Have You Ever Gone Sketch Floating?

Posted on April 14, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Saturday was 39th Worldwide Sketchcrawl day and we held ours here in Quebec City. Unlike most parts of the world we’re still cold this time of year. In fact, we just got six inches of snow. But we were fortunate to have anticipated an unfriendly weather and scheduled our sketchcrawl so that we could be inside or out and still have fun.

This is a model of the ferry boat we were on all day.

We all met at the ferry boat dock and then spent the day going back and forth across the St. Lawrence River (takes about 10 minutes) between Quebec City and Levis, the town on the other side. There are actually two ferries and they change places from their respective sides of the St. Lawrence every 30 minutes.

Claudette, talking with one of the passengers

And the situation couldn’t have been better for sketching. It was too cold to go out onto the decks, at least for me, but inside the first-class passenger area it was warm and accommodating. The area is complete with toilette facilities, drink and snack vending machines, and comfy chairs. We were surrounded by large windows, complete with slightly sloped ‘shelves’ for us to rest our sketchbooks as we sketched outdoor scenes. Both sides of the St. Lawrence present great views of interesting architecture and there were things nautical all around us.

Susanne, showing proper use of the window “studios” we were provided.

The line up: Pierre, Celine, and Katherine

The line up: Pierre, Celine, and Catherine

Yvan, taking a break while talking with Peter.

Yvan, taking a break while talking with Jean-Marc.

We had ten people show up for the sketchcrawl and a lot of sketching got done. The one sad thing, for me, is that some didn’t seem to ‘get’ the notion that group sketching is a social event that should include a sharing of sketches as well as conversations about them. Some left without even saying goodbye. So, unfortunately, I don’t have the typical group-sketch photos and I don’t have sketches from other people to share.

Here’s a photo I took over Claudette’s shoulder. The quality of her sketches is surpassed only by her bubbly personality.

Of course, I do have my own sketches. This first one is a small sketch I did as an experiment, which demonstrated that I didn’t know what I was doing (grin). I tried to ‘draw’ the sketch using watercolors, adding some ink lines afterwards. It was done in a Stillman & Birn Alpha (4×6) sketchbook. I have much to learn about using watercolors.

I did two other sketches, one from the front and the other from the back of the boat. Both were done with my new TWSBI Mini and Noodler’s Lexington Gray ink. I really enjoyed working in my new Stillman & Birn Zeta (5.5×8.5) sketchbook. I hope these sketches reflect the cold, dreary day you see in the accompanying photo.

New Stillman & Birn Blog and Sketchbook Giveaway

Posted on April 2, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Recently I did a quick review the new Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbooks and I’ve repeatedly extolled the virtues of their entire product line, to which I am very much addicted.

So, I’m more than a little bit excited that they’ve decided to open their own blog, On Paper. They’ve had a Facebook page for a long time but Facebook has major problems with graphics and they seem unwilling to do anything to fix it so it’s nice to see S&B moving to blog technology to present great sketches done on great paper and to talk about their products.

That’s not all the Stillman & Birn news, however. They’re giving away ten of their new Zeta sketchbooks. All you’ve got to do is send them your name to enter. You can see details here, as well as the email address.

Spring Sketching Has Begun…Almost

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Larry Marshall

On Good Friday I met with Claudette and Yvan at the Musee de la Civilisation to sketch but we were facing a day that seemed enticingly warm. When I type that I have to chuckle. I’m an Arizona guy so for me to say that a high temperature around 40F is warm is, well, an exaggeration that comes from a brain that’s spent the last few months without sketching outdoors.

We sketched indoors and packed up around noon. I did this sketch during that session. I sort of screwed up the eyes somewhat but it was fun doing this sketch anyway. With a rock wall for a beard and hat, what’s not to like? It was done in an S&B Epsilon (5.5×8.5), with a Pilot Prera and Lexington Gray ink.

Then, Yvan and I headed downtown where one of his friends was sitting in a window, sketching people on the street who were willing to pose for ten minutes. That was fun to watch, for a while, but I got cold just standing around and I decided it was time to head home. And so I did.

When I arrived home my wife and daughter were out shopping so I decided I’d wander the neighborhood and see if I could sketch something outdoors. After all, it WAS 42F!!

I’ve walked by this building many times and have said “I’ve got to sketch that” an equal number of times. It was built in 1927 but today was the day it was going to be sketched. Besides, I wanted to try out my new Stillman & Birn Zeta sketchbook. I used my Pilot Prera/Lex Gray combo and, because I had my museum stuff with me, I used watercolor pencils to do the color. I was uncomfortably cold towards the end but clearly spring sketching is about to begin and I’m getting excited. Sorry that much of the light blue in the sky and in the snow got lost in the scanning process.

Stillman & Birn Zeta Sketchbooks Have Arrived

Posted on March 27, 2013 by Larry Marshall

Yippee!! Stillman & Birn’s new Zeta series sketchbooks have been released. Double-yippee – mine was plopped into my mailbox this morning.

I’ve been using Stillman & Birn sketchbooks since December 2011, when I bought my first Alpha series sketchbook. I rarely brand any product ‘best’ as, for me, product choices shouldn’t be spoken of in that way. Stillman & Birn is my one exception to that view as they are simply the best. While I still experiment with pens, inks, and even watercolors, I no longer buy any sketchbook that doesn’t have Stillman & Birn embossed on the its back.

Mostly I have used Alpha series sketchbooks. I have 4×6, 5.5×8.5, and 9×12 hardbound and 10×7 spiral bound versions of this series and several of them rest, full of sketches, on my shelves. I’ve also filled a 6×8 Beta series sketchbook, which is its heavier-paper counterpart.

This winter, however, I started using a 5.5×8.5 Epsilon series book. I’ve had a 9×12 version of this series on my desk for a long time and use it as my learning platform as I can do a lot of small sketches on a single page when trying various techniques.

If you’ve seen any of my museum sketches (eg – Samurai helmets, Nigerian masks and statues), you’ve seen the results of ink and watercolor pencils on Epsilon paper. Here’s my latest sketch in my current Epsilon 5.5×8.5 sketchbook. Epsilon paper is simply awesome for ink and wash as the paper is very smooth and double-sized which makes the watercolors remain bright. I just love the stuff.

So when S&B announced that they were going to create Epsilon-like paper in their heavier, 180lb format, I got very excited. While the 100lb paper of the Alpha and Epsilon papers are more than up to the task of accepting my watercolors, there are times when I want to play with wet-in-wet in a bigger way and the 180lb papers are just amazing for such purposes.

Here’s the first sketch I did on this paper. It was done rather quickly as “spring” in Quebec is still pretty cold so it’s not as detailed as most of my building sketches. It’s a sketch of my favorite tea store. I’ll be showing you more sketches on Zeta paper ‘real soon’ as it should start warming up in the days ahead. Thanks, Stillman & Birn for making my sketching life easier.