USK Montreal – report from Sketchcrawl #35
Just back from my first Sketchcrawl as part of Urban Sketchers Montreal! If you’re in Montreal, and looking for a sketching buddy – friend us up at facebook.com/UrbanSketchersMontreal.
We were a small but dedicated group today. Put in five hours of drawing, chit chatting and having lunch. Generally a congenial way to spend a rainy day.
First stop was the Centre d’histoire de Montréal. When it rains, it seems sketchers seek museums. This place is probably typical of smaller civic museums. The final resting place for a random assortment of 19th century ephemera.
The star of the permanent collection is a huge statue of Lord Admiral Nelson (freshly relieved of one arm). Back in 1805 some group of city elders felt it was a good idea to memorialize England’s naval hero, who’d so recently trounced the dastardly French.
This might have been a wee bit divisive at the time. But on the other hand, the French Canadians could take some solace in the fact they sniped him out of his shoes at the peak of his triumph. Took the wind out of *his* sails.
So, our particular Lord Admiral Nelson now oversees once high-tech portable sewing machines, beaver top-hats, worn leather shoes and various other examples of Montreal urban history. I’ve placed him above the view from the third floor of the museum.
We finished up at Concordia, in a small student lounge with a cool aerial view of St. James the Apostle church. Was a fun shot to draw, even though we had to sketch through the moiré pattern of a giant graphic pasted on the windows.
Was great hanging out with a few of Montreal’s Urban Sketchers. Hope to see a more locals out next time!
Watercolor Apocalypse at the Theatre Rialto
So there I was, sketching up in Outremont, at the Theatre Rialto on Parc. It’s a beautiful day, I’m thinking I’m just going to hang out and do a nice sketch. Little did I know I was heading into The Watercolor Apocalypse.
The story goes like this:
Wow, this is such a cool building, I really dig the repetition in the façade.
But it’s sort of a flat fronted thing, and I’m jammed up close to it, what can I do to make this more exciting?
I know! How about a really aggressive line drawing in ink – I won’t even worry about perspective, this will be really cool!
Oh wait – no ink in my bag. Oh well, no worries, I’ll just use Paynes Grey.
La, di, da, drawing away – really liking the expressive line, people stopping by to chat, moms pointing out the nice artist to kids.
Hmm…we have a wicked aggressive drawing now – what about a touch of color. Just a hint of the sandstone.
BABOOOMM! Explosion of pigment! Big blobs of semi-solid pigment ballooning color everywhere!!!! Kids fleeing, storm clouds gathering. People rush by with eyes averted.
Apparently, spackling on the watercolor is not like drawing in ink AT ALL.
Beads of sweat flying, try scrubbing out with stiff brush – nasty blue grey smearing everywhere, the nice drawing vanishes, and so does every bit of white on the page. All contrast is lost! My beautiful reserved whites!
AIEEE! Must try some opaque highlights to pull this back! Slashing now with the brush. Stabbing highlights onto the page. But what is this! Am I seeing things? The dabs of white gouache darkening before my eyes. Invaded from below by the insidious Paynes grey.
I am bested – driven from the field. There is nothing left but to wave the white flag of paper towel.
This thing gets a scrubbing like Cinderella doing the grout with a tooth brush. Thank goodness for real watercolor paper.
By accepting defeat and giving up, I accidentally do the right thing. I walk away disgusted, and let the soaked paper dry completely.
After that, I can touch in some gouache that doesn’t melt instantly this time, re-state the darks with real ink, and resort to some contrast correction in photoshop. And finally, stick it in the pile of paper that gets a life drawing on the back.
Achievement Unlocked: inked in flesh!
I was contacted the other day by a certain F.H., just to let me know he has immortalized my Samurai Armor sketch in his flesh. You have to see that as a compliment!
This has to be an important landmark in your artistic career. It’s not technically an absolute first for me. There are a few people out there wearing the Neverwinter Nights eye-mark that I designed back in 2000. But this is the first (that I know of) where someone has inked one of my drawings. And they chose one I like too – so very good! Thanks to F.H.! Both for choosing my sketch, and for sending me a snap of the ink.
I don’t know who did the tattooing – but they did a pretty accurate job. I’ve always wanted to design a tattoo for someone. If anyone wants to give over their body as a canvas – I do have some ideas. But I might need your entire surface area. Get in touch if you’re up for it!
St Patrick, patron saint of frozen artists
I went out yesterday, meaning to sketch from an indoor vantage point I’d seen a few months ago. Only to be stymied by routine security. Long story, perhaps I’ll get the shot another time, when the public is actually allowed in. Since I couldn’t get my chosen view, I hit the nearby streets.
I can tell you, April 05, 2012, here in Montreal – it is NOT WARM ENOUGH TO DRAW OUTSIDE!!!
In my giddy anticipation of drawing from a seventh floor window I wasn’t properly dressed for standing around for two hours on the street. I managed to do the sketch and put down a huge mottled Vandyke/Cerulean wash – then I had to hightail it for a nearby cafe.
I finished this up huddled over some bacon pizza. It was an accident. I was delirious from cold and ordered the first thing that caught my eye. Perhaps my shivering frame was demanding calories to burn. When they make bacon pizza here, they use the whole hog. I mean, there were five layers of laminated bacon in some places. Duly resurrected, I finished my sketch.
This is St. Patrick’s Basilica on 460 René-Lévesque. Built some 150 years ago, it would have been high above the city, on the outer edges of the Irish immigrant neighborhood. Today it’s right in the center of downtown. One day I’ll make it inside to see the pillars made of massive oak trees, and the combined fleur-de-lis and shamrock heraldry.
Travel and Time Travel – Back from Havana
So we’re back from a few weeks of drawing in Havana. This was our second trip. The city remains a fascinating portrait of dystopia. It’s exuberant, ornate, ultimately over-reaching glory, now in slow motion collapse.
Once home to imperialists, pirates, gangsters, and revolutionaries – and the people they ruled, robbed and re-educated. Testament that nothing lasts forever. It’s hard not to become philosophical wandering through a city of once-opulent structures, crumbling before your eyes.
People are clearly working to turn things around, but everywhere you look is erosion and faded glory. I’m glad we went back so quickly (it’s only been a year). You can see changes everywhere. Eventually all the decay might be cleaned up – but what we see in a few years might only be a faint hearted replacement, sanitized for the tourists.
I’ve brought back a fat stack of sketches from the streets. I’m very excited about the work ahead. We have great plans for the paintings I’m hoping will come from the location drawings. Though I normally show work as fast as I make it – this time I’m going to keep it under my hat for a few months. I’ll be working on scaling up the drawings, and executing some studio work based on the research.
Not to worry though. It’s turning spring here in Montreal – so I’ll be posting some work from the home-turf soon!
Just to tease for the upcoming paintings, here’s a sketch I did *before* I left. Just a warm-up drawing, getting me in the mood for the location I enjoyed the most – the Necropolis Cristobal Colon. We did indeed go back there, and found a few more pleasantly Gothic views for you. But more on that later :)
Mount Royal Cemetary
Today was a rare winter treat. Cold, but brilliantly clear. Not something we get that often. We’ve just had a fresh 20 centimeter snowfall, along with some freezing rain. That combination creates a beautiful effect, snow clinging to the windward side of trees, huge icicles everywhere, windowsills and roof lines softened with stiff snowy blankets.
It seemed like a perfect day to visit the Mount Royal Cemetery.
I’m not a huge fan of winter, but I have to admit, it can show you an unmatched beauty. There were photographers and hikers on snowshoes passing by all day, enjoying the amazing transformation. This was about a 90 min sketch, done from the car. I’m glad my friend Shari introduced me to Urban Canadian Car Painting. I might not be so happy with the drawing, had I tried it ‘en plein air’.
Nuit Blanche 2012 Draw till you Drop at CCA
Hey – Just to let you know – I’ll be representing Urban Sketchers, drawing live at the Canadian Center for Architecture’s Nuit Blanche Drink n’ Draw party – 7 PM 25Feb to 2 AM 26Feb.
Come down and join guest artists from En Masse and Drink n’ Draw Montreal – we want everyone’s help with drawing a huge collaborative mural.
There’s a bunch of other stuff going on: Live Tattoo artists – Skin Jacking, DJ K-Lord (Sons of Warsaw, WDWD) and Goose Hut, and tours of the exhibits in the galleries.
Tomb Raiding!
This weekend I made a daring raid on a trove of Mayan artifacts. I thought I was going to get away with it – but suddenly, a guard spotted me. I made a run for it, evading dogs and searchlights, slipping under the wire only seconds ahead of my pursuers. I managed to lose them in the dense jungle on Yonge Street.
These are the only sketches I could smuggle out of the tomb.
[10×14″, ballpoint and brushpen sketch, water colored after the fact]
What actualy happened is, I learned the hard way that Toronto’s Royal Ontario Museum does not allow drawing in traveling exhibits.
At least not without pre-arranged permission. Which cannot be arranged on a weekend. They don’t have a problem with you sketching in the permanent collection – but since they don’t own the work in the temporary shows they don’t allow photography, and apparently, no sketching either. So, let that be a lesson – just because they say sketching is allowed when you buy your ticket – they may not mean in all areas of the museum. Next time I’m going to make an Urban Sketchers Press Card to tuck into my fedora.
Sketching King Edward from the Hudson’s Bay
The Hudson’s Bay is a genuine bit of Canadiana. It’s just a department store now, but it goes all the way back to the founding of the nation. People came here in the 1600’s for fur hats and canoes. And you can still buy them at any Bay store. Our downtown Bay has a window overlooking Phillips Square. A small park featuring a statue of King Edward. By the time Edward Prince of Wales visited Montreal, the Grovernor and Company, Adventurers of England, Hudson’s Bay Trading Company had been making fur hats for 200 years. Well on their way to becoming our favorite national retail chain.
The figures around the base of the statue represent the four founding nations of Quebec (French, Scots, Irish, and English), and includes a allegorical figure of Peace holding aloft olive branch. She also has a sword hidden in the folds of her robe – because, you know, sometimes those founding nations didn’t quite get along.
It’s not all chocolate cake
So, new years eve, no particular plans – just having a good time doing nothing. I decided I wanted to go out and find an awesome dessert. To eat and to sketch. To sketch first that is.
BUT. It was supremely cold, and many places were closed, and the will to make this happen got fainter the further from home. Ultimately we went to a humble cafe on the corner of St. Denis and Mount Royal. Chosen, not for the superlative chocolate cake, but for the corner location and the big windows. The weird color is my rendition of sodium vapor light. Not quite on target – but hey, it’s festive :)
Happy New Year!
