Part 2 – Innocence Lost Production Diary
Part 2 – Jan 14 – Getting on their feet:
After the first few sessions of reading, the actors are up on their feet, doing blocking. The internet says the term comes from a practice of ‘using small wooden blocks to represent actors, moving these about on a miniature of a set of a planned work’. For these guys it’s walking through the script, half reading, half acting, getting the feel of things – sometimes calling out ‘line!’ when they need a hint from the production crew. Sometimes calling a stop to say – ‘wouldn’t it be better if I stood over here?’ Or ‘would my character know this at the time?’
It’s fascinating watching them work – I can see why the Actors Nightmare is a play about forgetting lines.
I’m continuing to study the faces. It’s challenging, as each actor has multiple roles in the play. Each time I’m wanting to portray them slightly differently. I’m imagining once they’re in costume it’s going to look even more impressive. People changing age and persona right before your eyes.
I was glad to get a good one of the playwright, Beverly Cooper – she was only here for a few days, so I made sure to get a few of her. And of course, the director, Roy Surette. I’m not sure what’s the right thing to say about directors – puppet master? collaborator? cheerleader? It’s certainly some of all of that.
As the actors block the scenes, sometimes a posture will happen, just for the briefest second, that really tells the story. Here’s a couple from early in the play, as the school kids are just finding out that their friend has been murdered.
At the end of a session I grabbed a shot of Steven Truscott’s bike leaning in the corner, with some other props – a detective’s hat, some old bakelite phones, a super 8 movie projector. I don’t know what some of it is for, but I know that bike will be in a big scene soon.
First week with the Cast of Innocence Lost
Part 1 – Jan 7 – First week with the Cast:
I’m the new guy here. There’s a 13 year old actress in the cast, who clearly knows more about what’s going on than I do.
The actors are quite incredible. They’re learning the text as they go, switching back and forth through multiple characters, jumping forward and backward through the scenes. It’s really interesting to see it happen. To call them mercurial would be an understatement. Some of the cast are switching between ten different roles. They collectively represent the entire town, showing us how everyone reacts to the terrible events of the murder and the strange course of justice that followed.
In the first few sessions, I’ve been sketching rapidly. Trying to memorize faces as the actors read, re-read and discuss the text. They call the first few days ‘Table Work’ – for reasons that became fairly clear. It was very much like watching a jury deliberate for hours. Everyone trying to determine, what does my character know at this point? Who knows what rumors, what are the police doing, how did events move so quickly to their bizarre conclusion.
I’m just learning the faces of all the people involved. They’re sitting down, but they’re not still by any means. There’s the usual fidgeting of people in a meeting, but also plenty of emoting and gesturing and debating. The faces are constantly in motion.
Car Painting
We had a record 45cm snowfall yesterday. Getting out of the garage this morning was a chore. Shoveling the driveway, spinning tires spitting gravel, the whole nine yards. But! we were rewarded with a brilliant sunny day as payback. You don’t want to pass up a sunny day during Montreal winters. I had to get out and take advantage.
Last winter, after I complained about the lack of outdoor sketching, my friend Shari introduced me to painting from the car. She has a decent sized vehicle. Our car (a soft top Mitsubishi that’s sadly out of place in snowy Quebec) isn’t quite as comfortable for this sort of thing. I actually found the dashboard and window frames pretty irritating. Until I decided to just paint them into the scene. Suddenly they were a lot of fun.
This was about 2 hours, painted on a Macbook Air in CS4 with a Wacom Intuos 5, on location at the Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery. I have to say, deciding at the last minute to add-in the car interior would have been impossible in traditional media. I ended up extending the canvas a number of times.
Another interesting bonus – the shadows don’t move in December. The sun is so low, it’s raking shadows all day long. I guess winter painters might have known that already – but it was neat to find out first hand.
Centaur Theatre: Going behind the Curtain
I’m excited to announce an Urban Sketching project in partnership with Centaur Theatre (453 St. François-Xavier, in old Montreal). During the month of January I’ll be following the development of “Innocence Lost” – a play by Beverly Cooper, directed by Roy Surette, and starring the National Arts Center English Theatre Acting Company.
The play deals with the disruption in a rural Ontario community following the 1959 murder of 12 year old Lynne Harper and the subsequent trial and wrongful imprisonment of 14 year old Steven Truscott, who narrowly escaped hanging and who would spend the next 15 years of his life in prison.
I’ll have a unique opportunity to go behind the curtain, sketching the cast and crew over the entire rehearsal – drawing as the characters are created in front of me. I’ve never been a part of live theatre in this way. The subject matter is quite dark – experiencing those emotions is going to be a huge change from sketching on the street. I’m excited to see what happens!
The originals will be on exhibit and for sale at the Centaur Theatre throughout the run of the show, Jan 29 to Feb 24. Of course, I’ll be posting preview sketches when I get a chance, and as we get closer I’ll let you know about plans for the opening.
But wait – there’s more! A group of our Montreal Urban Sketchers will be at Centaur’s Wildside Theatre Festival, Saturday Jan 5, after the evening performances “Poutine Masala” and “A Day in the Life of Miss Hiccup”. If you can make the shows, we’ll be at the after-party sketching the actors and the audience. Come down and meet us, and perhaps take home a drawing. Sketches will be going up for sale in the gallery as fast as we make them. A chance to take home a piece of live theatre – drawn before your very eyes. See you there!
Redpath Museum Sketchcrawl
Last weekend was the monthly Sunday Sketchcrawl for Urban Sketchers Montreal. We had 12-15 people out at the Redpath Museum for a day of sketching the curiosities within.
Only the hardiest (or craziest) Montreal sketchers were out at 10am in -8c. There’s Helmut, Shari and Jennifer sketching from the steps of the Redpath. We lasted about 45 minutes before fleeing for the Tim Hortons. (Timmy’s is a Canadian landmark – our local Dunkin’ Donuts).
Once warmed up we spent the afternoon in the museum. I’m always attracted to the stuffed animals. Charmingly morbid. I saved a lot of skulls for a future trip. And a suit of Samurai armor – as we’re planning to go to a big Japanese armor show later in the year. But next outing (January) we’re going to the art gallery. I think outdoor sketching in Montreal is officially over for the season.
Finding indoor sketching spots in Montreal
I had some downtime while attending the Montreal International Game show at the Bonaventure Hotel. The office tower nest door has helpfully lined up their lobby with the central dome of the Marie Rienne du Monde Cathedral. There’s a six story atrium created so the windows can offer a perfectly framed view of the copper dome.
The security guard came by and checked what I was drawing. He said if I’d been sketching the lobby interior he would have had to throw me out, but the cathedral alone was fair game. Very strange. So if you’re sketching around downtown Montreal, make sure to only sketch beautiful old churches, never never draw glass windows or shiny chrome escalators.
This is done with water and Lamy pens again. My current favorite ‘take anywhere’ kit. The color is an interesting artifact of the scanner on my cheap Cannon five-in-one office printer. Everything useful in the studio is packed for a move, so I used this silly thing. It introduced these weird color shifts into the scan, which I chose to ramp up in Photoshop:) Neat hey?
Bethann and the Beaux Arts
The other day Bethann Merkle from the Drawn to Quebec sketch group was passing through Montreal. We had an opportunity to hang out for a few hours and talk sketching. I was particularly impressed how well she draws and talks. If you’ve ever watched a group of artists chatting, the conversation can be awfully stilted. We *think* we’re chatting, but usually it’s long silences followed by non-sequiturs.
We ended up in the Museum – too chilly on the street. I did these Lamy pen sketches in the little classical sculpture display. Then followed up with a touch of water to make midtones. I really love these pens, simply for the water-soluble ink cartridges. It’s like magic. You just touch your pen lines and they melt into interesting washes. It’s a great way to soften cross-hatching.
Dawson Watercolor Demo
The other day I was invited down to Dawson College to do a demo for the watercolor class. I don’t know if you guys remember this old cheat sheet on three-pass watercolor? (full tutorial here)
I did the original demo with an iPhone, on location in the Mount Royal Cemetery, and went back to those snapshots for the in-class demo. It’s interesting how the new sketch relates to the actual situation. I had some google’d photos of ivy covered monuments on hand – just to have the extra data loaded into memory. You might say it’s improved. Certainly complexified.
So, that’s something I only lightly touched on in class. Get out into the world, do the visual research, and then when the time comes to draw something similar, you have real world experience behind you. Also, students who were actually there will note I did 10 minutes more work her face when I came home, and pushed the contrast a bit during scanning. Nothing too serious, just a few touches. Perhaps some of the illustrators in class can think about post-processing their paintings before they sign off on the next assignment.
Mount Royal Sketchcrawl
Here’s my sketchbook pages from today’s Sunday Sketching with the Montreal Urban Sketchers. We lucked out on weather. Just warm enough to stand about and sketch with plenty of coffee shop breaks in between. Next outing (Nov 25) will be in the Redpath Museum on McGill Campus.
In a weird way, I like how this cheap book I had bleeds through. I sort of enhanced that in the scanning process. It’s not something you’d use for a serious drawing, but for these Lamy and water-brush sketches the effect is kind of neat. I was traveling super light gear wise – so these are ink-washed with diet pepsi.
We had 15 people turn out to draw, including a couple from Ontario. So, that was extra neat. This is turning into a great way to meet artists in Montreal.
Sketch!
Just a drive by post. Neck deep in freelance this week. Sketch from the corner of Berri and St. Catherine. Lamy fountain pens, 12×16″ ish.
Citizen Sketcher 