Urban Sketcher Communes With Nature

I had a wonderful time last Saturday.  I was invited to the house of long-time friend, Pierre Therrien, along with two other sketching buddies, one of them being Pierre’s constant companion and main squeeze, Celine.

I picked Yvan up and we headed to Pierre’s house, which is just south of the North Pole, I think.  We drove and drove and drove.  Pierre lives in a forest.  His home looks out on gorgeous forested landscape areas and is near Jacques Cartier River, a very sketch-ogenic river.  It is a sketcher’s dream.

We spent the first hour chatting about everything and anything and spent some time drooling over his art library.  Then we decided that maybe sketching time was wasting away so we headed outside and broke out the pointy devices.  Yvan, Celine and Pierre set up in front of the house to draw the ‘paysage’ that splays out in front of it and ends with a backdrop of the Laurentian mountains which, to a Rocky Mountain guy like myself, have always more resembled hills than mountains.  Everything’s relative, I guess, and so are mountains.

2013-07-06_Larry-chez-Pierre_St-Gabriel-Valcartier_4_smBut I’m an urban sketcher so I started wandering around.  I found myself in a far corner of a field, looking back at Pierre’s house.  Photo is courtesy of Yvan.  You can see that I was very comfy as I had a full chair rather than my stool.

All alone was I, except for the curious ants, too many biting flies and a Theridid spider.  I tried to strike up a conversation with the spider but she didn’t say much.  She just glared at me for plunking my chair down so close to her web.

Here’s the view I had and the partially completed sketch:

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I had decided to try out my new Uniball UM-151 (.28mm) pen on Stillman & Birn Alpha paper and I’ve concluded that it’s a wonderful combination.  I’m going to be ordering some more of them ‘real soon.’

After lunch I returned to my perch, with the addition of a portable umbrella that shaded me from what was now a very hot sun.  I completed the ink sketch and added color, using a waterbrush and W&N artist colors.  I’m a hack watercolorists but I’ve got to get back to using real brushes.  Here’s the finished sketch:

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