A Grand Day Out: Sketching With Others

Posted on January 26, 2014 by Larry Marshall

My favorite Wallace and Gromit film is A Grand Day Out. In it, Wallace finds that while he has crackers, he has run out of cheese. Of course, that means he and his dog Gromit need to go to the moon to get some more, as everyone knows the moon is made of cheese. Gromit builds a rocket and they head off to find some cheese.

Yesterday I was reminded of A Grand Day Out because I had one in the form of Quebec City’s version of the 42nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl. We’ve held several of these and while it’s hard to do when it’s -25C, we do what we can to bring people together.

This sketchcrawl was held at the Musée de la Civilisation. This museum is a very welcoming and accommodating place and it’s ideal for such an event. As with all of our sketchcrawls, this one was organized by Yvan Breton and Celine Poulin. One of my sketching buddies, Claudette Gauvreau, deserves some credit as well as she used her infectious laugh and sociability to convince several of her friends to join us.

Just beginning to gather in the lunch area. Hard choice between talking and eating being made by many

And what an event it was. We had a couple DOZEN people at this event. I emphasize the word dozen as when you can start counting participants in ‘dozens’ it’s sort of like being old enough to talk about how many decades you’ve been alive. And dozens we had, at least 24 people and while it was hard to get an accurate count, I think it was more. What I do know is that I found it impossible to remember the names of all the people I met for the first time. But I’ll always remember the smiles on their faces.

And did we have fun. The one downside of a museum sketchcrawl is documentation as they frown on photography in the exhibit areas (click on image to get a larger image). What I can tell you is that from 10AM until 12:30 there were sketchers everywhere you looked and it was quite exciting. Some people were surprised by how relaxed the atmosphere was and how “non-competitive” we were. You can tell ‘serious’ artists about this difference between sketching and fine art but until they experience group sketching on location, it’s hard to understand it.

Looking at sketchbooks, laughing and enjoying one another’s company

A group admiring Jacques Paquet’s sketch box

At 12:30 we gathered in a basement area to eat lunch and kibbitz about sketching, pens, watercolors, and to share our sketchbooks. I’m not sure we ever had everyone in one place so I can’t show you the typical ‘the gang’ photo but here are a few clusters of people and even a few sketches I managed to snap a photo of as they were laid out by some of the participants.

I found it hard to get photos of other people’s sketches because everyone was having so much fun flipping through everyone else’s sketchbooks. Pictures come second to fun in my book but I did manage to get these few snapshots.

Guylaine Côté’s bicycle. Love this view.

Celine (top) and Pierre’s (bottom) sketches

Group of sketches

After lunch, and after we couldn’t talk any more, most of us headed back out to sketch. We lost a few of our participants as they had afternoon appointments elsewhere. Once again we invaded the exhibits like ants on a sugar cube and while we were having fun, we were also becoming part of the exhibits, as folks were looking over our shoulders and saying nice things. Location sketching is good for the ego.

We wrapped up around 3PM, most of us quite tired but also exhilarated by the day’s activities. I’m still walking a foot or so above the ground. Did I mention we had a COUPLE DOZEN participants?

Oh…I did a bit of sketching myself, though not as much as some. And I did have the ability to scan them. Here are my sketches from the day. It was definitely a Grand Day Out.

I saw this drum display as an opportunity to practice orienting ellipses as each drum was positioned differently. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray ink

I saw this drum display as an opportunity to practice orienting ellipses as each drum was positioned differently. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray ink

These were part of a large poster of clown caricatures and I thought it might be fun to draw a few of them. It was. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6x9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray

These were part of a large poster of clown caricatures and I thought it might be fun to draw a few of them. It was. Stillman & Birn Zeta (6×9), Wahl-Eversharp pen, Lexington Gray

You can find many more photos and sketches on the Worldwide Sketchcrawl site.

Sketchcrawl Reminder – January 25th

Posted on January 23, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Just a quick reminder that Saturday, January 25th, at 10AM will begin a grand day of sketching as we celebrate the 42nd Worldwide Sketchcrawl at the Musée de la Civilisation. It’s free to all but bring sketching materials and a lunch, though the museum will be most happy to sell you food as well. You can see details here, in my original post about the sketchcrawl. See you there.

Sketching At The Library

Posted on January 21, 2014 by Larry Marshall

It’s turned bitter cold again, killing hopes of a mild winter. And at -33F I headed off this morning to meet Claudette at the library. Somehow the walk was longer than normal. I wonder why.

Done in Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) sketchbook, Pilot 78G and Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink

But we had a lot of fun sketching people at the library. Library people tend to stay put a bit longer than museum people so there’s a better chance of finishing a sketch before they wander off. I’m not much of a people sketcher but I thought I’d share a couple of the sketches I did this morning. It’s ok to laugh… honest. I wonder if the sleeping kid would have been embarrassed to know that he was snoring and that people were looking at him.

A Walk With The Gods

Posted on January 19, 2014 by Larry Marshall

The search for places to sketch in winter is continual here in Quebec City, so when Yvan said “Why don’t we go to Pavillion Laurentienne to sketch?” everyone immediately responded with “Sure!” Only later did we ask “What is Pavillion Laurentienne and what can we sketch there?”

Pavillion Laurentienne, as it turns out, is a relatively new building on the Université Laval campus. It’s used for conferences and larger meetings. What’s interesting about it is that it’s got a very large lobby area with a bunch of large plaster casts of statues that live in Europe somewhere. Another way of looking at them is that they’re big white naked people, though one of them, out of modesty no doubt. has a small sheep wrapped around his shoulders.

Yvan got permission for our motley crew to show up today to sketch. Sunday is certainly the day to go as except for the security guard, we were there alone, hanging out with the white naked people. It was a very meditative atmosphere.

Here’s a loose sketch of part of the lobby area. I did all these sketches on Canson Ingres papers that seems ideal for pen and ink drawing, though it’s too thin for watercolor.

Sketching statues is certainly not my forté but I sure had fun today. This guy’s name is Marcellus, though he and I never had a real conversation. His neck isn’t really that long – I was being “artistic,” I guess (grin).

I was getting a bit tired at this point, so I had some coffee and some great conversation. I decided to draw an arm and, I’m afraid, I worked one beat too fast and the poor guy’s hand looks like it went through a meat grinder, though in this case I guess it would have to be a plaster grinder. In any case, the result left something to be desired, as did my second, hand attempt. I guess I was just tired from trying to keep my gut sucked in around these well-muscled white guys.

All of these sketches were done with a Pilot Prera with either J.Herbin Lie de thé or Noodlers Lexington Gray ink. As we left for the day most of us agreed that we’d have to come back.

Sketching The January Thaw

Posted on January 16, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Like much of North America, we experienced very cold temperatures for a few days. Following that, however, we’ve experienced weather that made it seem like May here in Quebec City. It rained, it got warmer (40F a couple days). Excepting this has turned all of Quebec City into a lumpy skating rink, it’s been wonderful.

I was supposed to meet Claudette at a cafe for our weekly sketching session and I arrived about 10-15 minutes ahead of her. Rather than going inside, I found a place to stand out of the light rain that was falling and drew the exterior of the cafe. When she arrived we went inside and I added color to my sketch and added some other ‘stuff’ to the page. Done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) with a Pilot Prera.

While Claudette was finishing up a sketch I looked outside and saw this lonely street lamp, its feet stuck in heavy, dirty snow and it’s head bent over as a response to the rain. It seemed so forlorn so I sketched it. This was done in my el cheapo 3×5 notebook.

We finished up and Claudette and I headed off in different directions. I walked down St. Jean street, heading towards the old city and it was wonderful. The rain had become nearly a mist and it was warm enough that I could actually remove my gloves. I saw that as a ‘sign’ and as I walked past this building, with its amazing roof, I ducked into a little alcove out of the rain and did this quick sketch of it in my S&B Alpha (4×6). I added the color to this little sketch when I got home but, for me, this sketch was pretty special as the winter cold has prevented me from sketching outdoors. It was, indeed, a great day.