Every August, Quebec holds a festival to celebrate the founding of Nouvelle France in North America. Lots of people dress in period dress. There’s a large food court serving traditional foods, a parade, fireworks, and a bunch of other activities. The festival attracts thousands of people who enjoy the ambiance of our old port area and this year was no exception.
It’s also the case that we sketchers took advantage of the sketching opportunities. I was there on Saturday, along with nine of my betters in the sketching world. We had a great time, though the crowds are always a bit overwhelming for me.
This year I only took a small, 4×6 Monologue sketchbook but I kept it warm with my pen scratching. Here are a few of the sketches I did during the day.
I liked the texture and angles of the arm/rifle so I isolated on these in this sketch
I wanted to do a building sketch but with all the people around, finding a subject I could actually see was difficult. I went to the top stairs of the cathedral and, looking across the courtyard, sketched the top of the buildings. The format is too small for that much landscape but it was fun regardless.
Nice details you focused on to sketch. The small sketchbook format you chose is often my choice when I know it’s going to be crowded… less likely to get bumped if I can keep my sketching space small.
Yes, I agree it’s the best choice. It’s something that we don’t talk about much and it’s probably info that newcomers to urban sketching probably need to know. I switch between cheap tiny, good tiny, good mid-size, and “large” size sketchbooks depending upon what I’m doing. Large, for me, is a 10×7 and small is 3×5.
Cheers — Larry