Rain and Wind – Will It Ever Stop?

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Yvan and I were supposed to go sketching but it was very windy and rain was threatening. Since the new Paris exhibit had opened at our Musee de la Civilisation, we headed there instead. They have some great vehicles there that I want to sketch but geez they’re complicated.

This one is a 3-wheeled steam-powered vehicle produced by Dion-Bouton in 1885. It just oozes ‘cool’ in my opinion, but I’m sort of biased towards anything that’s steam-powered. Clearly a vehicle that would be comfortable putting around in a steampunk novel.

This was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook using a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray ink. It provided a great hour and a half of fun. Hope you like it.

Cheers — Larry

Paris In Quebec City…Sort of.

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Larry Marshall

The Musee de la Civilisation launched its new Paris 1889-1920s exhibit by holding a special grand opening on a Tuesday evening. As I’m a member I got an invitation and Yvan and I decided to go. We saw it more as a reconnoitering session than anything else so our plan was to quickly run through the exhibit, noting what would be good to sketch. This exhibit will be one of our principle sketching subjects this winter.

We decided, though, that we should go early enough that we could sketch in the old port for a couple hours before the event and that’s what we did. We sat in Place Royale, a tourist hot-spot and boy, were there tourists. Because of our lousy weather it didn’t seem like summer to us until we looked at the sea of people. So, we looked up and I sketched this roof line over the heads of the tourists. Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Pilot Prera and Lex Gray ink.

When we finished up we still had some time and we wandered into a place adjacent to Place Royale that has a cannon battery pointing out at the St. Lawrence, to protect Place Royale from the tourist and ferry boats. This is the gate into the place but from the inside, looking out. I felt a bit rushed so it got a bit wonky but I like the sketch nevertheless. Same sketchbook and pen/ink combo for this one.

When A Sketcher Sees Red

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I have a bottle f J. Herbin 1670, a dark red that’s not waterproof. I’m not exactly sure what to do with it but I decided that I should experiment with using it for sketching. I loaded up my Wahl-Eversharp Symphony with the ink and while watching baseball I doodled a bit, creating this page in a Strathmore ‘toned gray’ sketchbook. Wish the paper was better but for pen-only work it’s not bad.

I’ve been playing around with this color as a street sketching color and I’m not sure how well that will work out but I sketched this window and lamp as sort of a test. Same Strathmore gray paper.

While riding the ferry to another event I did this small sketch of one of those tie-off thingies (sorry for my use of technical terms). For some things I can see this color being fun to play with but I won’t be giving up my bottle of Lexington Gray anytime soon.

Rain, Rain, Go Away…

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Here it…June and my street sketching spring is almost gone with not much to show for it. We’re setting records for rainfall if, records are a consolation, but they don’t do much for my disposition. I’ve got to figure out how to get my brain to be happy sketching indoors from pictures, I guess.

Until I do that, these are the sorts of things I’ve been doing. I hopped off the bus one day and did this tiny sketch. When I look at it what I remember was the rush I got from actually doing a sketch outdoors. I was only off the bus for 10-15 minutes but it was a precious 15 minutes. Done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) using a TWSBI Mini and Noodler’s Lexington Gray.

Another day, I got to the bus stop just as my bus was pulling away. I quickly did this little sketch of a somewhat ugly restaurant across the street. This place has changed hands so many times I can’t remember all the restaurant names it’s announced proudly to a customer base that never came. Not sure what kind of food they serve now. I’m one of those who never went. Same sketchbook but I was using a Noodler’s Creaper here. Only had 10 minutes as I had to catch the next bus.

I tried to have a sketching day with my friend Claudette. It was raining but we climbed aboard the ferry that traverses the St. Lawrence. It only takes 10 minutes to cross and crossings take place every half hour. We made several circuits but, for me, it was not a great adventure. The fog was so bad that you couldn’t see the buildings on either side of the St. Lawrence and for a while it rained so hard you couldn’t see much of anything. Mostly I just looked out the windows and wished it would stop raining. This sketch was done in an S&B Alpha (10×7) with the TWSBI Mini. I sort of lost interest by the time I got to the vending machines (grin).

Will it EVER stop raining?

Rainy Weekend Sketching

Posted on May 28, 2013 by Larry Marshall

This past weekend was rainy and windy, so my hopes of outdoor sketching were dashed…or dampened…or blown away. It depends on your view. And when it’s a gloomy, rainy day, a philosopher sits on a rock and ponders the universe. A sketcher draws the rock. Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6), TWSBI Mini with Lex Gray.

Sunday was the same – rain and wind. No outdoor sketching today either. So there I was, watching the Bluejays on TV. Since I can’t watch TV without doing something else I started flipping through photos I’ve taken around Quebec and found a photo of Quebec’s “cannonball tree.” This is something that would be hard to sketch on site because, in the winter, it’s covered with snow and in the summer, it’s surrounded by groups of tourists taking photos of it.

Back in the 18th Century the Brits came along and decided they like this “Nouvelle France” place, so they started lobbing cannon shells on the city…I’m sure in an attempt to make it look more British. In any case, they did that for several months, ultimately got the French to surrender, and we’ve all lived happily every after ever since.

But somehow, this French tree grabbed a British cannonball and hung onto it, for a couple hundred years. It seems reluctant to give it back and so so the tree has become famous for its persistence, appearing on tourist guide maps of things to see. My sketch is in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) and I used my TWSBI Mini with Lex Gray ink.

Will the rain ever end?