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.
Yikes! Well, good thing you hadn’t started a sketch when it happened — not being able to finish it would have made the day even worse! Have a better day tomorrow.
– Tina
Good point…no blood on the sketchbook 🙂
Dang! Sorry…I had a three-legged cane stool dump me once, too…
Yeah, me too…it’s one reason i stand more now!
Marc Taro Holmes has me almost convinced to draw while standing. I really have hard time with it, though because I can’t seem to stabilize the sketchbook well enough to suit me. I have taken to carrying a piece of coroplast just small enough to fit into my bag. I clip the book to the top of it and cram the bottom of into my gut. This stabilizes things well enough. Not having to carry a stool is a big bonus.
Pesky little buggers. These days my knees are balking at the thought of sitting that low so I may end up moving away from stools, though I do like to sit down sometimes.
Ouch! Sorry about the accident Larry, hope you recover quickly.
Can’t keep an old man down, though the rain is certainly limiting my activity right now.
Glad it was nothing worse than a lot of blood and and a wasted day. It made for a good blog post and you caught up on Netflix!
Yep, aside from the blood it was pretty much a non-issue. BTW, are you going to be able to make the meet up with Koose Koone next weekend? Looks like I’m going to be able to make it and I’m looking forward to sketching in the old city.
Yikes! Hope you remain OK. Scalp wounds bleed like crazy but hope it’s no more than a flesh wound. I prefer to sit on the ground and have made a cloth pad on which I sit. Of course, getting up from the ground is not so easy for some folks.
I so wish I could sit on the ground. I have a really neat expandable pad that squishes down very small that works just for that purpose. Unfortunately, my knees don’t much like that idea. I’m very envious of Liz Steel’s ability to sit cross-legged with her backpack in her lap as an sketchbook support.
My sympathy!
Oh dear, Oh dear, Oh dear. Happy to hear that no concussion was iinvolved and that you are recovering nicely. Still, give yourself a few days before heading back out Larry. I’m sure numerous things to sketch at home.
Once the blood stopped flowing there wasn’t much to recover from, Cheryl.
BTW, You asked a question about one of my sketches on Instagram and the answer is a bit much for Instagram so I’m going to turn it into a blog post in the next day or so.
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