April Showers Keeps Urban Sketchers Indoors

Posted on April 7, 2017 by Larry Marshall

Every spring, towards the end of March, we get a big snow storm. People here call it the St. Patrick’s Day storm. It comes just as we start to think that spring has sprung so it’s always a let-down. What follows, without fail is a couple weeks of rain, which is good because it melts the snow, gets road salt dust out of the air, and generally does a spring cleaning of the city.

It’s sure hard to take, however, when you’re an urban sketcher who has been cooped up for the last five months. In desperation I picked up some veggies while we were shopping, including an heirloom tomato that I thought could be a nice subject for a still life painting. Ha… me trying to paint. What a joke. Anyways, this is what came of that idea. I’m still pretty lost when it comes to paint and fuzzy sticks but I had fun doing this one. Hope it stops raining soon.

Fabriano Artistico CP (7×11), Daniel Smith watercolors

A Street Sketcher Tries To Paint

Posted on February 14, 2017 by Larry Marshall

Last Sunday we had our monthly sketchcrawl and it was a unique event. We gathered at the main Quebec City library, in a large room associated with their art collection. We were tasked with finding a painting we liked and then doing our own take on the subject matter. There were, I think, nine of us and we had a lot of fun, particularly because we were all in the same room so we could talk. I tend to go silent when I sketch but I took breaks to see what others were doing.

I chose a large watercolor of a bunch of kids playing in tide pools, thinking I could turn it into a fun sketch. I started by blocking out the locations of the kids, indicating the horizon and generally getting the sense of what I wanted to do.

Then it happened. I decided that rather than starting to draw with my fountain pen, I’d indicate the shadow areas to begine to define the kids. This led to adding some color and I was like Alice falling into Wonderland as things quickly went out of control. The first thing I realized was that converting a large (22×30 painting) into a 7×10 sketch wasn’t consistent with the amount of detail I was planning and so some reassessment took place. That wasn’t so bad as my skills with a a fuzzy stick leave much to be desired. I was really wishing I had my fountain pen in hand rather than a fuzzy stick.

But I persisted, doing things for the first time at every turn. Still, the sketch started to look suspiciously like kids in tide pools so I convinced myself it wouldn’t be that bad. Eventually, as a last step, I did get out a fountain pen and added some lines and details, though I kept things a bit vague. I learned a lot, including how much I need to learn about watercolors. While it was frustrating at times, it was also a lot of fun. Maybe I’ll figure out fuzzy sticks eventually.

I had a hard time scanning this one. I suppose it was because of all the very pale blues in the sky and water but I gave up and took this cell phone photo of it. The colors aren’t quite right and the lighting isn’t even, but you can get an idea of what it looks like, I think.

Fabriano Artistico CP 7×10, Daniel Smith watercolors

Drawing For My Daughter

Posted on January 11, 2017 by Larry Marshall

My daughter was home for Christmas and she asked if she could have one of my sketches to hang in her apartment. Since I do my drawing in sketchbooks, granting her request was difficult, so I decided to do a drawing for her on Fabriano Artistico cold-press paper. It’s really a pleasure to have unlimited time and to work at a table and without needing to juggle the tools as I sit on a tripod stool. I drew one of my favorite scenes in Quebec City and here is the result.

This project is something of a landmark for me as well. It’s the first time I’ve ever matted one of my drawings. Heck, it’s the first time I’ve ever cut a mat. It was fun. It improved the look of the drawing. I might do it again. She was happy with it. I hope you do too.

Sketching The Red Door

Posted on November 29, 2016 by Larry Marshall

I love the doors of Quebec. I’ve often thought that an entire sketchbook filled with doors and windows of Quebec City would be great. If were even a little bit organized in my approach to sketching, I might just do one. For today, though, here’s a single door, well actually two of them, done from a photo (my photo) on 7.5×11 Fabriano Artistico cold press. I love this paper but it’s a bit rough for my very fine fountain pens.

Domestic Sketching: Quebec City When I Was Born

Posted on November 26, 2016 by Larry Marshall

I’ve mentioned that this winter I was going to try to learn to draw at an indoor workspace and to draw from photos. I know it sounds odd to those of you who do it all the time, but I’ve spent five years drawing on location and have a really hard time drawing in a ‘studio’ or from photos.

In this I’m very much like the dog that’s got to walk around in circles a couple times before it lays down. Location sketching, for me, is about discovering something to draw, which requires wandering a bit. There is no wandering in a studio. Once I get going on an indoor drawing I seem to be able to do it and even enjoy it, but initiating the behavior… that’s harder.

I decided it was time, though, to draw from a photo. Looking for something that would motivate me to do so, I decided that I should draw from a photo that is not of something I can go out and see. The idea of historic sketching must have come from my watching the new Timeless series, which is about time travel, but as I already have a lot of historic photos of Quebec City I thought that was where I should begin. I chose a photo of a trolley, both because I like trolleys and because it was taken in the year that I was born.

I started by lightly drawing everything using a Platinum Carbon Pen, keeping the lines very light so I could cover my errors if needed. This is what I ended up with:

7.5x11 Fabriano Artistico cold press, Platinum Carbon pen

7.5×11 Fabriano Artistico cold press, Platinum Carbon pen

To bring a more solid nature to the drawing I started increasing the contrast, using a Platinum 3776 pen and a Platinum brush pen. This got the drawing to this point:

Then it was time for color and touch up. I still struggle with watercolors but at least I’m starting to pay attention to it. I was pretty happy with the results. Hope you are as well. I think I’ll be doing more historic sketching.