Jardin Botanique

One of the sketches from the last Urban Sketchers meet at the Botanical  Garden - the alpine gardens.
The paper seems to be hot press - don't know the name. I want to use all the paper I already have before buying more - at least in theory.

Color first, then some line. I am pleased with this one.

Portugal - part 2

I have 4 or 5 unfinished sketches from Lisbon that are still waiting to be done with. I mean these are all the sketches I managed to do there ....

This is the Se - the cathedral. I found a bench on the side and I sketched from there. The place is extremely crowded - people, tuk-tuks, trams, cars .... Impossible to sketch from the sidewalk - there are no sidewalks to speak of. A better vantage point would have been across from where I was sitting, but that was right in the middle of traffic ...

I tried different variations at home, hoping to find a better "recipe" to approach the subjects in the field. I don't have it yet, but I think I prefer the bottom sketch. It has more white space, even though the colors are dull. I have to keep reminding myself to use more water and leave the whites ....

Experiments

Sunday was the monthly meeting if the Urban Sketchers. Not the best day for outdoor sketching as it was windy and -2C in the morning. I did not last very long outside, I did not have enough layers.

In Fredericton I broke the moratorium on art supplies purchases and I bought 3 sketchbooks. Impulse purchases that I know regret...

The first one is Rendr - it is true that the color does not bleed, but the page has a plastic feel to it and it is definitely not good for watercolors. Gouache or acrylic might work better. I will probably use the Pentel pocket brush. I should have bought a watercolor pad instead ... 

This is a FLUID pad 4 x 6. This one works better with watercolors. I sketched the dome from across the street at de la Gauchetiere. - through the windows 0 until the security guard told me I cannot sketch there anymore...

I bought this notebook thinking that I will channel Lapin ...somehow, I doubt that will happen...

Afternoon at the museum

Last Saturday I walked to the MMFA and on the way I met Santa (the parade was in full swing when I got to Ste Catherine street) and stopped for lunch at Crudessence.

I tried to sketch the parade, but it did not work out very well - all I got where some arms bits of cookies and candy cane. So to remedy the situation, i sketched my lunch over - chlorophyll water, raw crepe Florentine with salad and a huge smoothie with sea blackthorn.

Sketches from the Beaver Hall Group Exhibition:

Patrons ...

Entre Ciel Et Terre

I keep passing by this bistro at least 3 times a week and yesterday I finally decided to give it a try. Nice little place, reclaimed wood planks on the wall, jazzy music. I was there early, but by the time I left, they were full.

I had a water brush filled with a mix of green and brown Dr Martens india ink ( I think ...) and few pencils.

Nouvelle France

Every year at the end of August, a small part of the Old Port becomes Nouvelle France. This is  the first time I went to try and sketch the costumes. It was harder than anticipated because of the crowds of people that interfered constantly with my view of the model. I managed few incomplete sketches.

My sketches kept growing on the page, it would seem the faster I wanted to go, the bigger the sketch became. But not necessarily more anatomically correct. I need so much more practice ....

Fruits of my labor ....

.. aren't exactly a success, but in the end I am glad I went out and did something. I went for a walk on the canal and stopped at this old, decrepit silo of some kind. I liked the rust color on the metal, and a lot less all the greenery surrounding the building. 

When I was almost done, I realized that the vertical wall at the right of the "whole" was used for climbing and there was actually somebody hanging onto the handles in  the wall. 

From the same place I had a view at the Five Roses flour silo - I made multiple attempts to capture this one, and I don't like any of them to be honest ...

I did this one on location.

 Here, I used only brush and painted the major shapes.

In the last one, I lowered the composition to have less greenery to battle with. I think I prefer this one, it has a bit of a psychedelic feel to it. 

Then I went for a walk on Notre-Dame remembering that I saw once some nice street light fixture that i wanted to sketch. they happened to be at The Grinder - high end butcher shop that just opened few months ago next to the restaurant by the same name. In this case, I wanted to get the corner store with its window arrangement made of hanging meat pieces.

I struggled with the composition - among other things.

 This version I did at home from the photo. I like this one much better - there is some life around the building.

 And after all this work, I had a coffee and a truffle at the market and sketched over a prepainted page.

Crane building

I noticed the other day that the Crane building on St Patrick seems to be getting a makeover. I stopped to sketch the building, with its renovated top floor loft (the only one that has new windows and seems occupied, the rest of the building is run down and has boarded windows). On thins I noticed about mu sketches is that I forget the surroundings. I get started on the main point and then the rest of the page is empty because I forgot to plan for the rest ... but maybe it is ok this way anyway, right?

I had coffee on Notre Dame at the St-Henri coffee shop and decided to try my hand at sketching the view out the window.

Ste Irene church

Now that I do not have a car anymore and the weather is nice, I walk a lot in the weekend. I even neglect my old friends because of this - it is now to complicated and time consuming do drive all the way over in burbs ...But I digress.

On such an outing I stopped to sketch the domes from the Ste Irena church on Atwater st. I jumed right into it ....and captured also the street light that was just in front of my face. I could have moved but mine was the only shaded spot on that side of the street.

And to correct the proportions, I dived head first (or pen first rather) into a sketch of the whole church. I was timing myself - quick 5 - 10 min. I want to do more quick stuff like this because I linger too long in one place and there is simply too much to do, see and sketch. I also happen to believe that it if a very good exercise to develop observation skills and learn how to pick only the essential from a scene.

Anyway, the full sketch has the same problem of course - the page was too short!!!

Water Tower

At least this is what I think it is. One of these rusted remnants of a by-gone era that pop up every now and then on the Lachine canal - on my way to the Atwater market.

Too bad for all that greenery ... maybe I should have left it out completely.

Jean Talon market

I missed the Urban Sketchers meeting at the Jean Talon market so I went there by myself and sketched a maple syrup vendor. In the rain ....And yes, it was Canada Day. It took that long to post - I am busy at work, travelling more for business, more tired and so on...a lot less time for sketching than before when it was rare anyway...

St-Henri

I was in a coffee shop in the St-Henri neighborhood and decided to sketch the view from the where I was seated. the funny thing is that I had lamp post right in front of me and it obstructed the view a bit - this never occurred to me until I was done and it was useless to move away!

Pen and watercolor pencils.

Balboa Park

I spent almost a whole day in the park, at the Spanish village and just walking  around. The buildings however proved to be a mega-challenge to sketch with all the intricacies of the decorations.

San Siego

My new job and schedule make it even harder to sketch every day. I went to San Diego for business and I managed to squeeze in few sketches right before the rain started. I was under dressed (it is California after all ... and I assumed it must also be hot) and one of the days I was there it rained cats and dogs. I was so cold I did not go anywhere. These are the rainy sketches:

World of Coca-Cola

It has an interesting architecture, but that is all ther is. All form, no content. It is not a plant or anything like that, just a huge marketing plow to get money from people. I don't even drink coke so I did not feel like spending money there. Unfortunately, in the heat of t he moment I ended up visiting the Asquarium which is write next to the World of Coca Cola. Very crowded, insanely noisy and most importantly, it puts up delphin shows and has captive whales. And I can;t stand that... but somehow I ended up supporting this vulgar practice ....

Fox theatre

I did this rather quickly on the spot, then added color at home. It was getting late and I was far away from my temporary home.

High theatre

Difficult building to sketch - round surfaces mixed with straight lines and angles, half of the building not visible because of the trees ...

Atlanta skyline

The last few weeks were crazy - running around like a chicken with no head in between jobs, taxes and so on...

I spent a week in Atlanta for some training - every morning i sketched the view from my hotel room. There was no time for anything else anyway. I used different materials each day to make it more fun.

 Pen and watercolor:

Pen contour:

Shapes:

Watercolor pastels:

Out and about

Sunday was a sunny day. This time of the year, if it is sunny, it must be very cold. This was no exception as the thermometer indicated some -35C or thereabout.

I could not bear to stay inside anyway, so I went gallivanting in town. My  chosen itinerary had strategically placed stops to warm up.

The first stop was at La ruche for brunch. I was there a bit early which was just as good. It was quiet, so I could enjoy my coffee, newspaper and tartine a l'avocat before the lunch crowd came in. Original take for breakfast food in my humble opinion.

I then walked to the MMFA and spent an hour or so sketching two sculptures.

I must say I was surprised that they came out so well. I mean, there are no weird angles or out of whack proportions ....Of course there are no roses on the Bacchante with roses, but I don;t mind. I will never draw all the details of anything - it is just not mt type. 

I then stopped at the Westmount Conservatory in an attempt to draw some plants. I was in somewhat of a hurry as in was getting late. My plant sketch however,  I like not.

But all in all, I am glad I braved the cold and went out and I am ok also with the "production" of the day.

Urban sketchers meeting

The meeting took place at the Westmount conservatory - the only Victorian greenhouse in Montreal. A great place to sketch when it is -27C outside!

First plants:

 then people:

As usual they move! I wanted to sketch the woman and her friend seated around a small bistro table. They moved, so I decided to sketch the gentleman instead. I did not pay attention to the placement of the legs!

Somebody flipping through my sketchbook commented about this - she said she liked the legs this way, it gave a sense of unpredictability to the sketch. She found that sometimes sketches on the web lack the element of surprise - they are well done and all, but maybe too much so. Anyway, this is how I remember it...but it got me thinking about my sketches. What bothers me is that my sketches are not "pretty" - I  cannot turn them into a postcard or decide to hang them on  the wall. The pages are smudged, the composition is hurried (that is to say that I don't think about the composition until the end ...) ... and I keep waiting for the day when my skills will improve dramatically and my pages will be these little masterpieces...but I think there will always be an element of "all over the place" to my pages .... something unpredictable.

Here I sketched the gentleman and then I wanted to add the poinsettias behind. But poinsettias are not ...I wanted to add some flower shapes in ink, but I kept seeing animals, specifically fish (for example, above the left shoulder of the man). I added only the lines for the bench and the heater. I sort of like the floating feeling, but I might add floor lines to ground it a bit.