Group Sketching Without The Group

Can you have a group sketching event without a group?  I wonder.  This was attempted, it seems, last Saturday in Quebec City.  According to the published schedule of Collectif des ateliers libres en arts visuals de Québec, a local portrait group, we were all supposed to meet on Terrace Dufferin at 10AM.  I was there.  Yvan was there.  But nobody else showed up, not even the guy who was supposed to coordinate the event.

So, our group was small, but our will was mighty.  It was a very hot day, one of the few we’ve had thus far but Yvan and I found some shade, sketched and enjoyed each other’s company.

I need practice drawing stuff where I have to look up and so I did a sketch of the old postal building that sits at the end of Terrace Dufferin, with a bit of an information kiosk in the foreground.  It’s an odd view and only part of the building but it turned my crank so I put it to paper.  All in all, we had fun, though this is tourist season and we sort of got overrun.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9x6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (9×6), Pilot Falcon, Platinum Carbon Black

One of the really fun things about being a street sketcher is the audience, particularly the kids.  Kids are curious about anyone who draws.  They relate to it.  Kids are also afraid to engage with adults so they have to be invited, with smiles and words.  I smile.  I say hi.  And before you know it, we’re engaged in conversation and they are a breath of fresh air.  Unlike adults, they don’t tell you you’re sooo talented.  They don’t tell you about how they’d like to do art but they don’t have the time/patience/ability.  Instead, they tell you that they draw too.  They ask you if you like it.  They want to know how the paint thing (waterbrush) works.  Maybe I like them because I think about art on this level.  I don’t know.  I share with you a photo of me interacting with some kids on this day.  I didn’t know Yvan had taken this photo but I’m grateful that he did.

photo: Yvan Breton

photo: Yvan Breton

2 thoughts on “Group Sketching Without The Group

  1. Beautiful sketch and priceless photo! I love having those conversations, too. Kids always seem so amazed to find an adult doing something they like to do, too.

    • Yeah, kids are the best. I live in a tourist city and so I think I have the advantage of kids being dragged around by their parents, probably bored out of their minds looking at statues and buildings and so a guy with a pen in his hand produces “finally, something to look at” from the kids 🙂 That said, just to the left of that photo was a guy doing juggling, handstands, and riding a unicycle. The kids were more interested in me.

      Cheers — Larry

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