More Museum Sketching

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I’m still doing sketching at our museum in what is, for me, lightning speed. It’s funny to write that as I regularly do 1-2 minute sketches but those are quick ‘grabs’ at some subject. In this case I’m trying to rush my way through sketches while retaining a semblance of accuracy and detail.

Stillman & Birn Beta, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

I can’t say I’m successful but it’s sort of like the 1-minute, single-line drawing exercises I’m doing in response to a Marc Taro Holmes workshop; it’s a sketching time frame that’s teaching me things and helping me visualize proportions quickly and helps me prioritize what’s important and what is not. If 1-minute single-line sketches are the 100-yard dash, these are more like the 3k run and in contrast to my normal sketching which is akin to a marathon. I did all these sketches in about an hour. At the rate I’m going, I predict that I’ll have sketching figured out by the time I hit 130.

Stillman & Birn Alpha, Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Citroen 2-CV

Posted on September 16, 2015 by Larry Marshall

The Citroen 2-CV (deux chevaux-vapeur), is something of a blast from the past. While not made in production numbers until after WWII, it was designed in the 30s to move a couple adults at a whopping 37 mph along French dirt roads. I don’t know if they ever made it to the US but I never saw one until I came to Quebec and even here, the only ones I’ve seen are display items at a large restaurant. But they smack of a pre-Volkswagon where inexpensive cars were kept light, low-powered and without power everything.

I went with Claudette to the north side of the city because she wanted to draw a large bear statue. When we got there I found the 2-CV and knew what I had to do. The subject I was looking at was painted bright red with white polka dots. Why they had insulted this vehicle in this way is beyond me but I colored the sketch in more traditional colors.

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10x7), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Namiki Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black

Wedded Sketching Bliss

Posted on August 28, 2015 by Larry Marshall

My wife and I have been together for nearly 30 years and married for 28 of them. There have been a lot of potholes on our road through life but I can count on one hand the number of big arguments we’ve had. It’s uncanny as I’m impossible to live with – at least I couldn’t do it.

But last week we went sketching together. It’s not the first time but it hasn’t been a regular event either. We put together picnic food and headed to the Plains of Abraham to sit in the shade and enjoy a perfect day. It was a glorious day.

Stillman & Birn Beta (10x7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Alpha (10×7), Namiki Falcon, De Atramentis Document Black

I drew a tree. It’s clear that I need more experience sketching trees. Still, it was fun and my wife was drawing a tree while sitting right next to me. Life was sweet.

Then it was lunch time and we chatted, watched squirrels and talked about sketching. What more could a guy want in life? Besides, the cheese and baguette were great.

We only had 25 minutes left on our parking time (grrr…grumble), so we decided to do another sketch. I wandered around a bit while she sat down to draw. I decided on this scene and rushed it a bit to fit it into the time frame and think I might return with more time and bigger sketchbook. This was done in a 3×5 Moleskine watercolor book.

A Caffeine Dose At Dose

Posted on April 11, 2015 by Larry Marshall

I’ve started going to a tiny coffee shop that’s in the high-rise district of Quebec City. The shop is called Dose, for reasons known only to them. The view is horrible for sketching but they have the best Café americano in the city.

Being an opportunistic sketcher, I thought I’d pull a Liz Steel and draw my cup. “Spring is slowly coming to Quebec City and I hope to be on the streets sketching in a week or so, ” he said optimistically.

Stillman & Birn Beta (6x8), Pilot Falcon SEF, De Atramentis Document Black

Stillman & Birn Beta (6×8), Pilot Falcon SEF, De Atramentis Document Black

Speed Drawing With Colored Pencil

Posted on March 17, 2015 by Larry Marshall

Last Sunday I headed out to our museum. We were in the midst of a blizzard and the snow was going sideways. On a couple occasions wind gusts caused me to go sideways as well. But I was walking through this mess because I’d told some friends I would meet them. Later I found out that the only reason they didn’t cancel was because they’d promised me. We humans are funny that way.

Previously I’ve expressed my boredom with drawing the heads of Olympus but there I was again, faced with numerous white, and now very familiar heads. I decided to try something new. I’d bought a Pentel 8-color mechanical pencil and decided to give it a try, using it while seeing how quickly I could grab a likeness of the heads.

It was a good plan with a couple flaws. First, I have little ability to do this but on a more pragmatic level, my sketchbook has too much tooth for soft pencil and the points wear down very quickly and second, I couldn’t find my sharpener. So a new experiment arose. Could I draw with a dull pointy device. The results are these 3″ heads drawn on Stillman & Birn Alpha paper.

Better drawings of marble heads have been drawn but I found this exercise fun and very helpful. It was fun to work quickly and doing so with these subjects forced me to identify the big features, ignore the details, and to emphasize the dark/light relationships. The dull point furthered that goal as it was impossible to get lost in detail when the drawing was 2″ square and the lead was rounded over 2mm colored pencil. I will be repeating this experiment but hopefully on something other than Olympic gods.