Dinosaur Hunting In Ottawa

My favorite place in Ottawa is the Museum of Nature.  It’s four floors of sketching heaven.  Museums seem to be turning into videos and photographs but not the Museum of Nature.  It’s all about “stuff” and most of it is worthy of a sketcher’s time.

Right now, the Museum of Nature has a special dinosaur exhibit.  While their permanent collection holds a large exhibit of North American dinosaurs, a new exhibit features dinosaurs from other parts of the world.  The significant thing about this is that while those of us in the US and Canada know the dinosaurs of North America, the breakup of Pangea and resultant dinosaur species radiation on their respective continents produced a diversity we don’t normally get to see.  And there I was, looking up at a whole bunch of them.  All of these sketches were done in a landscape format (5.5×8.5) Stillman & Birn softcover sketchbook.

Amargasaurus sp. from Argentina. Huge herbivore (9meters)

Amargasaurus sp. from Argentina. Huge herbivore (9meters)

Suchominus, a bipedal dinosaur with a crocodile-like head. This guy was 11 meters long

Suchominus, a bipedal dinosaur with a crocodile-like head. This guy was 11 meters long

Drawing bones may not be for everyone but for me, there is no better exercise for the visual brain as there’s so many facets, so many overlapping parts, and so many contours that they really require keen observation and some relationship planning if you’re going to get sketches even a little bit correct.  And so I did a bunch of them during my time in Ottawa.  The fact that the museum is air-conditioned and Ottawa was quite toasty while I was there didn’t hurt my motivation either.

Another reason this sketching was fun was the kids.  The museum was full of them everytime I went there and while this meant is was quite loud, there’s nothing better than kids when you’re sketching.  They ask all the right questions and none of the wrong ones.  They don’t ask you why you do it or give you excuses for why they ‘have no talent for drawing’ because all of them draw.  Many fine discussions with the kids.

Carcharodontosaurus from Egypt. This guy is distantly related to the Great White shark and its teeth reflect that relationship. Huge is the operative word. I sketched this from the only skull example of this animal

Carcharodontosaurus from Egypt. This guy is distantly related to the Great White shark and its teeth reflect that relationship. Huge is the operative word. I sketched this from the only skull example of this animal

Carnotaurus from Argentina. I found this on interesting because while it was huge, its head was much smaller than most of the carnivores

Carnotaurus from Argentina. I found this on interesting because while it was huge, its head was much smaller than most of the carnivores

The newest acquisition to the museum is this skull.  It’s called Xenoceratops foremostensis and it lived in Alberta.  Similar to other ‘ceratops’ species in the permanent collection, but with two huge horns above its eyes.  I thought it was gorgeous and had to draw it.

2016-06-26XenoceratopsIf you want to improve your drawing “eye”, give dinosaurs a try.  They’re fun.

sketch, Sketching Small In Ottawa

I got to spend a week in Ottawa, mostly visiting my daughter but I also wandering around and sketching.  I’m in the process of scanning the sketches and thought I’d start a short series of posts with a few of the many tiny sketches I did while there.  The tan ones were done in one of my mustache books while the red ones were done in a Field Notes Sweet Tooth notebook.

2016-06-20people1I’m going to include only two of the people sketches I did, mostly because I’m lazy and didn’t want to scan any more.  The first is my favorite of all of them; a woman wearing a hijab.  This scarf was gorgeous, with silver threads running through it that made it glisten.  I got caught up in the curves and folds of the fabric to the point that my coffee went cold.

2016-06-20people2This one was a bit unique in that I was waiting for me daughter at school and saw this unusually talk Asian woman.  Not an important sketch by any measure but I enjoy capturing the variability of the human form.

If you follow this blog you know that I’ve been having fun sketching with the Field Notes Sweet Tooth edition, particularly the red notebook of the set.  I’m going to have to buy a couple more packs as I’m using up my red ones.  It’s really fun having the red as a mid-tone with black and white inks on either side.  Here are a couple lamp posts, one of my favorite sketching subjects.

2016-06-21lamp post12016-06-21lamp post2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

2016-06-26artgallery

 

My daughter and I bought sandwiches and walked down to the Ottawa River where 7-stage canal locks lower boats from the Rideau Canal to the river.  It’s a beautiful place and we fed chipmunks and watched a young rabbit chow down on the foliage a few feet from us.  I mentioned to her that I wished that I had a loose and quick style that would allow me to capture things like the Art Museum that was visible up the hill from where we sat.  To demonstrate that I don’t have one, I did this sketch of it in just a few minutes between sandwich bites.

On another day I started walking from Parliament towards a pair of statues that honor firefighters, but I ended up doing sketches along the way and didn’t get to the firefighters until late in the afternoon.  By then I’d been pretty well beaten down by the particularly hot day so I decided to do a small ‘red’ sketch.  I’m really glad things worked out the way they did as I really liked the result.  Hope you do too.

2016-06-24fireman

 

The Parents Head To Ottawa

Last weekend Chantal and I headed for Ottawa.  It was a holiday weekend and we went to visit our daughter who is in school there, but as I write this I realize that it was more than that.  Because of a lot of good stuff that happened, our daughter wasn’t going to come home for the summer as she normally would so the trip was at least as much an attempt to deal with that disappointment as anything else.

That’s a simple way of explaining that this wasn’t a sketching trip.  In spite of that, I did a bunch of quick sketches throughout the visit and I thought I’d present some of them as an indication of how easy it is to fit urban sketching into a trip that is otherwise occupied with things that make most people say “I was too busy to sketch.”

We arrived on Friday and our daughter was still at school so we got some lunch, went to an art store (more of a crafts store as so many have become) and then headed to one of the parks.   As we walked around I saw this scene and decided that I’d do a very quick, thumbnail-style sketch just to capture the major masses.  I didn’t worry much about proper perspective or drawing accurate lines and the initial sketch took only a few minutes.  Then my daughter called and said she would be there shortly so we stayed put.  I decided to add some more lines to the drawing and, ultimately, I slopped some color on the sketch.

Stillman & Birn Gamma (8x5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Gamma (8×5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

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Field Notes “Sweet Tooth” (3×5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black, Uniball UM_153 white pen

I was sitting under a flowering crab apple tree (I think) and  I decided to sketch of some of the flowers in my red Field Notes “Sweet Tooth” notebook and I thought it came out pretty well for a 3-4 minutes I spent doing it.  I was rewarded by my daughter showing up with an “hic c’est beau.”

We spent the rest of the evening hanging out as a family, eating in market area, buying candy and listening to street musicians.

The next morning, however, was laundry day.  We gathered up ever stitch of clothing, bedding, and towels and hauled them to a laundromat where we commenced to feed an obscene number of dollar coins into the machines.  We drank coffee, ate muffins, and I drew this little scene in the tiny coffee shop associated with the laundromat.  Not much but it was fun to do and made the time pass more quickly.

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taned notebook, Platinum 3776,

Then it was off to the grocery store where we bought one of everything and two of some things.  My biggest fear was that there wouldn’t be room for it all in my daughter’s apartment.  Parents do get carried away some times.  And we did, of course.

Once we shoehorned all the groceries into their proper places, we headed off on a quest for shoes.  Understand, this was two women and an old guy.  We went EVERYWHERE looking at shoes.  I knew my life would end while looking for size 9 flats.

But surprise, surprise, we tracked down the illusive ideal shoe, bought two of them then went to a park where geese lived and they had lots of baby goslings running around.  They were fun to watch and I should have sketched them but I was worn out from the shoe chase.  Eventually we got hungry and headed for my daughter’s favorite Korean restaurant.

After dinner we walked to Major Hill Park, a park where the towers around Parliament poke up above the trees.  We drank bubble tea and enjoyed the changing sky as sunset was near.  I did a couple quick sketches in the failing light and probably should have settled for just a silhouette.

Parliament library roofline, FN Sweet Tooth, Platinum 37762016-05-21-56majorhillpark2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We did a bunch of park hopping the next day, mostly because we just wanted to be out in the sun.   We sat for a long time in Andrew Haydon Park, looking out at the boats having fun in the Ottawa River.  There wasn’t much close to me to draw so I drew some rocks.  I love drawing rocks, though I’m not particularly good at it.

Stillman & Birn Gamma (8x5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Stillman & Birn Gamma (8×5), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

As it got hotter, though, the desire for shade took hold and we ended up in a park along the Rideau River.  Another place to practice my sloth, I was getting quite good at it, particularly because there were a group of guys in a drum circle providing entertainment.  I did break out the sketchbook to do this quick capture of a few of the players.  It’s not very detailed but it’s the best I can do in a few minutes.

Stillman & Birn Gamma (8x5), Platinum 3776

Stillman & Birn Gamma (8×5), Platinum 3776

2016-05-22-48RideauRiverKidI did several really quick (< 1-min) sketches of people as they wandered by where we were sitting and I’ll share only this one of a small boy who stopped to admire the river.  We had a delightful dinner at the apartment and then headed out to wander some more, ultimately ended up back at Major Hill Park.  It was pretty dark when we got there so sketching anything other than the proverbial black cat in a dark room there were no real sketching opportunities.

That was a last thing on my mind anyway as we had our mitts full of frozen yogourt.  It was the best there is, or so sayeth my daughter.  I think its the first time I’ve ever had any that didn’t come out of a carton.  We’d stopped at Menchies to get it and that was a fun experience unto its own because of the way you put together what you want and then pay by the weight of your concoction.  I drew the spoon in honor of the place.

2016-05-23-54MenchiesSpoonSo there you have it – our trip to Ottawa.  Urban sketching adds so much to trips like this, even if you don’t have time to do it.  Does that make sense?  Hope so.

 

Sketching Ottawa – Part Two

Yesterday I talked about not feeling well during my sketching trip to Ottawa.  I want to post a couple more sketches from that trip and comment on some of the comedy of the trip as well.

Do you ever go somewhere and it seems that nothing is working in your favor?  I mentioned that when I showed up at the Nature Museum I wasn’t feeling well.  What I didn’t mention was that the entire bird exhibit was closed for renovations, as was the cafeteria.  No birds, no lunch menu.

I went shopping in the Ottawa market, after becoming completely lost in the Rideau Centre maze (a more confusing mall I have never seen) to visit the paper store there, because I wanted to pet a few fountain pens.  As I entered the store it was immediately evident that it wasn’t my lucky day.

The pen side of the store was completely covered in plastic and there were people behind the plastic installing new cabinets.  Normally I would turn to all the nifty tidbits they sell but those racks were smashed up against one another to make room for the construction activity.  I left without scratching my fountain pen itch.

I was starving at that point, wanted to visit the art store in one of the malls and so I drove to the St. Laurent mall.  After a disappointing visit to the art store, I got myself a really nice vegetarian burrito, sat down to eat it, took one bite, and the fire alarm went off.  The announcement said to wait for instructions so I started eating faster, wondering if I should eat or pack it all up for a rapid exit.  Ultimately it turned out to be a false alarm but as I sat there I wondered, “what else could go wrong?”

2016-04-21people3I returned to the downtown area with the idea of sketching some of the buildings around Parliament.  I went to a park that’s just east of Parliament because it offers a nice view of some of the buildings.  Seems it’s a popular hangout and justifiably so.  But, at the time I arrived, even an artist who was feeling well would have a hard time because of the bright sun smacking them in the face if they looked at any of those buildings.  It’s definitely a morning sketching site.  I turned to quick-sketching people instead and there were plenty of targets because it had gotten quite warm, something that, being from Quebec City really appreciated.  I did a bunch of these quick sketches.  Here are two of them.

2016-04-21people1

The next morning  was looking good.  I was feeling better and I decided to sketch a gazebo in a park near my daugher’s apartment.  I was having fun when it started to rain a little bit.  With no cover to be found except for the gazebo, I headed downtown, knowing I could return to finish that sketch when I came back to meet my daughter for our departure for Quebec City.   This turned out not to be such a great plan, though the bubble tea I had while waiting for the misting rain to stop sure was good.  The problem then became cold as the wind picked up and the temperatures dropped as the front moved through and I finished this drawing as my bones cooled.  When the ink dried, or maybe a little before, I headed for my daughter’s apartment to warm up and add the color.

In summary, a lot of little things went wrong on this trip, in addition to my not feeling well, but sketching always makes a trip fun and this one was no exception.

Stillman & Birn Delta (8x10), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

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

Just Got Back From Sketching Ottawa… Sort Of

Sometimes things work out.  Sometimes they don’t.  I used the excuse of picking up my daughter so that I could blitz around Ottawa sketching everything in sight – or so thought when I left Quebec City at 4:30AM.

Why so early?  Because I wanted to be at the Nature Museum when it opened at 9:30AM.  And that’s what I did as  I walked in the door at 9:35.  There was only one problem.  I was starting to feel poorly, like I gotta sit down poorly.  I didn’t, but instead I started walking around my favorite museum.  Everything I looked at seemed “so complicated” or boring.  I had absolutely no energy for sketching, or much of anything else.  I sat down and just stared across the lobby.

For the rest of the day I bounced around Ottawa, trying to right the ship and get some sketching done.  I went to the War Museum for the first time.  I’ll need a book light to sketch that place but it’s fantastic and I’ll return, hopefully with more energy.

I continued to mope my way through the day, walking a lot, accomplishing nothing.  I did a bunch of little quick-sketches but little else.  I’m not one to have a hard time finding things to draw or lacking in motivation to do it but there it was, in front of me… ALL DAY.  What a wasted opportunity.

Eventually I picked up my daughter and we went out for a great Korean dinner and I spent that night crashed on her floor.  In the morning we parted ways as she had an afternoon exam and I was determined to get some sketching done.  I was feeling better and like that little train climbing the hill, I was chuffing “I think I can, I think I can.”

Stillman & Birn Delta (8x10), Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

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

And I did.  I went back to the Nature Museum, which for some reason was being overrun by huge groups of kids.  Normally I like interacting with the kids but there were so many of them I actually felt like I was in their way.  I drew this sketch of a marsh wren and its nest and then decided to head for less populated pastures.  I had an hour or so before I was to meet my daughter for lunch.

I actually did get some more sketching done but I haven’t scanned them, so they’ll have to wait for another day.  Check back for part II of my Ottawa wanderings ‘real soon.’