Jean Talon Market, Head Shots
Our first official Urban Sketchers Montreal Sunday Sketching! Nine artist met at Jean Talon Market for a morning of drawing in freezing wind. Just the kind of cheery reception we planned for our first outing.
Well, not really, but I guess you have to be an optimist to do outdoor sketching this late in the year.
Some of the the others (Shari for one) love markets. The colors and complexity, the tasty looking foodstuffs. I guess I’m the odd man out in that respect. I wasn’t sure pumpkins and squashes would be my thing.
The first thing I saw on arriving was a violinist busking for change. Perfect! I’ll spend the morning doing tiny little watercolor portraits in a 3″ sketchbook. Might as well take advantage of all the merchants in their market stalls. Captive subjects! When sketching people in the field, you need to find those captive subjects – people who aren’t going to up and leave on you.
I’m usually a fan of making a good drawing before painting – but these were moving subjects, done quickly, and from within a dense crowd screening the view. So, I figured it would be a lot more entertaining to go straight in with watercolor.
Return of the Tall Ships
Last weekend was the annual visit of the wooden masted Tall Ships. Neat to be sketching them again – these ships were the first thing I drew in Montreal, two years ago.
All the rigging and railings on these floating museums make for a fun drawing challenge. Fortunately, I’ve been sketching a lot of boats, what with the recent Newfoundland trip.
Vessels like this used to bring trade goods from all over the world. Today, I suppose their cargo is nostalgia. Thousands of people (they expect 300,000 over the four day weekend) turn out for a day of touring the cramped vessels, meeting the crews, enjoying performances of sea shantys and folk music, and perhaps, a beer served by a pirate wench.
Montreal Art Tattoo Show 2012
The Montreal Art Tattoo Show is going on this weekend. I spent yesterday hanging out, watching the artists , body painters, and the mobile art show that is the crowd.
I love the whole concept of etching your artwork on another human. It must be incredibly satisfying for these artists to have their work on permanent exhibition. Or should I say, permanently on exhibitionists.
There’s a few people out there wearing my drawings – mostly gaming logos I’ve done – but there is this one guy here.
Besides being a fan of the art, I wanted to spend a day tuning up on drawing people. I love the challenge of drawing natural, un-posed subjects. People who are doing their own thing, ideally unaware they are being sketched.
It’s the same attraction as candid street photography I suppose. You’re finding stories. Interactions you couldn’t plan for. Real attitudes and postures that you couldn’t invent from whole cloth.
Over the next (long term) while, I’ll be compiling a few notes on sketching people in the wild. I want to do a bit more with this next year.
The first few tips that come to mind are:
Be willing to show your drawings. You’re taking their image, you can’t be shy about showing the results. Often I’ll take down their email and send them the work afterward. (Not this time though, I was trying not to intrude on the artists. I’m assuming they need to concentrate doing this kind of art, so I wasn’t really chatting with people).
Be polite, don’t stare with laser intensity – hang back, take your time and glance over every so often.
If they catch you drawing, nod, make eye contact and use the international pen-wiggling-over-paper gesture to communicate, “Is it ok if I sketch you?” If they look too weirded out, then just give them a thanks and move on promptly. To be honest, once they know what I’m doing, I usually wrap it up quickly. I always feel like it’s intruding, or their natural poses will get stiff if they’re aware.
And the main thing, find subjects that are doing something interesting (beyond just waiting for the bus). Both so you have a story to tell with the drawing, and so they don’t simply move off suddenly. Look for public events, performances, or people at work. I came to the tattoo show knowing I’d find good material. You can find these situations anywhere once you start looking.
Oh yes, since people will ask: 0.7 HB Mechanical pencil on Bristol, 8.5×11”, Digital color, about 10-15 min each.
Newfoundland: Mission Complete!
Here it is! Two weeks in Newfoundland compressed into a sketchbook.
I really didn’t know what to expect from this part of the world. Certainly there were some areas of blasted wasteland (Tablelands, Gros Morne) – which was what I came for. The whole ‘One does not just walk into Mordor’ experience.
But I didn’t know I was going to see twisted forests of wind-tortured trees, crinkly little harbors with quaintly sagging docks and boat houses, and endless epic views over rocky headlands.
I absolutely recommend it. If you have a chance to take a trip out east – you won’t be disappointed by the landscape.
We were traveling in a group with family and friends, so I didn’t bring a painting setup. Just a small sketchbook and all the dregs of tiny tubes from 10 years ago when I used tiny tubes of watercolor.
Turned out this was perfect. I could carry the book everywhere, sketching while the kids beachcrawled or museum’d. Mostly I was playing catch-up, painting over the line drawings back at the hotel or when we stopped to eat. On the drive home I was able to catch up with a big batch of work, painting in my lap while playing navigator. (Take highway 1 for 400 miles, Destination on right).
The limitations of a small sketchbook turned out to be an advantage. It was a lot of fun being that portable. Sure, I wish I could have done some big paintings, but that wasn’t in the cards this time, so instead I have this book, and probably I’ll get to the paintings in the studio this winter.
Halfway across the rock
Just a little teaser, some frames from the Newfoundbook in progress:
On the ground in Newfoundland
First sketch in Newfoundland. Will see how it goes the next few days. Hope I can fit a few more pages in while playing tourist.
Sketching the Jardin Botanique
Spent the afternoon at the Jardin Botanique sketching in the Chinese Garden. The Lotus are in bloom. It’s a pretty amazing show. A carpet of giant leaves and pink blossoms as big as a baby. Well, a premature baby.
These days I’ve been doing so much painting on location, I’d almost forgotten what it was like to draw spontaneously in a sketchbook. (Answer – a lot of fun! Much less stress than trying to get a ‘good’ painting every time).
We’re about to go on a family vacation to Newfoundland. Which some Canadians call “the Rock”. For reasons I expect to become clear on arrival.
I don’t think I’ll be able to schlep around my full size painting setup with the Fam in tow – so I’m field testing a small 5×8″ Stillman and Birn sketchbook and some Lamy calligraphy pens.
I’m really intrigued with the water-based ink in the Lamy ready-made cartridges. When you touch it with water, it melts the line work. A nice effect. The line softens where there is color, and at the same time greys off your wash. I think I don’t mind that. It’s a little out of control, which I like. Kind of an natural neutralizing effect. I’ll be playing with this on the trip – we’ll see if I still like it when we come back.
Portland Urban Sketchers Workshop
I’m just back from Portland Oregon, where Shari Blaukopf and I spent three days with 26 participants painting on location. We did a wide range of subjects, including heritage buildings, steel bridges, a Victorian house, and even sketching the color and activity of the Farmer’s Market.
We had some record breaking weather – reaching the all time high of 102 Fahrenheit. That’s challenging just walking around, never mind dealing with the watercolor drying instantly. It felt a lot like working in Belém Portugal last year. Everyone was happy to be in the South Park Blocks for our final day sketching under the trees.
There’s more photos of the event up on our Montreal Urban Sketchers Facebook, or the USK Flickr stream.
Onto the demos! I approached things in a similar manner to the recent Santo Domingo workshop. First demoing the drawing stage, then walking through the three passes Tea, Milk, Honey. Between washes, I’d make rounds helping people with their own pieces. So we had about three hours in each location, but more than half the time was running around looking at sketches and giving what tips came to mind.
The demo I think turned out best was the Telegraph Building. A classic subject that gave good opportunity for lit shadows filled with reflected color.
As we approached the Burnside Bridge, it suddenly occurred to me “whoops, this is a terrifically difficult subject”. Besides the bridge itself, with all its ironwork, there’s an entire city on the opposite bank. But we had a game group of artists, very much up to the challenge. Everyone handled it with panache. It was a great example of how to simplify on location. I’ve been saying lately, “Drawing on location edits itself”.
If you start with the most attractive part of the composition and work outwards until you run out of time – the stuff you didn’t have time to include obviously wasn’t very compelling to you, and therefore didn’t really need to be in the picture in the first place:)
Locals will note the complete absence of the convention center and the office blocks behind the bridge. Also that the supporting girders aren’t really drawn – only indicated. I got what interested me – those two concrete piers with their minarets and oddly castle-like bases. I managed to have time to sketch a barge that passed by in moments, but somehow never really got to drawing the freeway on the far bank.
That’s what an artist can do, that a photographer cannot. We draw what we see, not simply everything that’s there.
My personal favorite location had to be the Skidmore Fountain. It’s exactly my kind of subject. The sculptures on the fountain, the colonnade. Great subject!
We hit this spot on a Friday, as it’s the location of the hugely popular Saturday Market. The next morning, the square we’re standing in will be completely packed with vendors booths and tourists. What I didn’t realize is, they start setting things up the day before. So we had the extra factor of workers building giant metal tent frames all around us. But, that’s just part of what makes location drawing exciting!
So – Thanks to Linda Daily who invited us out, and everyone who came to the workshop! We had a great time putting this on, met a lot of awesome people. I’m sure we’ll be doing more workshops next year. Like all of the events in the USK workshop program, we’ll be donating 10% of the profits back to Urban Sketchers.org as part of the educational program that brings local students to the annual Urban Sketchers symposium. It’s great to be able to give that bit back to the sketching community, at the same time as having all this fun!
Return to St. Joseph’s Oratory
One can’t help but notice the Oratory – it’s positioned on the crest of Mount Royal, above a rolling lawn and series of wide steps. The enormous copper dome is visible from almost any part of the west island.
It’s somewhat of an optical illusion. There’s a trick of scale between the dome and the massive pillars at the entrance – at first it looks likes any old chapel on the hill – but if you begin the climb up the steps, you quickly realize just how gigantic it is.
This particular sketch led to a new thing for me. I made a painting on location, as I normally do. Sketching rapidly, and painting with energetic washes.
I’ve drawn the oratory before, but have never really been satisfied with last year’s rendition. I felt this one was a much better version. (You be the judge!)
After bringing it home, I couldn’t shake the feeling I had *still* not captured the scope. The impression of the Oratory is not just the building itself – but the whole effect of its placement on a hill high above you, and the vast manicured lawns and gardens.
So, I did something I’ve never done – (though I’ve been wanting to try this for a while). Instead of going back on location for a re-take, I started again in the studio. Re-drawing the sketch entirely, taking more care planning the composition, and more time with the calligraphy of brushwork.
This new piece is about 5 hours, so twice the time spent on location, and has the benefit of studio comforts. (Not worrying about light, weather or sore feet!).
Overall, I’m excited about this process. I never want my work to stiffen up. It’s always a worry that being too comfortable, or using memory aids like photography or tools like a hair dryer (to speed up washes drying) – that these things might change the work. But I like what’s happening here – I think it still has the living feeling I look for.
Musée du Château Ramezay
Just off of Place Jacques Cartier – where I was night sketching the other day – is the Musée du Château Ramezay. The historic house features costumed docents giving tours and serving lunch wearing 19th century clothing.
I’ve never actually been inside myself – I’m sure it’s full of interesting draw-worthy artifacts. Perhaps that’s best saved for a bad weather trip?
Just the other day we discovered, quite by accident, that in behind is a tiny walled garden.
It’s really quite amazing – on one side of a wall is a huge public square packed with tourists, shops, vendors’ stalls, horse and carriage touts, and on the other is a traditional french kitchen-garden. Beans, squash, cabbage, peas, growing in formally arranged herb-edged plots reminiscent of Versailles.
Everything as it might have actually been in the 1890’s. We took full advantage of the peace and quiet to sketch the back of the Chateau. One day I’ll have lunch on the patio there and do the reverse view, looking down at the garden itself.
Art-wise, what I like about this sketch is the gradation of detail on that row of brick houses across the street. I quite like the way the roof line turned out.
Citizen Sketcher 