This little scene is in Victoria Park, near my home in Quebec City. As it’s my favorite subject, I had to sketch it. The sign on the tall post is to let people know where the hydrant is when everything is covered in snow.
Stillman & Birn Beta (7×7 spiral)
Here it is, the middle of May, and we’re still having a hard time getting outdoors in Quebec City because of cool weather and a lot of rain. But it happened. In fact, we had a bright, hot summer day on the 16th and our little sketching group took advantage of it. We headed to an older part of the city where they have alleyways.
Alleyways provide sort of grungy views but views with lots of shapes that make for great sketching subjects. I just love them. In this scene you’ll find two large “towers.” These are actually enclosed stairways, loosely constructed but effective in keeping the snow off the stairs. They are very common in these neighborhoods. I had a lot of fun doing this one.
Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10), Pilot Falcon, DeAtramentis Document Black
When I was a kid I remember Howdy-Doody and Buffalo Bob, Captain Kangaroo, and Sheri Lewis and Lamp Chop. When my daughter was little she watched Mister Rogers and Sesame Street. Kid shows with a mix of adult and puppet characters have always been popular.
A show I never did see was very popular in Quebec and involved Bobinette, a wooden-headed puppet, and Bobino, a guy sporting a vest and bowler hat. I’d heard of Bobinette but never seen her until, because of rain (again) we were forced into the museum. A new display provided some insight into this early TV show and provided a chance to draw her. The show was called Bobino and ran from 1957 to 1985. Bobinette was Bobino’s sister. Isn’t she a doll?
Stillman & Birn Beta (8×10)
I’m trying to figure out watercolors. My use of them over the past few years has been very childlike. I look at the subject and I put blue where blue should go, green where green should go, red where…., well you get the picture. I’ve been careful to always paint within the lines.
More recently I’ve started thinking about shading and such but still, I often envy those who are far more loose with their color interpretations. I don’t really know how far I want to move in that direction but the other night I was watching baseball and I’d drawn a facade from my imagination in a cheap toned sketchbook. While the paper was not good for watercolors, I decided to play a bit so I sat on the couch, legs curled up Kelly Ann Conway style, and I started adding colors. I couldn’t work wet in wet as the paper wouldn’t allow it but this is what I came up with. I liked it.
The next day I decided to try the same thing on a piece of Fabriano Artistico CP. I started by wetting the entire facade and then dropped in blobs (see how I’ve mastered the technical terminology?) of paint to sort of mimic what I’d done the day before. Again I was pretty happy with the results. It looks like no facade I’ve ever seen but I felt it created an ambiance that suggested light coming from the windows… or something. Anyway, I felt these experiments were successful and I will pursue more of them. What do you think? How do you learn to do this sort of painting? I sure don’t know.
Besides yelling at the sky because of all the rain we’ve been getting (parts of Quebec are considered disaster areas because of the flooding), I’ve been struggling with arthritis in my drawing hand. The two things are related because low barometric pressure triggers my arthritic problems. Regularly I think of Babette, in Gilmore Girls as she runs down the street saying “It’s gonna rain, my ankles are never wrong” as I’m in the same boat it seems.
But I did get out one damp, cool day. It was only 7C with on/off misty rain but I was out walking and decided to do a quick drawing just to say I did. Here’s one of the side entrances to our city hall building. I hope things get on track soon so I can get out and do some real sketching.
Stillman & Birn Beta (7×7), Pilot Falcon