Ottawa’s Museum Of Nature

Posted on April 25, 2017 by Larry Marshall

When my daughter was home for Easter I offered to take her back to Ottawa so she wouldn’t have to take the bus. This would save her the long bus ride, garner dad some brownie points, and give me several hours worth of discussion with said daughter as we drove to Ottawa.

A not-so-well-hidden reason behind this gesture on my part was my desire to get back to Ottawa so I could sketch at the Museum of Nature. It never really makes much sense to spend ten hours driving (round trip) so that I could spend four hours sketching, but then we sketchers are a sorry lot when it comes to logic. I got to DRAW!

We left at 5AM and I got to the museum by about 10:30AM. I walked around a bit, and ended up in the mammal exhibition. I generally draw bones in the dinosaur exhibits and so I’ve neglected the mammals. Time to make up for that.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10)

I started with a grizzly bear. It was a disaster and I include it here only as an example of sketching gone wrong. I got the bright idea to try wet-in-wet while sitting on a tripod stool in a museum and with my extensive background of never having tried it before. Eeeeeekkkk! I wet the entire bear. I can’t say whether I wet it too much or too little as I had a hard time seeing just how much water was on the paper in the subdued lighting. What I do know is that when I started dropping in browns, I created something more akin to the big bang than a painting. There was brown exploding everywhere and in an instant I had a bear-shaped outline that looked like something that came from the south end of a cow. I quickly started dabbing at it. I’m sure the other patrons thought I was under attack by some invisible creature as I flailed around. As I said, it was/is a disaster.

With that mess behind me I decided it was snack time so I could regroup. Then I returned to the mammal exhibit, determined to redeem myself. I targeted the head of a thinned-horn sheep and, leaving wet-in-wet techniques for another day, achieved what I felt was reasonable redemption.

Stillman & BIrn Beta (8×10), Pilot Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Across the corridor was an antelope scene and since I only had a short time remaining, I decided to give it a try rather than doing my typical walkabout to find a subject. I worked fairly quickly and, I suppose, there are some errors but nevertheless, it was a fitting end to a great day. When I was finished I realized that I was about 10 minutes late for my rendevous with my daughter. Sketching and time just don’t mix well.

Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Pilot Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Ottawa Sketching??? Adventure

Posted on August 21, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Chantal and I headed off to Ottawa on a five day trip to visit our daughter. Of course, I hoped to get some sketching done as well but on this trip it wasn’t the high priority.

Nevertheless, I contacted folks in the Ottawa Urban Sketchers via Facebook and one of the members said she’d send me an email to arrange a session. Sadly, my host server’s spam mail filter decided it was spam so I never received it. While disappointing, truth was, the rain would have likely scuttled any chance of meet up. Next time for sure.

While waiting for our daughter to get out of work, Chantal indulged my passion by agreeing to wander around the nature museum while I sketched this guy. While Fred Flintstone’s pet looked like a baby brontosaurus, I suspect that cavemen might have been happier with this dog-like beast. The display only had the leg and back armor on one side, I drew it as it sat and thought it pretty cool.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5x8.5softcover), Esterbrook J9550, diluted DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5softcover), Esterbrook J9550, diluted DeAtramentis Document Black

We had a ball the rest of the week but there wasn’t much sketching involved. I did a bunch of quick-sketches as people ran up and down the shopping malls while the family shopped. We visited museums and walked a lot. We ate too much. We dodged the rain…lots of rain.

One evening I was sort of antsy about not having done any sketching so while the family was reading, I tried to channel Paul Heaston and drew my daughter’s kitchen. I’m afraid that Paul and I had a bad connection because I don’t have the hatching/drawing skills that Paul has but I had fun doing it and that’s all that matters.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (3.5x5.5softcover), Esterbrook J9550, diluted DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (3.5×5.5softcover), Esterbrook J9550, diluted DeAtramentis Document Black

Sadly, it was time to leave but Ottawa hasn’t seen the last of me yet. Besides, someone was coming for a visit in Quebec City and I had to be there to greet her. More on that next time.

Ottawa’s Agriculture Museum

Posted on July 9, 2016 by Larry Marshall

I forgot about this sketch yesterday when I was posting building sketches from my Ottawa trip. My daughter and I spent part of a day at the Agriculture Museum in Ottawa and I drew this beautiful old barn. It should have been included in the last blog post.

Sketching Ottawa’s Buildings

Posted on July 8, 2016 by Larry Marshall

As I was riding the train to Ottawa I was planning where to point my feet for my upcoming sketching adventure. First stop was to be Parliament, where I wanted to sit directly in front of Parliament’s Peace Tower and draw the entire building in one-point perspective. It’s classic Ottawa.

There were two problems with that idea. The first is that every government building in the city seems to be under construction, or if it isn’t, you can’t go there because of some other construction. The entire Parliament area is full of cranes, fencing and the buildings are shrouded in scaffolding. All of this, I’m told is being done in anticipation of July 1, 2017, which will be the 150th anniversary of Canadian confederation.

Ok…but what’s that huge, can’t see the building stage that’s sprawled out in front of Parliament. Well, that is for Canada Day 2016. Sometimes timing is everything and mine wasn’t great this time.

Undaunted, I decided to draw a portion of the Langevin building, which is a very long government building. I have no idea what they do within it but the south side steps of the East Block building served as a great perch to draw it. And so, with lots of tourists walking by, I drank coffee and drew a building.

Stillman & Birn Delta (8x10), Platinum 3776, Platinum carbon black

Stillman & Birn Delta (8×10), Platinum 3776, Platinum carbon black

If you walk south on Elgin from Parliament you’ll find an old house (mansion?) that seems to have been converted into a small hotel or B&B. What’s striking about it is that all around it are modern high-rise buildings. It was a must-draw but I was unsure what to do with it. On the one hand I wanted to draw it small with the huge skyscrapers surrounding it. But this would shrink the building so much that I wouldn’t be able to give it any of the ‘from a different time’ feel that it exuded. In the end I decided to just draw the building, without any of the large buildings. Someday I’ll do it the other way I’m sure.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Sketching Ottawa Statues

Posted on July 6, 2016 by Larry Marshall

There are a lot of “old dead guy” statues in Ottawa and while interesting, I was looking for something different when I wandered around evaluating statues for sketching. I found two that I liked a lot. Hope you approve of my choices.

This statue sits in a small triangle of dirt/grass with cars whizzing by on all three sides of it. It’s near the National Art Gallery and while I’ve been there several times, I’ve never even noticed it because of its location. But heck, there it was and there was a large tree under which I could sit while I sketched it. Like the streets surrounding it, the statue is a 3-sided affair, though you can only see two sides of it in my sketch. It’s Haida, I think and quite beautiful.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (5.5×8.5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

I was walking from Parliament towards Confederation Park and as I passed the post office on Spark Street I noticed a couple of large lions protecting the doors. In truth, they themselves were caged by large fencing put up to protect people like me from construction going on around the facade of the building. This made it hard to find a place where I could sit to draw. I walked around the building and found there are actually half a dozen of these guys standing around in the sun. They’re enlarged heads make them all the more majestic and I had to draw one. I found a place where I can climb up on some large concrete blocks, set up my stool and draw. I only fell off once.

Stillman & Birn Delta (8×10), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black