Sketching Too Quickly

Posted on February 14, 2016 by Larry Marshall

I’ve found it amazing to watch the likes of Veronica Lawlor drawing dancers. It always seemed impossible. Then my friend Yvan started attending sessions at our museum where dancers and choreographers were practicing. The drawings he was producing were spectacular. I kept saying “Maybe I’ll come along” and always I chickened out. As a slow [understatement alert] sketcher this seemed impossible and I guess I was trying to avoid the frustration.

But I finally did attend one of those sessions with Yvan and two things became clear. The first was that I was right. It IS impossible. The second thing was a big surprise. I loved it and can’t wait to do it again. My sketches are sloppy and barely look like the women I sketched. One woman was wearing a huge African head scarf and she had bells covered with scarves on her ankles.

In all, I covered 14 pages with scribbles. Some of them look almost like people and I’ve never moved my pen so quickly, never strained my visual memory so much and after two hours I was completely exhausted. I could improve them by adding some shading but the point of the exercise was to draw quickly, without the time to think about it so I thought I’d present these as they were done, in the moment…in a moment.

I did some sketches of spectators. They didn’t move so much.

The rest of these came as a blur, or so it seemed at the time. If you squint a lot you might enjoy them. An open mind and closed eyes might be the best approach (grin). I can’t wait to do it again.

Sketching Quebec City From Levis

Posted on February 11, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Recently I wrote about Yvan and I crossing the St. Lawrence so we could sketch the Quebec City skyline. I mentioned that we were disappointed by the lack of sun that made it difficult to see the buildings clearly in the low-contrast light.

Of course we do quick sketches as we cross on the ferry. Here’s one example – A Girl On a Boat (alias A Girl On a Phone).

Undaunted by that experience, we watched weather forecasts and, on a day that was supposed to be sunny, we boarded the ferry and headed to the south shore of the St. Lawrence. That sounds too much like we took a trip. The ferry ride is no more than 10 minutes and half of that is waiting as they dock the ship. We scurried off the board and into the terminal, which is a nice, warm place from which to look at Quebec City.

Apparently, Mother Nature doesn’t read weather forecasts because there was no sun but we sketched anyway. As we were leaving it started to snow.

Fabriano Artistico CP, Platinum Carbon Black, Platinum 3776

Look Outside Sketching

Posted on February 7, 2016 by Larry Marshall

Doo doo doo lookin’ out my back door. – Credence Clearwater Revival

Looking Out My Backdoor was one of the craziest songs CCR ever created. It won gold and platinum records, made you happy when you heard it, and the lyrics made no sense whatever.

Sometimes my sketching is like that and no more so than when I went sketching with Yvan at the museum chapel where we’ve been sketching lately. Due to circumstance, mostly beyond my control, I arrived at the chapel really late. Yvan was well into his sketching and so I looked around for something to draw quickly in the remaining time.

Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

There are windows that look out on a large courtyard, with beautiful seminary buildings encircling it. I’ve drawn their roofs and steeples in the past. But today everything was covered with featureless snow, so there wasn’t much to draw. I decided to sketch the entrance on the other side of the courtyard. Then, I drew the only other thing sticking up from the white landscape – a bicycle and trash can. See what I mean? Just like the CCR song, the sketches make little sense but they made me very happy. Hope they make you smile too.

Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Sketching Winter People

Posted on February 5, 2016 by Larry Marshall

At piano recital – Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

As an urban sketcher, I guess I’m an odd one as my least favorite subject is the human. I don’t know what it is but I don’t find them that interesting. Maybe that will change some day but for now, my people sketching is done more out of desperation for something to draw when it’s too cold to sit on the streets and draw architecture.

Guy waiting for light to change – Zebra 701 ballpoint.

And so it is these days so I’ve been doing some people sketching. I thought I’d share a few of those sketches, done in small notebooks. They’re done quickly and, I’m afraid, not very well but that’s what happens when you don’t practice. Maybe I’ll be better before spring shows up.

Standing on street corner, Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Drawing people in ads on TV – Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

People waiting to order at McDonalds – Platinum 3776, Platinum Carbon Black

Urban Sketcher Goes Rogue

Posted on February 1, 2016 by Larry Marshall

I’m an urban sketcher, or at least almost everything I draw is done ‘on location’ – drawing what I see. I’ve not be too interested in ‘expressive’ or abstract drawing. I’m not into adult coloring books. I just draw stuff and wandering my city looking for things to draw is part of my equation.

But it’s winter here in Quebec and while it’s amazingly warm for us at the beginning of February our high temps are still in the -10 range so sketching on the street, my usual location, isn’t really practical. I know that Nina Johansson uses vodka so her paints don’t freeze but I’m an old Arizona boy and I’d have to consume a lot of vodka to keep myself from freezing.

And so, this is the time of year when I start drawing people in coffee shops, restaurants and at the library. This is a time when I draw in our museums. This is the time of year when I’ll draw the occasional cast drawing in an attempt to improve my ability to see halftones and to render objects.

One thing I’ve never done in art was to make stuff up. I’ve done it as a writer but I haven’t felt that I had sufficient handle on form, light and shade, and the rest to conjour drawings from my memory. Yvan keeps telling me that I should develop that ability as it helps so much when drawing on location but, well, I haven’t done so.

Until yesterday. I was playing with creating some watercolor backgrounds for doing ink sketches on to of them and when my brain looked at the bright Quin Gold blob I’d put in the middle, I saw a ‘tall mountain island fortress’ and so I started drawing. It was a feeble effort, but an effort nonetheless, to draw something from my imagination. I had fun and will probably do this some more.