Sketching On Toned Paper

Posted on January 21, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I’m no expert to artist materials. Most of the time when I talk about using them the discourse begins with me saying “This is the first time that…” This is almost true of my use of toned paper in my sketching activities. During last summer I made a small sketchbook from toned paper (Canson Mi-Teintes) and I did a few pen sketches in it. Unfortunately, the sketchbook itself wasn’t stiff enough (thin covers) to work well as a sketchbook to use on location while I held it in my hand.

Now that it’s winter and very cold here, I’ve been working a lot in museums. This shift in location and subject matter has been coupled by me doing some experimenting with different tools and materials and recently I’ve done a couple sketches on single sheets of gray, toned paper and I thought I’d share them here.

The first was done at the Musée de la Civilisation, in a large Nigeria exhibit that features lots of masks and headdresses used in ceremonies. This one was done in Canson Mi-Teintes paper. As I am also trying to learn how to use a pencil as a sketching medium, I used the smooth side of this paper and it worked well. Not being a pencil guru, I started layout with a 3H pencil and ultimately ended up with an HB mechanical pencil. Nothing special here and, I’m sure, most pencil experts will probably cringe that I didn’t use softer pencils. I added a bit of highlight using a Prismacolor white pencil but I was fairly tentative in this as I’ve never done that before at all. Still, the results ended up better than I expected.

The next sketch I did was done during our 38th Worldwide Sketchcrawl, which we did at the Musée de Francais and its associated chapel. The chapel has been ‘secularized’ and is rented out for meetings and banquets. Still, its walls are still adorned with statues of saints, the windows are stained glass, and a huge alter remains.

But I love to sketch buildings and being driven indoors by snow and cold is frustrating. I took advantage of the sketchcrawl to set my tripod stool in front of a huge window that looked out on a courtyard that was bordered by a very long, probably 150+ feet long building. Rather than capture the entire structure, I decided to concentrate on a slice of it and I came up with this sketch.

This sketch was done on Strathmore Series 400 “toned gray” paper. I bought a 9×12 spiral sketchbook of this stuff. The sheets are perforated and can be easily separated from the sketchbook. I did the linework with a Pilot Prera filled with Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink. The suggestion of snow was added using the same Prismacolor pencil I used in the first sketch. I like this paper a lot. It’s much cheaper than the Canson paper and it’s a great pencil paper. I felt that it was a bit too absorptive for ink, though. A heavy line tends to feather a bit.

I really like drawing on toned paper. I’m less wild about using single sheets of paper for my sketching and wish Stillman & Birn would create a gray version of its Epsilon sketchbooks. A sketcher has to have a dream (grin).

Do Nigerians Have Thick Necks?

Posted on January 17, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Goofy question, right? Well, I’m convinced there is evidence to support the notion that Nigerians have thick necks. It comes in the form of the Nigeria exhibit at our Musée de la Civilisation.

That evidence comes in the form of large, and I mean large ‘crests’ worn by Nigerian dancers. Some of these are huge and, supposedly, they wear them while doing ceremonial dances. I wouldn’t want to balance one on my head while watching TV, let alone while dancing.

Here’s just one example. This ‘little’ guy is roughly half a meter tall. The straw band at its base is where your head goes. I assume there’s a strap that goes through the lower hole and runs around under the chin. Thick necks… gotta be.

This next one isn’t quite as large and I’m not exactly sure how it’s even worn. It’s obviously an elephant who likes to play frisbee but other than that I know nothing about it other than that it too is labelled as a ‘crest’ and is part of a long line of them along one wall of the exhibit.

Both sketches were done in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon (5.5×8.5) sketchbook. The first was drawn with a Pilot Prera, Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink and Faber-Castell watercolor pencils. The elephant sketch was done with a mechanical pencil. Thank goodness for museums when it’s cold outside.

I Wish There Were Good Subjects To Sketch Where I Live

Posted on January 3, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Raise your hand if you haven’t heard this, or something similar said/written by someone in a sketching/art forum. In the writing world the questions that authors joke about is “Where do you get your ideas?” and the answers run from horribly snarky to absolutely hilarious – often it’s hard to tell which is which. But in the end, what authors explain is “Ideas are easy; it’s execution that is the hard part.”

And similarly, this “Where do you find good stuff to draw?” question should get a similar treatment in my view. I don’t mean the snarky part but the truth is, the best way to find good stuff to draw is to stop looking for good stuff to draw.

Just like a writer’s ideas, finding good stuff is the easy part; it’s the execution that is important. I think people spend so much time looking for the perfect scene because they believe that a ‘perfect scene’ does great art make. I say that’s not true, though I confess, I’m not much of an artist so maybe I’m wrong.

But I do know one thing for sure. Trying to do a drawing of the Taj Mahal or the Grand Canyon that doesn’t look like yet another picture of the Taj Mahal or Grand Canyon is MUCH harder than creating a meaningful drawing of something that the viewer hasn’t seen in a gazillion photos before they see your sketch. Don’tcha want to show people what they’re missing, not what they’ve already seen?

Think about the famous painters and what they found worthy of their time. Monet painted in Paris but instead of a steady stream of Eiffel Tower and Arc de Triomphe paintings, he painted gardens, smoky railroad stations, fishing boats, and water lilies. Van Gogh painted peasants sitting around a table eating potatoes. He also painted sunflowers. Lots of sunflowers. What made Monet and Van Gogh memorable wasn’t their subject matter; it is what they did with it.

And so it goes with sketching. Everywhere, anywhere, and at any time, there are things to sketch available to anyone with a set of functioning eyes and a pencil. Personally, I’m drawn to the mundane, mostly because I never noticed any of this stuff before I became a sketcher. Once I became one I was amazed at how much personality fire hydrants, telephone poles, and lamp posts have and how, if one looks one can see ‘art’ in everything.

I’ve scattered several sketches of mundane, readily available subjects from my town. I never would have seen or sketched any of them if I’d been looking for the proverbial ‘great scene.’ So again I suggest, stop looking and instead sketch what is before you. If nothing else you’ll be sketching and it’s that process that is the key to the smiles you see on sketcher’s faces.

Samourai Sketching in Quebec – Urban Sketching?

Posted on December 18, 2012 by Larry Marshall

The Urban Sketcher’s ‘manifesto’ is quite clear: “We draw on location, indoors or out, capturing what we see from direct observation.” I’m a diehard location sketcher. I do sometimes sketch from photos or just doodle from things my two functional neurons cough up. But I can’t really get into that sort of thing very much.

I like to draw buildings, fire hydrants, telephone poles, trashcans and vehicles, but this time of year, outdoors is inhospitable in Quebec City, at least for an Arizona cowboy like myself. For example, it’s currently 24F (-5C) with 35kmh winds just for good measure. So, the things I have available to sketch for the next few months are going to be indoors.

One of my favorite places is the Musee de la Civilisation here in Quebec. Nice ambiance, lots of things to sketch, and it’s warm. The people are also very friendly towards sketchers, which puts one at ease. So, you’ll see lots of museum sketches from me this winter.

And here are a couple more. I went to the museum last Sunday with three of my sketching buddies and we had a great time. As we were there in the morning I decided to give the Samourai exhibit my attention. Often it’s just too busy to sketch there as it’s the current ‘feature’ display, but on Sunday mornings there aren’t a lot of visitors.

Koshozan sujibachi kabuto (1588) – This is a very rare piece, constructed with 120, riveted plates. It bears the crest of the Inabi family, a very influential family of the 16th Century.

It is a dark room, with most of the Samourai armor in lighted glass cases. Sketching in the dark is an interesting challenge and more than once I had to walk to a light to see if I was doing ok with the sketch. I’ve got to get a little clip-on light I guess. These little excursions became more frequent when I was trying to figure out whether the watercolor pencil was red, orange or brown (grin).

Nagaeboshinari kabuto (Edo 17th Century) – This appears to be hammered bronze. It features the Big Dipper constellation inset into the metalwork.

These helmets were done in a Stillman & Birn Epsilon series sketchbook (5.5×8.5) using a Pilot Prera and Noodler’s Lex Gray ink. I have a handful of Faber-Castell watercolor pencils that I used to color them. I’m guessing but I think I only have 30 or so more helmets to sketch. Then I can move on to the rest of the armor, the weapons, the guys on horses. It’s going to be a fun, long winter. Where do you find your sketching inspiration during winter?

Kum Long-Point Pencil Sharpener

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Larry Marshall

This is my new toy and it is quickly becoming a favorite. The Kum “long-point” sharpener is just plain KEWL! It solves so many problems for those of us who like to use pencils and need a portable solution to sharpening them.

While there are many portable sharpeners on the market, most of them produce a really stubby point that I don’t find satisfactory for sketching. I like nice, long points, like I get from my old ‘school’ sharpener that’s attached to the wall of my office.

The Kum sharpener provides a long point by using a two-step process. There is one ‘sharpener’ that removes only the wood, exposing a length of lead (graphite/clay). Then, you stuff the pencil into a second sharpener that sharpens the lead to a nice, long point. It’s almost magical.

Isn’t that great? If that’s all it did it would be the best $5.60 I’ve ever spent, but this is like the TV commercials….there’s more.

This sharpener will sharpen 2mm and 3.2mm leads. I’d nearly abandoned my collection of 2mm pencils simply because I couldn’t find a solid, portable sharpening solution for them. They used to make really tiny versions of the standard sharpener that would sharpen them but I haven’t found anyone selling those anymore, probably because all draftsmen have long ago moved on to using AutoCAD or SolidWorks. But the Kum sharpener does a great job on my 2mm pencils. I don’t have any 3.2mm pencils but I assume they’d work as well as there are nearly identical sharpeners on opposite sides of the device.

If you need to sharpen pencils on location, take a serious look at the Kum sharpener. It may be the best $5.60 you ever spent too. If you don’t need to sharpen 2mm or 3.2mm leads, you can even get one without those features for $4.10. Both of these prices are from Jet Pens, which is where I got my sharpener. BTW, the pencils in the photos are Blackwing 602s, my favorite wooden pencil.