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).
Museum of Civilization: Vodou
Just back from the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa where we spent the day sketching their current exhibition: Vodou. On display until Feb 23. Info here: http://www.civilization.ca/vodou/.
The exhibit is more of an art installation than anything else. You’ll find sculpture, carvings, and numerous artifacts of religious significance. I found it fascinating and well worth the visit, but I’m not sure it would be to everyone’s taste.
The highlight of the show is a room of curious figures. I am tempted to call them ‘dolls’, because of, well, Voodoo.
Many of them seem to be crudely stitched from canvas or leather of some kind. Most are painted in drips of blood red and some kind of dark waxy streaks. They range between two and five feet tall. Many sprout horns or bat wings and carry weapons – swords, spears, clubs. The scars of their seams, lashed with careless stitching can’t help but suggest an autopsy, or perhaps Dr. Frankenstein’s handiwork.
Given the overly theatrical red walls and halloweenish smoky-acid-green lighting, the curators have created a bit of a house of horrors. Complete with a room of leering demonic mirrors at the exit.
There is a great deal of chit-chat in the wall text about how Vodou has been misrepresented in Hollywood – but I can’t say the museum is doing much to clear that up. It seems more like they’ve put on a show for the kids this October.
But behind this circus freakshow, there are disturbing hints at a darker possibility. The heads on these creatures with their malformed faces drawn in coils of rope, might appear to be cartoons of skeletons. But the presence of a few three-legged ‘urns’ capped with authentic boney skulls suggest to me, that there could well be a human head inside each one of these bizarre figures, eyes blinded with mirror, a new face of waxed leather stretched across the skull. I couldn’t help but feel that all of these things conceal human remains.
The impression I received, quite likely having nothing to do with reality, resulted in these sketches.
Official Video, USk Barcelona Symposium
4th International Urban Sketching Symposium. July, 11/13-2013. Barcelona. Official Video from Urban Sketchers on Vimeo.
Great work on this video from Barcelona – thanks to Hug Cirici and Marta Castro. They have done an excellent job capturing the Barcelona Symposium.
Pointe-a-Calliere New France Market: Sunday Sketching
Just back from yesterday’s event at the Pointe-a-Calliere museum in old Montreal. A big group of USk:MTL sketchers came out to draw the costumed re-enactors at the 18th century public market.
We had great weather for drawing and plenty of subject matter. Musicians and merchants, potters and soap makers, sea captains taking on crew, pirates dodging soldiers, and the black-robed priest chastising tourists about their immodest clothing.
If you’re in Montreal on a fourth Sunday, we hope you’ll look up our sketching plans at the USK:MTL blog. Everyone is welcome!
Citizen Sketcher 
