laval campus. They have a series of statues and they were our targets. I missed them entirely, but I’m getting ahead of myself.

I arrived about 15 minutes ahead of schedule and since it wasn’t bitter cold (probably 38F) I decided to try to do a quick sketch of the building entrance. While probably not the right format, I decided to do it in my new, 3×5 softcover Stillman & Birn sketchbook. I sketched it quickly but even so, I was pretty cold by the time I finished so I didn’t add any color until I got warmed up inside.

Stillman & Birn Alpha 3x5, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha 3×5, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Once inside there was the normal meet and greet that starts most of our sketchcrawls. We ended up with eight people and the day was really fun. Everybody but me was sketching statues but I was into ‘testing’ my new sketchbook so I continued with the tiny format. Instead of statue sketching, I began to draw fellow sketchers.

Andre Gagnon was my first subject. He’s not only a really fun guy, he’s a wonderful artist. This day he was doing some fantastic work with a white pencil on black paper.

As I did this sketch I thought about testing something I thought of after I did the review of the Stillman & Birn softcovers. Since the Alpha paper buckles slightly if you use a lot of water, I wondered how not having a hardcover would affect how the book would close. With the hardcovers the buckling isn’t a problem as it happens as the sketch dries and once the cover is closed, the paper tends to flatten out. So, as I added color to Andre, I really dumped a lot of water onto the paper. In fact, it was too much for me to manage as I’m mostly ignorant of wet-n-wet techniques.

I continued these little sketches, avoiding the statues for the day. Here’s one I did of Yvan Breton, artist extraordinaire, who I consider both mentor and friend. Note the “easel” he’s using. It’s hung around his neck, very portable, and it can be used whether standing or sitting. We’ve sort of jointly been improving the design and I’ll do a blog post about it “real soon” (which means I have no idea when I’ll get to it). Again, I went heavy on the water as I wanted several pages that had been abused badly.

There’s one thing I noticed from my sketches that day. I made everyone much fatter than they really are. I wonder if they’re going to speak to me after I post these. We’ll see.

After lunch Yvan started drawing a fig tree that was in the atrium. He said it was hard to capture without adding all the details and I quipped (it’s easy to advise if you don’t have to take the advise), “Just draw it in two minutes and you’ll figure out how to do it.”

Unfortunately, my brain was listening and it decided that I was going to draw the tree quickly. I exceeded “two minutes” by an order of magnitude but I did draw it fairly quickly, leaving out much of the detail. I used watercolor pencils to color this one.

At this point we wrapped up the sketchcrawl and some of us headed for the bus stop. Yvan and I ended up on the same bus and he started drawing a woman he could see in front of him. She had a bright red hat that was an eye-catcher but I couldn’t really see her face because of a “thingie” that blocked my view. I drew her anyway, or at least her hat. This was done in a Field Notes book and thus the gridded paper.

Oh yeah…my watercolor/softcover experiment. The paper holds up better than it should for a 100lb paper, but those of us who use S&B Alpha paper have come to expect that. And I think I’m correct to be a bit more concerned about these softcovers staying closed after soaking pages with watercolor. It’s not a big deal but as there’s no weight to the cover, it simply won’t squish the paper flat. But, I now carry it with a rubber band wrapped around it and all is well. I may even install a more typical closure band if I can ever get caught up on the blogging (grin).

Egyptian Burial Urns

Posted on December 18, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I was introduced to Egyptian burial practices in the usual place – a romantic comedy called The Mummy. The bad guy was dead, but his lover was determined to bring him back to life. They entered the place where the mummy was buried and next to it were several urns and we were told they contained the organs of the guy in the sarcophagus. Getting the romantic adventure comedy yet? I guess you had to be there.

Anyways, some of the most artifacts in our museum’s Egyptian exhibit is a set of these urns. I’d been avoiding them because I knew that when I did them I’d have to draw all four at once and because I draw at a rate slower than glaciers and snails, I knew it would take me a while. But the time came and the deed is done.

I shaded them with light blue, which seems a mistake as my scanner isn’t subtle in its treatment of light blue and so some of the shading was lost in translation. Doesn’t matter, though, these were fun to draw.

Stillman & Birn Delta, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

It’s Winter – Gone Fishing

Posted on December 14, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I knew it couldn’t last. I was forever hopeful but our balmy low 40s (F) December has come to an end with freezing rain. Oh well, I’m way behind in my blogging anyway.

Last week I met the gang at the museum but I decided to give the Egypt exhibit a break from me and sat down instead in front of a fishing exhibit. Seems there was a prominent Canadian ethnologist by the name of Richard Gauthier who a day job in the field, but his hobby was fishing and the study of fishing practices in Canada. To that end he amassed a large collection of old fishing equipment. We’ve been blessed with a small exhibit of some of these fishing artifacts and they’re great sketching subjects.

I started with Richard’s hat. I have much to learn about the use of watercolor pencils to achieve tonal gradation but here’s my rendition of his hat.

Stillman & Birn Delta (5.5x8.5), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Delta (5.5×8.5), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

When I finished with the hat I got up and wandered around the museum. Half of it has been closed due to a fire that took place in early summer (construction guys seem prone to burn things down as they try to build them up) and I wanted to have a look at what it looked like now that that wing of the building was open again.

I spent so much time doing my walkabout that by the time I got back the other sketchers were nearly finished for the day. I did this quick sketch of a fishing scale as they finished up. You know what they say, “A bad day fishing is better than most other days.” I think that applies to sketching as well.

Stillman & Birn Delta (5.5×8.5), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Another Sketch From Egypt

Posted on December 9, 2015 by Larry Marshall

This time of year is always tough for me on the sketching front. Besides it being a busy time of year, I always get lethargic while getting used to living in the dark (we’ve only got about 9 hours of daylight these days). To top it off, this year I’ve had the flu and now seem to be have some intestinal thing. This has been very disappointing because our weather has been very atypical (ie low 40s F) and I should be out walking/sketching.

Whatever the reasons, the bottom line is that while I continue to draw (scribble?) at home, I haven’t gotten out sketching much. Here’s a sketch I did the last time I was at the museum. The model for it is a leg from a ‘bier’, the low table upon which a sarcophagus was placed.

This guy is Bes, a dwarf god. He must be popular as there are several versions of him in the museum’s Egyptian exhibit. He was hard to draw because it’s so darn dark in the exhibit that it’s hard to see the shapes. On several occasions I had to swing my booklight around and shine it on him so I could see the statue.

Stillman & Birn Beta, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

The Collectif Visits The Conservatory

Posted on December 4, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Every year Collectif president Lucienk Provost organizes and event at the Conservatoire de musique et d’art dramatique du Québec, where we listen to musicians practice for upcoming recitals and we get to draw them. I really enjoy the event though I sometimes find myself with eyes closed, just listening to the music.

This year I was very much in quick-sketch mode and I did a pile of people sketches, none of which took more than a couple minutes and most of them were pretty messy. It didn’t matter; it was fun. Here are a few of them that I added a bit of color to and scanned.

At some point I decided this was an opportunity to draw shoes. I struggle with shoes when I’m quick-sketching and so I felt studying them a bit more than I have would help. Here’s a page of shoes that I drew that day.