Sketchcrawl At Fete De La Nouvelle France

Posted on July 25, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Our fearless leader has scheduled our second sketchcrawl to coincide with the Nouvelle France festival, on Sunday, August 9th. The festival is always pretty special for sketchers as it’s a week of people wandering the old port area wearing period costumes, doing demonstrations of 18th Century crafts, and plenty of opportunity to eat traditional Quebec food.

We’re all going to rendevous in the square at Place Royale (prime subject-hunting territory) at 9:30 and after lunch we’ll move to Parc de l’Unesco which is just down the street. You can get more details about the festival and the sketchcrawl from the Croquistes de Quebec webpage. I hope you can make it. Bring yourself, your sketching gear, and be prepared for lots of fun. If you have any questions, you can contact me at larry@larrydmarshall.com or Yvan Breton from his web page.

Disaster Strikes LarryDMarshall.com

Posted on January 7, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Hi everyone,

It’s been a while since I’ve posted. From my view it seems like forever. My laptop, my connection to the universe, started acting up as we heralded in the new year. By January 3rd I was scrambling to find a laptop to buy that 1) wouldn’t break the bank, 2) had the features I required, and 3) that could be found, in stock, in a local store. This last thing was the hard part, it always is in Quebec City.

I’ve done a restoration and password-remembering marathon, spending far too much time watching that silly Windows thing spin around, and around, and around as something, supposedly – maybe hopefully – was happening. I’m now looking out at you through a new computer window and most of my software is working. I’ll get back to regular posts in the next day or so. Happy 2015 – I hope the rest of it goes better for me too.

Cheers — Larry

I Think It’s My Birthday

Posted on September 20, 2014 by Larry Marshall

I think it’s my birthday but I’m not really sure. Sometime in mid-September of 2011 I made my first attempt at sketching, having read Danny Gregory’s Everyday Matters. So some time in mid-September 0f 2014 I became a 3-year old sketcher. Yippee, for me.

The sad thing is that I can’t say exactly what day I did the original deed. When I started sketching I was doing it on any old paper using a fountain pens. I drew a gazillion cubes in all orientations, somehow knowing this was good practice in drawing three dimensional objects. I tried to draw everything in sight…in sight of my office that is as I was afraid to go out on the street to sketch.

Unfortunately, all of those sketches were thrown away because I didn’t know any better. Then, one day, someone in an internet group suggested that I upload one of my sketches. I did and the participants became aware that I was throwing them away. I was told that I should keep everythiung because I would, one day, want to look back on them. Guess what day it is?

I remember that my first attempt at street sketching took place in a mall, with a tiny sketchbook held close to my chest. I drew a clothing store mannikin, figuring she wouldn’t mind and wouldn’t walk away. I was scared to death I would get “caught” in the act. I drew quickly and poorly and left the second I was finished. I guess I figured stealth sketching was a viable approach.

First Building Sketch

Here’s the first building sketch I ever did. It was done from a photo of this small restaurant. I remember being proud of it at the time, mostly because the many sketches that preceded it that were much worse (grin). Interestingly, this was the same subject that launched me as a street sketcher – the first sketch where I perched on a tripod stool and drew. Here’s that one, done in March of 2012.

First street sketch (Mar 2012)

Since then I’ve done hundreds of sketches on the street as street sketching has become a way of life for me. Here’s a snapshot of the sketchbooks I’ve filled so far. The black ones are all Stillman & Birn. The rest are of lesser quality.

Sketchbooks from my first three years as a sketcher

Internet groups and friends continue to fuel my learning curve climb and I’m enjoying the journey. Thanks to all who are helping me with that process.

So, I’m three, going on four. That sounds pretty good to an old man. I’ll end with a more recent sketch in an attempt to recoup a bit of sketcher dignity (grin).

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10x7), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Great Approach To Watercolors By Marc Taro Holmes

Posted on August 19, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Marc Taro Holmes is one of my favorite street artists. I doubt he would brand himself that way as he does art in many venues – everything from quick sketches to fine art. But it’s his street paintings, with pen and ink as the base, are what I like most.

Because of this, I’ve directed a lot of people to his Tea, Milk and Honey blog post, where he outlines a 3-part approach to developing a watercolor. So, I just have to direct everyone to his latest blog post, where he’s sharing a fold-up PDF “cheat sheet” for his TMH system. I’ll say no more. Go to his blog, The Citizen Sketcher. Download the PDF. Thank Marc while you’re there. I’ll start. Thanks, Marc.

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.