We Continue The Statue Quest

Posted on June 9, 2015 by Larry Marshall

We gathered at Quebec’s Place d’Armes to sketch the large fountain, or at least the statue that stands atop it. For some reason I just wasn’t in the mood. I’m not sure if it had to do with the subject or my new obsession of sketching in these small, mustache notebooks and their toned paper.

In either case, I decided to continue experimentation with that book, trying different approaches. I turned my attention to one of the buildings. I had luck adding a bit of color previously so I thought I’d see if I could use my waterbrush with dilute ink in it. It worked better than I thought and I’ll use this technique again. No ghosting or bleedthrough on the back side.

At this point the sun left us and I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I’ve been amazed at how much being cold has a similar effect on my desire to sketch. What happens is that my attention span goes to near zero so I cope by doing a lot of really quick-sketches, just trying to grab proportions of the people walking around. I won’t bore you with a bunch of scribbles but here’s an example of people walking across a street.

I’ll include this one too as it’s an example of what happens when you decide to draw a guy standing, while talking to a couple people sitting on a bench. I was a minute into this sketch when the people stood up and the three of them walked away (grin). It was time to turn the page and I did.

Once the statue sketchers had finished, it was decided that we’d head to another location to sketch the bust of another guy. At least the sun had returned.

I still wasn’t excited about sculpture sketching and I continued to work in tiny format. It was an opportunity to try red lead in a Pentel Kerry 0.5mm pencil. I did the sculpture sketch quicker than I should have and I generated a head that was too tall, but it gave me time to do a second sketch of a hotel entry on the other side of the street. It was fun and, once again we had a great time.

Spur Of The Moment Road Trip To Ottawa

Posted on June 7, 2015 by Larry Marshall

One of the fundamental skills learned while pursuing a university education is how to dodge and weave through the ever-changing bureaucracy of university administration. My daughter found herself trying to straighten out a registration problem via email. We decided that a trip to Ottawa would go a long way to cutting through the red tape so we piled into the car and headed west.

Cheap notebook, Platinum Carbon Pen, Platinum Carbon Black ink

First stop was administration, where we were handed a number and told to wait. Better organized than when I spent many an hour standing in lines waiting for similar things but still, we got to sit around for an hour waiting for our number to be called. I exercised my mustache notebook and the paper in this $2 sketchbook continues to amaze. I even got brave and put a bit of color on this quick sketch of a couple people, equally bored, who were watching something on their cell phone. No show through, not buckling, no nothing.

Surprisingly, once our number came up, everything was resolved in a matter of minutes and we were off to have fun in Ottawa. We ended up at the natural history museum where this guy posed for me. He seemed as curious about me as I was about him.

Moleskine watercolor notebook (3x5), Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Moleskine watercolor notebook (3×5), Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

I couldn’t pass up the chance to draw some bones and so I chose the head of this monster. As I was drawing I had a nice conversation with a young girl who had more questions than I had answers. She was an absolute delight, though, and interactions like this is one of the reasons I love location sketching.

We were sitting in a park just west of the US Embassy, enjoying manga bubble tea. I decided to quickly capture this view through the trees and I spent a leisurely 15-20 minutes or so doing that. I generally use these small notebooks for really quick sketches but I really found it fun to do a few more precise sketches in them. I think I’ll do more of it.

Moleskine watercolor notebook, Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black ink

Sketching In The Parc de l’Amérique Latine

Posted on June 4, 2015 by Larry Marshall

For reasons lost on me, Quebec City has a park called the Parc de l’Amérique Latine that is filled with statues and busts of famous South Americans. The two most prominent statues are Simon O’Higgins and Simon Bolivar riding their horses and acting very General-like. We were there, drawing statues and I decided to draw Bernardo O’Higgins, considered to be one of the founding fathers of Chili.

Stillman & BIrn Beta (9x12), Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & BIrn Beta (9×12), Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

I find complex statues like this to be hard to get ‘right’ and in spite of lots of angle assessments and considerable time with my thumb in the air, there are probably proportional problems with this one, but I did have fun with it.

When I finished I needed a break but I looked across the open area of the park and saw Yvan, his umbrella shielding him from the sun and I had to do this quick sketch (2-3 min) of him sketching the head of some Spanish guy.

Cheap 4x6 toned-paper notebook, Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Cheap 4×6 toned-paper notebook, Namiki Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Sketching Is A Windy Business

Posted on May 28, 2015 by Larry Marshall

It’s very windy here at this time of year, but the temperatures and sun (heck, it was all the way up to 16C this day) has caused my emergence from hibernation and I’m dancing in the streets.

I headed towards the port area. At this time of year the boat yard operators are like squirrels, looking for nuts. There’s a constant scramble to set up the marina docking system (removed for winter so it’s not destroyed by ice) and to get the boats back in the water.

But this day it was very windy. I tried to find a place to sit out of the wind that also gave me something interesting to sketch and I failed. In the end, I was sitting at a picnic table that sits in front of the farmer’s market. My thought was that if I was going to sit in a 30 km/h wind, it might be nice to have a platform for my sketchbook. The platform was nice – the 30 km/h not so much.

I drew the Telus (cell phones) building, hiding a lot of it behind trees, which are much more interesting than the building. It was done in a Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8) with my Pilot Falcon and Platinum Carbon Black.

Warm Up With Small, Quick Sketches

Posted on May 20, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Sometimes, when I’m out walking/sketching I start with some small, quick sketches, done in an inexpensive 3×5 or 4×6 sketchbook. This gets the juices flowing but also, this allows me to capture little scenes or things that I would otherwise pass by.

I’ve been doing a lot of them this week, mostly because I’m so thrilled by the sun that I just want to walk around in it rather than sit for extended periods sketching. I’m getting a good tan (grin). These quick-sketches also give me a chance to play with different approaches and I’m convinced that they have teach me more than any of my longer sketches. Here are a couple examples:

3x5 sketchbook, Namiki Falcon, PCB and Kuretake #13 brush pen w/PCB

3×5 sketchbook, Namiki Falcon, PCB and Kuretake #13 brush pen w/PCB

3×5 sketchbook, Namiki Falcon w/PCB.