Rain and Wind – Will It Ever Stop?

Posted on June 30, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Yvan and I were supposed to go sketching but it was very windy and rain was threatening. Since the new Paris exhibit had opened at our Musee de la Civilisation, we headed there instead. They have some great vehicles there that I want to sketch but geez they’re complicated.

This one is a 3-wheeled steam-powered vehicle produced by Dion-Bouton in 1885. It just oozes ‘cool’ in my opinion, but I’m sort of biased towards anything that’s steam-powered. Clearly a vehicle that would be comfortable putting around in a steampunk novel.

This was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7) sketchbook using a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray ink. It provided a great hour and a half of fun. Hope you like it.

Cheers — Larry

The 40th Worldwide Sketchcrawl On July 13th

Posted on June 29, 2013 by Larry Marshall

The 40th Worldwide Sketchcrawl has been scheduled for Quebec City. I hope you can make it to this event, which is anticipated to be our best ever, and with good reason. We’re going to meet near the St. Jean Gate into the old city and sketch in the rue D’auteuil – Artillery Park area. Lots of people to sketch, lots of great architecture, and some really nice park areas if you want to sketch trees or just sit and enjoy the ambiance.

DATE: Saturday, July 13, 2013
TIME: 10:00 to about 15:30
LOCATION: rue D’Auteuil – Artillery Park near the St-Jean Gate
COST: Free unless it rains as we’ll all run for the Artillery Park museum (see below) which costs $4.

DETAILS:

We’ll meet near the St. Jean Gate and begin sketching at 10AM. Around mid-day, we’ll break for lunch, have fun seeing everyone’s sketches, and have the inevitable sketching discussions. Those who arrive late and those who remain with us for the afternoon will sketch until around 15:30, when we can once again enjoy each other’s sketches.

This is a sketch I did of the Artillery Park Museum entrance, which is just inside the St. Jean Gate.

The weather will be beautiful, I just know it will … but otherwise we will gather in the Artillery Park Museum. We’ll have to pay the $4 entry fee but they have agreed to allow us to sketch the museum holdings.

Celine Poulin and Yvan Breton are the organizers and we all hope to see you out sketching with us! Please invite your friends, and feel free to circulate this invitation!

Paris In Quebec City…Sort of.

Posted on June 28, 2013 by Larry Marshall

The Musee de la Civilisation launched its new Paris 1889-1920s exhibit by holding a special grand opening on a Tuesday evening. As I’m a member I got an invitation and Yvan and I decided to go. We saw it more as a reconnoitering session than anything else so our plan was to quickly run through the exhibit, noting what would be good to sketch. This exhibit will be one of our principle sketching subjects this winter.

We decided, though, that we should go early enough that we could sketch in the old port for a couple hours before the event and that’s what we did. We sat in Place Royale, a tourist hot-spot and boy, were there tourists. Because of our lousy weather it didn’t seem like summer to us until we looked at the sea of people. So, we looked up and I sketched this roof line over the heads of the tourists. Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Pilot Prera and Lex Gray ink.

When we finished up we still had some time and we wandered into a place adjacent to Place Royale that has a cannon battery pointing out at the St. Lawrence, to protect Place Royale from the tourist and ferry boats. This is the gate into the place but from the inside, looking out. I felt a bit rushed so it got a bit wonky but I like the sketch nevertheless. Same sketchbook and pen/ink combo for this one.

When A Sketcher Sees Red

Posted on June 26, 2013 by Larry Marshall

I have a bottle f J. Herbin 1670, a dark red that’s not waterproof. I’m not exactly sure what to do with it but I decided that I should experiment with using it for sketching. I loaded up my Wahl-Eversharp Symphony with the ink and while watching baseball I doodled a bit, creating this page in a Strathmore ‘toned gray’ sketchbook. Wish the paper was better but for pen-only work it’s not bad.

I’ve been playing around with this color as a street sketching color and I’m not sure how well that will work out but I sketched this window and lamp as sort of a test. Same Strathmore gray paper.

While riding the ferry to another event I did this small sketch of one of those tie-off thingies (sorry for my use of technical terms). For some things I can see this color being fun to play with but I won’t be giving up my bottle of Lexington Gray anytime soon.

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.