Spring Has Finally Sprung

A week or so ago I walked to Bassin Louise, which is the part of our port area where private owners keep their boats.  All winter they (the boats) sit on land, wrapped in their cocoons of blue plastic.  When spring does arrive there’s a mad dash to get them in the water so their owners can enjoy them during our all-to-short summer.

During my visit I noticed two things.  There were no boats in the water in spite of it being May.  In fact, in shaded parts of the port there was still ice in the water.  At the time it occurred to me that sailors may be the only people more frustrated with our lack of spring than we sketchers.

It does seem that we’re finally getting hints that winter isn’t going to last forever and I’ve managed a flurry of outdoor sketching activity this week.  I decided to head back to Bassin Louise to see how the sailors were doing.  When I arrived I saw that a few boats had been put in the water – maybe a dozen of the couple hundred that will eventually fill the harbor.  I’m not sure the lock that lets them exit into the St. Lawrence River is functional yet but there were people working on sails, polishing chrome, etc.

While my face is incapable of launching a thousand ships, I thought that maybe my imagination might get one of them moving so I sat down to do a quick sketch of one of the boats moored in the harbor.  It’s seen here, heading out into the St. Lawrence.

Stillman & Birn Gamma (9x6) softcover, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Gamma (9×6) softcover, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

3 thoughts on “Spring Has Finally Sprung

  1. Do you happy with Platinum 3776? This one must be the Chartes Blue version, i heard this pens have some manufacturing defects. A few months ago i decided to have one of them but after some researches, i gave up, maybe i should rethink them.

    • It’s my favorite pen, Ahmet. The soft-fine starts out finer than any other pen I own and will give me a thicker line if I apply pressure. As for “manufacturing defect”, I’ve learned that the internet is a great place to find someone complaining about any product. The 3776 has been available, I think, for at least five years. Platinum has sold thousands of them I’m sure. For any product there will be customers who don’t like the product they receive. It seems that complaining is an innate human activity and the internet is a place where people show how expert they are by talking about how bad everything is. My guess is that you read about problems on FPGeeks or the FPN. Those are favorite gathering places for those who are “expert” in such matters.

      In the end, Platinum doesn’t sell pens with “manufacturing defeccts” for five years. That’s not to say they never have a pen go out the door with a problem but to generalize…I don’t think that makes sense. I will be buying a second one in the near future. — Larry

      • Yes, this is the worst part of the internet, even perfect products victimized by someone, Platinum pens also my favourite pens, they are cheap and very good. As an example i use my Carbon Desk Pen everyday and it’s stil in a very good condition.

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