Category Archives: Sketching

Sketching Is Dangerous – Expensive Too!

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WARNING: Graphic Results of Violence Follows

Tuesday I was the organizer of our Tuesday sketching session.  We were to meet in front of the Chateau Frontenac, on the Terrace Dufferin at 10AM.  I like to get on site before anyone arrives so I can say hi when they do.

I started setting up to sketch a large statue, but one of the tubes on my WalkStool came apart from the lower portion.  I didn’t think much of this and just pounded it back in place.  I should have thought a bit more.  This disrupted my normal cycle of ensuring that all three legs were locked in place.  One was not.

I sat down on the stool, a leg gave way and my head smacked against the granite block wall of the hotel.  The crack to my head wasn’t as extreme as if I’d fallen from a standing position but…  I put my hand to the back of my head and it came away full of blood.

I scurried to my feet.  Well, I sort of scurried.  My knees don’t allow me to pop to my feet as I once could so it was more of an old-man process of getting to my feet.  I picked up my bag and stool, grabbed a paper towel to block the wound, and I headed into the Starbucks that’s part of the hotel.

I asked a guy there where I had to go for first aid, he said “Quoi?” and I showed him my handful of blood.  He got the message and immedately called the hotel medic, telling me to go stand by the doors outside and that the medic would be there.  I did.

A guy walked up to me and asked if I was ok.  I told him the medic was coming and he offered to take me to the hospital or at least stay with me until the medic came.  A woman ran over, carrying a wad of Starbucks napkins, which were gratefully received.  Then the Starbucks guy came out to check on me and we all stood around until a guy with a great big red first aid kit came through the door.

This is what my head looked like by the time I got home. The red on my neck is not a sunburn.

I know a real urban sketcher would have been sketching all this activity but, well, my hands were somewhat tied up trying to keep blood from running down my neck.  I went with the medic into a bathroom and he did a bang up job of  cleaning me up.  He concluded that I probably didn’t need stitches and did his best to bandage the tiny wound that was the source of the blood.

By this time, it was well after 10AM so I grabbed a coffee, thanked the Starbucks guy and went looking for my buddies.  They were all sketching away when I arrived.  The wound had stopped bleeding but, it started to drip so rather than sketching I was holding kleenex over the wound, applying some pressure.  It didn’t take long to realize that going home was a better plan than hanging out with my friends.

The wound did stop bleeding by about 1PM but I sat around the rest of the day watching Netflix and trying not to move my head too much.  Oh, the title mentions how expensive sketching can be as well as dangerous.  Somehow, during this fiasco, I lost my wireless headphones.  It was not a good day.

Finally…Some Outdoor Sketching

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Here it is, the middle of May, and we’re still having a hard time getting outdoors in Quebec City because of cool weather and a lot of rain.  But it happened.  In fact, we had a bright, hot summer day on the 16th and our little sketching group took advantage of it.  We headed to an older part of the city where they have alleyways.

Alleyways provide sort of grungy views but views with lots of shapes that make for great sketching subjects.  I just love them.  In this scene you’ll find two large “towers.”  These are actually enclosed stairways, loosely constructed but effective in keeping the snow off the stairs.  They are very common in these neighborhoods.  I had a lot of fun doing this one.

Alley scene in Limoilu

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Pilot Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

 

Isn’t She A Doll?

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When I was a kid I remember Howdy-Doody and Buffalo Bob, Captain Kangaroo, and Sheri Lewis and Lamp Chop.  When my daughter was little she watched Mister Rogers and Sesame Street.  Kid shows with a mix of adult and puppet characters have always been popular.

A show I never did see was very popular in Quebec and involved Bobinette, a wooden-headed puppet, and Bobino, a guy sporting a vest and bowler hat.  I’d heard of Bobinette but never seen her until, because of rain (again) we were forced into the museum.  A new display provided some insight into this early TV show and provided a chance to draw her.  The show was called Bobino and ran from 1957 to 1985.  Bobinette was Bobino’s sister.  Isn’t she a doll?

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10)

Crazy Colors, Pretty Colors

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I’m trying to figure out watercolors.  My use of them over the past few years has been very childlike.  I look at the subject and I put blue where blue should go, green where green should go, red where…., well you get the picture.  I’ve been careful to always paint within the lines.

More recently I’ve started thinking about shading and such but still, I often envy those who are far more loose with their color interpretations.  I don’t really know how far I want to move in that direction but the other night I was watching baseball and I’d drawn a facade from my imagination in a cheap toned sketchbook.  While the paper was not good for watercolors, I decided to play a bit so I sat on the couch, legs curled up Kelly Ann Conway style, and I started adding colors.  I couldn’t work wet in wet as the paper wouldn’t allow it but this is what I came up with.  I liked it.

The next day I decided to try the same thing on a piece of Fabriano Artistico CP.  I started by wetting the entire facade and then dropped in blobs (see how I’ve mastered the technical terminology?) of paint to sort of mimic what I’d done the day before.  Again I was pretty happy with the results.  It looks like no facade I’ve ever seen but I felt it created an ambiance that suggested light coming from the windows… or something.  Anyway, I felt these experiments were successful and I will pursue more of them.  What do you think?  How do you learn to do this sort of painting?  I sure don’t know.