One of the best places to buy teas in Quebec City is Camellia Senensis.  They import teas from around the world and their selection is huge.  This is a serious tea-drinker’s store and one of my favorites.

I had bought tea and had left the store when I got the crazy idea that it wasn’t cold and that I should sketch the store.  It’s been a long time since I’ve sketched outdoors and the time was right.  Heck, it was only 32F.  And so I did.

I did a quick layout with a pencil and then started working with a Noodler’s Creaper flex pen.  I’m trying this as a somewhat different approach to my outdoor sketching, trying to loosen up the lines a bit relative to my typical consistent line width approach.  I think I’ll know better whether I like it when I can sketch without my fingers screaming at me because of the cold.

I finished the sketch (no color), stuffed my displeased fingers back in their gloves and headed home, quite smug with myself for having sketched outdoors.  I added some color when I got home.

This was done on the new Zeta-series paper that Stillman & Birn are about to release.   And it’s a dream come true, but then I’ve said that about all of the Stillman & Birn papers/sketchbooks.

The Zeta paper is an 180lb version of their Epsilon (100lb) paper and for pen/wash I can think of nothing better.  Very thick, no curl paper that’s smooth like a hot-press paper.  I’ve been using an Epsilon for all my museum sketching this winter and it looks like the Zeta will become my go-to sketchbooks for outdoor sketching.  Stillman & Birn continue to amaze.