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