What’s In The News Sketching – Quebec City Hall

Posted on January 24, 2016 by Larry Marshall

I was still resurrecting our house from the recent construction and so couldn’t get out sketching, but I was desperate to do something other than quick doodles. I was reading the newspaper over lunch when I came across a picture of the top of our city hall and decided to sketch it.

I don’t sketch from photos and other than quick doodles, I rarely sketch at home, so this was…what’s the word… err… uhm… oh yeah… DIFFERENT. I was sitting at our kitchen table, in a real chair, with paper resting on a hard surface. What a difference that makes. It’s a lot easier to draw this way than perched on my tripod stool on location. I can’t say its as much fun but maybe I should do it more often. Anyways, here’s the top of Quebec City’s seat of government. Tomorrow I’m heading to the museum.

Fabriano Artistico cold press, DeAtramentis Document Black, Pilot Metropolitan F

Sketching A Bit Of Egypt

Posted on January 15, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Our gang was back at the museum cuz, “baby, it’s cold outside.” I decided to draw a stone guy who was making an offering at a funeral, or so sayeth the plaque associated with him. Hope you like him.

Fabriano Artistico CP (7.5×11), Platinum 3776, DeAtramentis Document Black

Sketching Down A Different Road

Posted on September 12, 2014 by Larry Marshall

Fabriano Artistico paper, Hero 578 w/Platinum Carbon Black

My urban sketching has become pretty well-defined. My ‘style’ is sort of cartoony with a heavy emphasis on linework as that’s what I like to do. Color is thrown in as an afterthought.

But if I’m ever going to improved with color I’ve got to experiment and so here’s a couple baby steps down that road. In both cases I’ve retained my penchant for fountain pen line work but I started by doing a wet-in-wet background. Much to learn here but I had fun which is, afterall, the whole point of my sketching. Hope you like these little guys, done from my imagination.

Fabriano Artistico paper, Hero 578 w/Platinum Carbon Black

My First “Painting”

Posted on November 29, 2013 by Larry Marshall

If you follow my posts you know that I’m a pen driver. I draw a bunch of lines, hope they look like something and then, if I want to add color, I generally just ‘fill in’ the various pieces, using watercolors like crayons.

But I thought it was time to do a “painting.” I’m not really sure when a sketch becomes a painting or whether you have to approach things very differently to create a painting. Seems to me like it’s more the later than former so that’s what I did….that different thing.

We’d just gotten some snow and I was out walking, saw a “winter scene” to my liking and took a quick snapshot of it. When I got home I took a 5×7 sheet of Fabriano Artistico “Extra White” cold press paper, and I made a few marks to indicate a horizon and the verticals for my fire hydrant. Ya gotta have fire hydrants in paintings don’t you? I do.

Then, with considerable intrepidation, I started applying paint roughing out the tree and hydrant in light color. Once I knew their ultimate shape I increased the color until it was mostly as you see it here. Then I added a bit of ink just to emphasize things a bit. I don’t know if this is an example of my demonstrating a willingness to learn new tricks or that I have no shame in posting my first painting. Either way, here it is.