Sketchers Are Never Bored…Mostly

Posted on February 16, 2014 by Larry Marshall

I’ve made the comment several times, here and elsewhere, that sketchers are never bored. When I’m sitting in a doctor’s office there are people to sketch. When I’m waiting for the car to be serviced there’s all sorts of stuff to sketch. I drew a billboard the other night while waiting to pick up my daughter. And when there’s nothing on TV I can always sketch scenes in the commercials. I’ve been known to draw pages full of lines, ellipses, and circles, too.

But I’ve been bored…REALLY bored. The flu has a way of eliminating all notion of sketching, thinking, looking, seeing, and about the best I could do over the past few days has been to sit and become over-dosed on Olympics coverage.

Today the residual ‘tuckered out’ feeling was all that remained of my bout with a gaggle of viruses and I wasn’t going to let that stop me. I headed to the museum to meet up with Yvan for a sketching session. I’m afraid I’m still a bit less than optimal but I managed this sketch. There is an 1898 Renault Mini-Car on display and while I have to get around to the front of it for a sketch, I just love this view from the rear as it shows off its red running gear.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Pilot Prera, Lexington Gray

The Sketches That Don’t Get Posted

Posted on February 14, 2014 by Larry Marshall

I’ve never done a count but I think that I post less than 50% of the sketches that I do. I know this is true if I include my constant doodling. Sketching is about learning to see, hand-eye coordination and building a vocabulary to turn 3D images into 2D sketches. While stated often by experts, I think most want to believe that there’s some way to get past the need to practice, practice, practice.

Because of this constant sketching I generally have sketches to post but, right now, I’m sick. Mr. Flu came to visit our house and I’ve spent the last few days staring at Olympics and debating whether living or dying was the best course of action. Such is the nature of Mr. Flu. Because of this, I haven’t done much sketching.

But this morning I read a great post by Tina Koyama. She came across a couple of her sketches that she’d forgotten about and decided to share. They were great and appreciated that she took the time to post them.

Her post made me think of all the sketches that never see the light of day and gave me an idea. In defiance of Mr. Flu, I offer this little doodle I did while looking out the window at three people who were walking slowly down the sidewalk in front of our house. No big deal and the middle guy’s head seems too large to me, but heck, it’s not bad given that I had a 102F temperature at the time.

Canson Ingres paper, Hero 578 pen

Never Ask A Sketcher What Is It?

Posted on February 12, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Anyone who is a parent has faced the uncertainty of responding to a young child’s beaming face as she looks up, waving a paper in the air and says, “Mommy, look what I made.” The parent looks at the blob of color on the paper. They note a roundish form, drawn in gray, four projections and some scribbles on top where a head might be. Is it an elephant? A cat? Or is it me? Only parents can properly negotiate that mine field.

And so it goes with sketchers, but with less delicacy I’m afraid. When I brought my latest sketch home my Quebecois wife said, as she always does, “C’est beau,” but this time with puzzlement on her face. Then, something she would never do when our daughter was growing up she blurted, “What the heck is it?”

My daughter came into the room, looked at the sketch and said, without any fanfare, “What is that thing?” Obviously she has learned nothing from the finesse with which we greeted vague forms made from little hands with the best that Crayola had to offer.

In this case, however, maybe I can forgive them. It’s not something you see every day – or ever for that matter. We don’t make stuff this elegant anymore. But back at the turn of the 19th Century, those promoting the idea of subways felt the need to make them look spectacular because, for most people, the thought of going underground was, well, creepy. This cast iron beauty is an entry gate from the 1900 Paris subway.

The sketch was done at the Musée de la Civilisation museum, in the Paris exhibit. Eighty-six of these gates were made. I’d hate to have to draw all of them. One was enough to generate smoke from my ears.

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9), Pilot Prera, Noodler's Lexington Gray

Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Pilot Prera, Noodler’s Lexington Gray

The Power of the Hero “bent-nib” Pen

Posted on February 9, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Some sketchers love watercolors. Others are passionate about line. And, of course, there are those who do a combination of the two, with varying emphasis on one or the other.

For myself, if I had to do one or the other, line work, particularly that made by fountain pen, would be my choice. My use of watercolor is similar to what I did with crayons when I was a kid – I “color” inside the lines.

My lines tend to be thin and my favorite pens are those that produce them. Pens like the Pilot 78G, Pilot Prera, and Platinum Carbon pen are among my favorites. My TWSBI Mini produces a slightly heavier line but even it is finer than the typical “medium nib” pen.

One intriguing exception in my personal fountain pen mountain (and I swear that I need them all) are my Hero “calligraphy” pens. Some call them “bent nib” pens. The “calligraphy” moniker is misleading for western-worlders as they don’t work at all like western calligraphy pens but are, rather, designed for writing Chinese characters. You affect line width by varying the pen angle rather than pen direction as with a western calligraphy pen.

There are several companies that produce them but Hero is the company that seems to make the largest number of models. They are available in North America for not much money via eBay but one must be careful to ensure you’re getting a calligraphy pen as Hero makes standard fountain pens as well.

Hero 578 fountain pen. Note bent tip.

I have several of them and I’ve played with them some but have never taken them seriously. I’ve decided to change that and really learn to use them. To me, their big advantage is the ability to generate very wide lines as well as fine ones, permitting the creation of larger dark areas in a pen sketch. Their downside is that I can’t get as fine a line as I can from some of the other pens I’ve mentioned.

I was out the other day and I did this quick sketch from the 2nd floor dining area of our downtown McDonalds. You can see how even an inexperienced person like myself can generate high contrast sketches using the pen. Here I’m using a Hero 578, which is a fairly heavy pen but I like how it feels in my hand.

Stillman & BIrn Alpha (4x6), Hero 578, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & BIrn Alpha (4×6), Hero 578, Platinum Carbon Black

Later, while at the Musée d’Amerique Français I sat in a comfy chair, looked out the window and sketched this portion of one of the seminary buildings.

The folks who have the most experience with these pens are the Singapore urban sketchers. Maybe with some practice I can begin to emulate them.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), Hero 578, Platinum Carbon Black

Sketching in Pencil

Posted on January 30, 2014 by Larry Marshall

I met Claudette this morning for a sketching session at the Musée d’Amerique Francophonie. I want to say this is a tiny museum but it’s actually a fairly big building/facility. They just don’t have much in it 🙂 But there were a couple pieces that Claudette wanted to sketch so that’s where we went this morning.

I wandered around, looking for something to sketch. We’ve done group sketching events there on several occasions so I was very familiar with the displays. So, after wandering a bit, I finally settled on a statue (former mayor I think) as my subject. Since we’ve been discussing pencil drawing in one of the Facebook groups, and since I know nothing of pencil drawing except that I tend to smear everything I draw, I decided to do this sketch with an HB mechanical pencil. Definitely a KISS principle drawing. It’s also a sketch that demonstrates why I use my fountain pens (grin). It was done on a light gray Canson Mi-Teintes (6×9).