…I’ll draw it.  Particularly if it’s a plaster cast of a hand.

Canson Ingres toned paper, Pilot Prera, Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink

I’m so excited!!!  Hidden away, in the bowels of the Université Laval music building is a museum of sorts.  Sadly, it’s not a museum you can visit.  It’s a place where the entire collection from the now defunct natural history museum is stored.  In addition, Madame Wagner, the curator, has stored a very large collection of plaster casts that were cast off by the art department when it was decided that learning to draw wasn’t quite as important as it once was.  Abstract art, it seems, has had a very debilitating long-term affect on the art community 🙁

So imagine a place where you can walk among stuffed water buffalos, bears, mountain sheep and caribou.  Imagine cabinet after cabinet of avian, insect, marine, and mammal fauna, all just waiting to be drawn.  Imagine another room full of artifacts from all parts of the earth and some from outer space.  Imagine walls lined with plaster busts, full statues, and other plaster body parts.  Would you like to sketch there?

Me too.  And just to sweeten the pot, imagine that in one corner of this place is a makeshift studio where one can take any item, set it up on a stage, light it, and then sit in a very quiet room while drawing for as long as you like?  Pretty sweet picture, isn’t it?

But, for me, there’s more cuz my friend Yvan has access to this place and I’ve been invited to join him.  Suddenly I don’t care as much about our ridiculously cold temperatures and I’m hoping to spend at least one morning a week in this wonderful dream world.  Today, following a tour, I grabbed a hand and did the small drawing above.  I need to get better at shading with pen but it was sure fun.