Sketching Tiny Town

Posted on July 5, 2013 by Larry Marshall

The Ursuline Convent in Quebec City was founded in 1639, which makes it the earliest learning institution for woman in North America. It’s also seems that they owned half the old city at one point. Ok…maybe that’s an exaggeration but they owned a lot of land and buildings and still do. But most of the private residences and some of the other large buildings have been sold off. The curent compound is home to the convent, a school, and it’s a popular tourist stop.

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One of the private residences still held by the Ursulines is this place. I’m not sure how big it is but it’s got to have the smallest entrances of any on Quebec. Its unique nature made it a great sketching subject, though gray on gray isn’t the ideal color scheme, I suppose.

The building on the left if the Ursuline library and museum. If you get to Quebec City, be sure to visit, if only to talk to the very nice people who work there. After we were done sketching, they let us browse through their library where we found several books used to teach drawing to students. While I’ve yet to tour the museum, they told me that there is a section on how drawing was taught to students. I’ve got to get back there to see that.

I did the sketch in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook using a TWSBI Mini with Platinum Carbon Black ink. I added some color… well, gray… with W&N artist watercolors.

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Sketching Between Rain Days

Posted on July 1, 2013 by Larry Marshall

We’re still getting more rain than we should and certainly more rain than I want. But we got a weekend that only started under rain and high winds. We ended up with slightly damp conditions and warm temperatures. There was this scary yellow ball in the sky. Not sure what that was but it seemed harmless enough.

Yvan and I took advantage and we went to Artillery Park, an area in old Quebec City that has a bunch of old military buildings and fortifications. It’s also where a munitions factory operated until 1964. Now the large buildings are museums surrounded with park areas, cannons and high walls – a great place to sketch. And we did.

I sketched a building called Redoubte Dauphine. It’s an impressive structure and I set up at the base of it, sitting on the edge of a parking lot. I sort of botched the perspective by placing a couple lines incorrectly. As I didn’t want to restate them in their correct locations, I made the best of it and finished it with the wonky angles. Do me a favor and squint a lot when you look at the sketch. Maybe you won’t notice (grin). The sketch was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook with a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray.

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It was very hazy and cloudy so I decided to return to add color/details, when there was some sun to provide contrast. I packed up and went looking for Yvan. I located him, sitting high above me on a wall. In fact, I noticed that you can see him as a tiny orange blotch on the right of the photo above. He was sketching something and I thought it’d be fun to do a quick sketch of him. I did it in my Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) with a Pilot Prera and Platinum Carbon Black.

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I climbed the hill you see in the first sketch and entered a tiny park area associated with what was once an officer’s quarters. I liked the shape of the end of that building and so quickly sketched it. Same small sketchbook; same pen/ink.

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2013-06-29OldBuildingSite The eastern edge of Artillery Park is bordered by an old rock fence. On the other side of it there’s a grand old apartment building that’s no longer inhabited and, sadly, it’s crumbling from neglect. It pokes its second story above the rock wall and I liked the view, of the back of the building and so I sketched it. Same sketchbook, same pen, same fun experience. Every sketching day is a great day.

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The Summer Rush To Sketch

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I waited so long for it to come. Now summer is here and I’ve been sketching up a storm. I’ve also forgotten to post anything on my blog so consider this a catch-up post.

I do some sketching on buses, though I find them too bumpy and bouncy for my untrained eye and hand. Still, here’s one of the many sketches I’ve done of seated passengers. I do these in a small, cheap sketchbook I buy at the dollar store.

I love boats and our marina is, once again, full of boats. Most are sailboats but this one is one of my favorites. This one was done in an S&B Alpha (10×7) with a TWSBI Mini and Platinum Carbon Black ink.

I was at my mother-in-law’s 3rd floor apartment for dinner one night and after dinner I went out on the balcony and got this birds-eye view of a tall church steeple. This church is going to be turned into an indoor skateboard place this fall. S&B Alpha (4×6) with TWSBI Mini/Platinum Carbon Black.

This is a paper mill that’s near the old port area in Quebec City. It’s been the center of brisk debate where one day it was going to close and the next it wasn’t. So far it’s stayed open and they seem to be doing well.

Those are a few of the sketches I’ve done recently. I’ll try to remember to post some more but heck, it’s summer. Around here, when the sun’s out, you go out cuz it doesn’t happen all that often.

Holiday Weekend Sketching

Posted on May 25, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Last Friday was a crazy day, with trying to fit X hours of work into fewer than X hours of available time. But I was desperate enough to get it done cuz Saturday was the beginning of three days of good weather and SKETCHING!!!!

Saturday I hopped a bus for the other side of town as I’d convinced my buddy Yvan that we ‘needed’ to sketch Maison Gomin. This is a castle-like building that used to be a woman’s prison. It’s now a funeral/crematorium place that drips money inside. Seems there’s a lot of money in dead people. Anyway, this sketch represents one end of the building. The dragon sits on top of the other end, guarding the princess. It was done in my Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook. I used a TWSBI Mini and Platinum Carbon Black.

Sunday morning Yvan and I headed the the north part of the city and we sketched an old mill (17th Century) built and operated by Jesuits. It’s now a historical landmark.

It was done in the same sketchbook with the same pen. It suffers a bit from a change of heart on my part. When I laid out the sketch I thought I’d let the end of the smaller building run off the page to the right. But later I decided I wanted the end of it in the sketch and thought I could do that by simply shortening it. I did that but the proportions of the building made it look odd, but then most of my sketches are odd so I guess it fits.

As we were packing up I decided to do this quick sketch of a sundial which is unlike any I’d seen before. It’s a tiny sketch, done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6). I used Lexington Gray in a Noodler’s Creaper to draw it. Color was quickly applied by waterbrushes filled with very, very dilute ink.

Monday I was going to stay home and work but I got the itch to sketch some more and so I wandered downtown. I realized that I had never sketched the Musee de la Civilisation, where I spent the winter sketching. So I took the opportunity and did this sketch of the left end of the museum complex. Back to the S&B Alpha (10×7) for this one and the TWSBI Mini, though I switched to Noodler’s Lexington Gray for ink. I prefer the dark gray lines to the stark black of Platinum Carbon Black.

All and all, it was a great weekend, with good weather, good company, and a great time sketching. I’m still thinking about it as this week it’s been raining almost constantly 🙁

A Bit of Urban Sketching

Posted on May 13, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Just as spring had sprung and it was starting to be warm enough to sketch outdoors, yours truly decided it was time to get sick. I spent more than a week feeling pretty bad, made all the worse by coming home one day to find water dripping from our first-floor ceiling. I still have a hole in the ceiling to fix but the pipes are holding water again.

Before getting sick, though, I did get out with my buddy Yvan and we rode our bikes on an adventure into Beauport, a suburb of Quebec City. We sketched this house, which I liked very much. I used my Pilot Prera for this one. Same Noodler’s Lexington Gray I normally use.

I did stop in the old city one day as I was returning from French school and I made this sketch in a Stillman & Birn Zeta (5.5×8.5) sketchbook, using a TWSBI Mini and Noodler’s Lexington Gray.

And so, as the weekend approached, and my energy had come back, I was chomping at the bit to go sketching. Mother Nature had other ideas and it rained all day Saturday. Yvan and I went sketching anyway. We headed to the Musee de la Civilisation and while it’s between major exhibitions, it was at least warm and dry and we figured we could find something to sketch there.

What we found was a small exhibit of architectural models of classic structures that were part of old Paris. I chose to sketch Cabaret Le Chat, one of the popular hot spots on the north side of Paris. The model was about 15″ high and fairly well-done, though the building to the right of it lacked any detail, which is how I drew it. Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook and TWSBI Mini fountain pen. I had switched up the ink and was using Platinum Carbon Black.

When we finished there it was still raining and we decided that we should board the ferry that goes between Quebec City and Levis, across the St. Lawrence River. The ferry has a nice, cozy passenger area with big windows and we figured we could sketch from there. We hadn’t included the heavy mist/fog in our calculations as you could hardly see the other side of the river, only a few hundred yards away.

So, we just rode across, got off, and decided to sketch out the windows of the ferry building, catching the next boat (30 minutes) for our return. I still have problems sketching while holding a sketchbook in one hand, pen in the other. I generally perch my sketchbook on my knee or on a table if one is available. I also have trouble walking and chewing gum at the same time so maybe it’s just too much for my brain to hold one item (sketchbook) still while moving another (pen) around. This sketch suffers from a case of the wobbles and the fact that I was working quicker than my normal glacial pace. I did this it in a small Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) with the same TWSBI Mini and Platinum Carbon Black. Color comes from some quick swipes with Faber-Castell watercolor pencils.

I went sketching. It was a wet day, but a good day.