Sketching at the Higgins Armory
We’re recently back from the Higgins Armory in Worcester MA where we spent the day painting and drawing historic steel arms and armor. The Higgins is closing its doors at the end of the year – just til the end of December to see their world-class collection of period weapons and plate armor. (Info here.)
Our day at the museum was organized by Greg Shea, a Senior Preparator at the Yale Center for British Art. (His sketch above). Greg was able to bring together an eclectic group of artists including illustrators, game designers, fine artists and muralists. Great fun sketching with these fellows. We were able to watch both fine draftsmanship and bravura painting happening around us.
Illustrator/Author/Educators James and Jeanette Gurney were on hand painting in watercolor and casein. James has links to most of the other artists work on his blog [Gurney Journey], plus, a mini-documentary up on his Youtube.
We had a 6 hour drive from Montreal, so I was a fair bit behind by the time we arrived. I had about 2 and a half hours for my sketch. I knew I would only get one image, so I went right for the most dramatic thing I could find: a pair of jousting knights.
So, that’s it for the Higgins Armory – soon to close its doors forever. At least I got to paint there this one time. I hear some of the items will be acquired by the Worcester Art Museum – but it won’t be the same without the grand hall Higgins built for his armor. I’m sure many SCA re-creators and historical fencers will lift a tankard this new year’s in memory. We did our final salute in the parking lot.
Sketching at the Montreal International Game Show
[Photos: Daniel Rabinovich]
I got an invite Monday night from Anthony and Daniel at Syn Studio to come sketch at the Montreal Int. Game Show. I was drawing the models being body painted by makeup artist Lisa-Marie Charron before they went up to pose for the audience.
Up on the main stage stage digital artists and matte painters painted on laptops projected on the big screen. Other industry pros, students and people from the audience were invited to step up to an easel and join in.
[Photos: Karolina Szablewska]
DJ Slim was on hand, providing us a mix of epic soundtrack and 8 bit video game tunes. Sketching with pounding music can become an interactive thing. I find myself making brush marks with the beat.
[Photos: Daniel Rabinovich, Karolina Szablewska]
Sketches were done with Private Reserve inks washed with clear water. (Same approach as these life drawing poses). Sorry no close-up scans, gave the drawings away to the models, Pascale, Karsten and Phylactere.
Water-Soluble sketching with Private Reserve Inks
The other day I was substitute teaching for Max Douglas’ Dynamic Drawing class. They’ve been focusing on sketching the figure in motion, which is always a favorite sport of mine. But as I’m currently teaching a watercolor course (Taking sign up’s here!) I thought I’d stay on theme and have them sketching the model with water-soluble ink line and clear water washes.
The washable properties of fountain pen ink are a useful half-step between drawing and painting. A nice transition for a person who is more of a linear sketcher, but wants a taste of painting.
It happens I’d just received a shipment of fountain pen ink samples from Private Reserve Ink. I was inquiring if they had any charts of which colors washed best, and they very generously offered me a chance to test a range of colors. Good timing for the students as I was able to give out some small testers to try in class. My quick experiments the night before showed they have excellent ‘release’ even after the ink is dry to the touch, making them ideal for line and wash.
Private Reserve offers an interesting selection of colors. I’m particularly partial to Vampire Red and their somewhat electric Daphne Blue. I’m quite sure these colors are not light fast over the long term, but if you are sketching for pleasure, or for reproduction/illustration rather than the gallery wall, that’s not a problem. Even so, any color fading that might occur will only serve to create an ‘old-masters’ drawing :)
Over our one night workshop I had people sketch fast poses with some disposable Staples.ca ballpoints that happen to be water-soluble – just to get them thinking about sketching shadow masses as ‘internal contours’ which they will melt with water.
Following this warmup we moved to the pen and spotting darks with the fountain ink – which we turned into paintings simply by melting with clear water. I can’t get enough of this magic trick.
Then adding in a third value with black Pentel Pocket Brushes. I’d have recommended the Kuretake #13 (first tests here) which has washable ink cartridges, but I couldn’t expect people to be ordering those pens on short notice.
I encourage anyone who wants to transition from figure drawing into painting from life to try out this exercise.
Syn Studio Watercolor Class, Long Pose
Last night was the end of the figure drawing section in my 10 week watercolor workshop at Syn Studio. We did three days; fast sketches, portraits, and then this long pose. We were working with photographer Rebecca Carins as our model. I’ve become an instant fan of her work. And, in fact, she’s just released a book – the opening is tonight in Toronto if anyone is at large in the city.
I’m seeing some solid progress among the student work as we continue to invest in the process. Everyone was able to complete this complex setup in 3 hours, and in general this mix of tight drawing and loose washes is starting to click with people. If anyone’s interested in the course, we’re running it again in January. Here’s the info. (Syn Studio)
The Watersoluble Pens
Went out sketching the other day with the MTL:USK group. Brought two watersoluble pens to the Mount Royal Plateau. My new Lamy Safari Extra Fine, and equally new Kuretake #13 brush pen. (Jetpens.com) I swapped out my usual Pentel Pocket Brush, in favor of the Kuretake, to enjoy the water-soluble properties of their cartridges. Here’s some lines, followed by clear water melting. It’s a neat magic trick. World’s most convenient watercolor kit.
I can also report, the Kuretake is capable of much finer work with the point (vs. the Pentel GFKP Pocket Brush). It’s about twice the price however, so there is that. As well, the K#13 has a metal barrel, that I find quite slippery, so that’s a bit annoying. But you can’t have everything! You have to love the convenience of a convincing ‘real’ (nylon?) fiber brush in a fountain pen format.
Pics from Barcelona USK 2013
Wow, things have been busy, and it’s been a long while since Barcelona 2013. I’ve finally uploaded some pics of the event. We had a great time, and are looking forward to Paratay in Brazil, 2014. Mini-Gallery up on my Flickr (Here).
Looking forward to Paraty Brazil 2014. Here’s a sketch from Eduardo Bajzek, who has scouted the location for us.
Dawson College Watercolor Demo : Second Annual Poe Trait!
In what is becoming an annual tradition, I was recently at Dawson College doing a demo for the Illustration department watercolor class. Thanks to Lucy Trahan for the invite.
Another annual tradition, in honor of Halloween, is my annual PoeTrait. (Ok not every year. Here is my PoeTrait from 2009). I could have sworn I did that last year.
As I was looking for a suitable subject to demo, and it had been awhile since I sketched Mr. Poe – here he is again, this time in watercolor.
I should say, I don’t consider myself a portraitist, in the sense that I prefer to draw my idea of a person, rather than a dead-on likeness. So you’ll forgive some exaggeration in his physiognomy. I want to capture the barely contained churning thoughts roiling in his stately dome. And that pale sickly complexion that hints at his upcoming descent into the drugs and madness which ended October 7th, 1849, the day of his inadequately explained death.
Here’s the progress between my passes of watercolor. This is step 1, and 2/3 combined. The first stage of the head was handled wet-in-wet for softness, the rest wet-on-dry – to get crisper edges. Darks were laid on only after the paper had fully dried. The hair, and the shadow planes in the face first, then some tiny line work at the end – mostly wrinkles around the eyes.
In the event I’ve piqued an interest, here’s an online resource to read some Poe.
Syn Studio Classwork: Demo Two: Cast Drawing
Second project for the watercolor class at Syn Studio was this cast drawing subject. A small statue of Ganesha. The goal here was a classic demonstration of Tea, Milk, Honey – my phrase that encapsulates a working method which is simultaneously Larger-to-Smaller, Fluid-to-Gel, Wet-to-Dry, Lighter-to-Darker.
Here’s the progress steps. Drawing>Tea>Milk> and then Honey (above).
Key thing to remember: Work Wet on Dry: Each pass must be bone dry before the next. This allows you precise control over what edges are hard and what are soft.
Note how color in the first pass is super arbitrary. Just have fun with Pouring the Tea. Then you can draw in shadows with Milk, and re-enforce only the darkest dark cast ‘contact’ shadows with the final Honey pass.
Since this one we’ve done another day on still life subjects, and are graduating to working with the model. This promises to be a lot of fun, introducing people to life drawing with watercolor!
Oka Crisis 2013
When my friend Shari suggested going to Oka to sketch, the first thing I thought of was the Oka Crisis. I have very vague memories of events back in 1990. I can recall it was an armed standoff between the Mohawk and the Sûreté du Québec instigated by local developers plans to put a golf course on top of sacred ground.
On arrival at the State Park, we were impressed to find people still manning the barricades 23 years later.
I shouldn’t joke. The situation with the Mohawk was serious business. Today the park employees appear to be on strike over injustices that could not be made clear to me, as they had no English and I have no French. Perhaps the strikers should take a page from history. They could get much more attention to their cause by blockading the Mercier Bridge.
In any case, we were allowed in, and enjoyed the day painting in the park. We had remarkable weather for October, surround by amazing fall colors. You wouldn’t know it in this painting.
Someone who is a landscape a painter will have to explain to me why I can’t seem to wrap my head around pictorial composition out of doors. Shari and I were both attracted to a marshy area with overhanging dead trees casting interesting reflections. I find I’m always immediately locking into these compositions that are not landscape paintings at all, but are in fact portrait studies of trees or rock formations. I can’t banish this instinct from Urban Sketching to stick a detailed subject front and center :)
Well, still, was a great day painting in this last gasp of fall – I can apply myself to scenic views again next year!
Syn Studio Classwork: First Demo
Last week was the first session of my 10 week watercolor course at Syn Studio. I started people out with some very simple still life situations. The old Fruit and Veggies. I just wanted them to try out the use of wet-on-dry zones to separate shapes with hard edges. (Work loose inside firebreaks of dry paper). I started that Mango with the ‘Drawing with Clear Water‘ trick.
I talked about working in three passes – Tea Milk Honey – but with something this simple it might have been hard for them to see the benifit of that. Tomorrow night however, we’ll be doing much more complicated studies. The learning curve starts immediately! (Oh I also did a tiny tentative bit of scratched paper on those limes. Thanks J.S.Sargent! Good trick).
Citizen Sketcher 
