Sainte-Anne-de-Bellevue
The other day my friend Shari took me on a sketching tour of St. Anne de Bellevue. It’s a scenic town on the western tip of the island. I had no idea there were places like this around Montreal. I’m from the prairies, so what do I know?
Shari introduced me to painting from the car. This is a good solution for the cold Canadian weather. And it’s the urban sketchers equivalent of a detective on stake out! Street sketching is already somewhat like spying. Might as well get into the role.
Sainte-Anne felt a lot like a New England fishing village. Lots of narrow curving streets, small shops and eateries and the water always close by. I’m sure I could find some boats around here if I poke around.
Up in the back streets you’ll find a few of these interesting pre-war houses. Plenty of big brick mansions not too far away – but I was struck by this cute green and yellow ‘dollhouse’. I’ve been seeing a lot of talk about people returning to small homes like this. They’re efficient to construct, and don’t grab more space than a person really needs.
Old Favorites Brought Back to Light
I’ve been experimenting with a “new technique”. Well, a slight variation anyway. These might not look that new at first glance :) Actually they’re quite old! Some of my favorites from San Francisco. So these must be at least three year old drawings. What I’m playing around with here is a trick to allow me add watercolor to my old sketchbook pages.
A lot of my early on-location drawings were ballpoint pen and brush marker on ‘cover stock’. Sort of one step above photocopy paper. I really like this combination. Black and white line is great for a rapid sketch, and the smooth paper is very nice for drawing. Pens just zip along the surface. For a few years I was carrying a stack of this stuff everywhere.
But when I get a pen drawing I really like – I regret not being able to add much color. You can paint on cover stock if you’re careful – but it won’t take much water before it buckles.
There was a time I might have been tempted to color sketches digitally. That can have a nice effect – but it’s not what I’m looking for these days.
What I’ve done here is print a ghosted image of the original sketch on a 140lb watercolor paper (using my new Epson 4900 printer’s manual feed). Then I tape it down and watercolor over the faint line drawing, as if I was painting a pencil drawing. I scan that back in, and composite the original black line drawing on top of the new color image. (Using a multiply layer in photoshop). I can also experiment with tinting the line drawing – I used a bit of a purple line on these. And it’s possible to significantly enlarge your drawing while doing this – if you scan it at 1200 dpi for example.
I’m going to try a bit more of this to see what else I can come up with.
Return to the Redpath
One of the things that I like the most about art blogging is the network of like-minded artists that you collect. All the fellow sketcher’s blogs out there are tremendous motivation for me. The constant stream of new art keeps me engaged – always seeing new ways to go at things, maybe pick up some tips and tricks.
I recently met Montreal artist/designer/educator Shari Blaukopf through her sketch blog at http://shariblaukopf.com/ where she’s taken on the Sisyphean task of a *daily* sketchblog. I consider myself obsessed with art – but I’m leery of committing to a daily. That’s quite a challenge! Check out her deceptively light sketches. They look simple at first – but they’re so casually perfect, you can tell she’s got the designer’s eye for composition, as well as the painter’s touch for mark making.
We decided to hit McGill’s Redpath Museum for an afternoon of sketching. Sketch artists socializing is quite a funny thing. We get together for the purpose of ignoring each other for 20 minutes at a time. Whatever works I guess. Even anti-social art types like to hang out :) It’s always neat to see the other person’s version of a place.
The Redpath is a kind of museum they just don’t make any more. The Victorian idea of the Cabinet of Curiosity inflated to a whole building. There’s everything from Japanese armor to Dinosaur skeletons crammed into one large room. My favorite thing is the taxidermy animals. This is essentially a creepy thing – having a wolf just sitting there in your living room. At least these ones are fairly sedate – no dramatic recreations of predators pouncing on prey. Worse luck! I found myself enjoying the way this poor wolf was held back by a little red rope, eternally watching the caribou go by.
When I’m rich and famous I’m going to fill the house with taxidermy animals. Don’t tell Laurel – we’ll just add a few at a time. Maybe she won’t notice.
Sketching Notre-Dame-de-Grâce
Winter is coming! It’s cold out there sketching in 7c. I have committed myself to winter painting this year. Got some silk undies (not the sexy kind) and some big boots. (Also not the sexy kind). We’ll see how well this works. The first thing I discover – is the light is totally different. It’s a study in close neutrals. Or some might say, pretty damn grey.
But I really enjoyed it. You don’t have to worry about the light changing for one thing. There’s no directional shadow at all. It kind of made the drawing more subtle. Like a calming effect on my normal desire to go for maximum contrast.
I was on the west side of town, in an area they call NDG – short for Notre-Dame-de-Grâce. Which is both the name of the town, a street in the town, and the church on the street in the town. They’re all NDG. Three times over.
And to top it off, the church is at the intersection of Rue NDG and Ave. Prud’homme. M. Prud’homme was no doubt an interesting guy. Besides owning the land at the center of NDG, he was the town’s Justice of the Peace, the Captain of the Milita, and eventually the Mayor.
By the way – I’ve made this sketch available as an 8×12″ archival print on watercolor paper, over on my Etsy shop.
Nearby the titular NDG is another fascinating structure. The confusingly named River’s Edge Church. (I could not see a river nearby). A little research tells me it was originally L’église St-Augustine de Canterbury. There are some large shamrocks prominently carved above the bell tower – so is it stereotyping to think that it must be part of Montreal’s Irish Catholic heritage?
In any case I really enjoyed it’s fanciful tower – and will be back for a more detailed drawing some day!
Give a little, Get a Sketch – at UrbanSketchers.Org
I wanted to draw your attention to a good deal going on a UrbanSketchers.org right now!
We are in the midst of our holiday campaign, Give a Little, Get a Sketch. The offer is only on till Dec 31st.
The way this works, if you chose to donate (via paypal) and support UrbanSkethers.org and our symposium program, you are eligible to receive one or more high resolution scans, suitable for printing high quality prints at home, or at a photography store.
Donors can choose 1 print from our pool as thanks for a donation of any amount at all, and can choose another print for every increment of $20! So you have to print them yourself – but really, it’s a great way to get some art for you or a friend this holiday season.
As well, there’s one more level. Donations of $75 or more, can choose from a special gallery of prints, where we mail you a signed print, individually made by our volunteer artists (that’s me! – and a few other great folks).
Find out more about this on UrbanSketchers.org, and help support our always-free continual stream of drawing on location!
Sardinhas Grelhadas
One of the highlights of our recent trip to Portugal were these little grilled sardines. We always ask what the locals recommend, and these were a clear favorite. They’re just sea salt, olive oil and delicious little fishies.
By co-incidence, we happen to live in a (partially) Portuguese district in Montreal. It was great to find you can get these in cafes here too. I was inspired to dig out the sketches from the trip and make a painting of my favorite meal in Portugal!
By the way, this is one of the new prints I’ve made available on the Citizen Sketcher Esty Shop. If I sell any prints of these fishies, I’ll go out for dinner and make another painting. Buy a print, and choose what kind of food I draw next!
Deleted Scene
I recently posted up a little interview with Amiee at Drink and Draw Montreal. We chatted about all sorts of things – but of course, had to trim it down to fit the format. Plus, I can ramble a lot. I’m getting old or something. Anyway – I thought maybe some people might be interested in a ‘deleted scene’.
Here’s an un-edited bit that I think is worth rescuing from the cutting room floor.
2) When did you first start drawing on location? How did leaving the studio and drawing in “plein air” affect your practice?
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If I can go backwards to my job in games, that kind of drawing is entirely done in Photoshop. I was mostly doing fantasy gaming stuff – Elves and Dwarves etc. Now, drawing digitally is great fun. It’s so easy. When it comes to inventing things that don’t exist, things you want to look convincingly real but aren’t available to take a photo – doing it digitally can’t be beat. It’s just the most flexible way to work.
But of course there’s 3D rendering. Which is a tremendous opportunity for artists. But if you’re the sketching guy it’s the Sword of Damocles over your head. You’re sitting there pouring effort into your drawings, trying to visualize imaginary things, and meanwhile the 3D guys are just racing past you to the finished product. And making it look amazing.
The same power tools that made digital drawing easy, make photographic realism easy as well. For a while I was experimenting with digital photo collage (example tutorial) as a method, but it’s not really a long term solution. You just have to embrace the 3D if you’re going to operate at a professional level. And while that is absolutely art – it’s art done with mouse clicks and technical skills not with instinct. So that’s not really my thing. (Yes, that’s changing every day with new software, but it’s still a long way off).
Basically I had to choose – go more digital, or cut bait and get out.
I decided it was time to really learn to draw. Instead of going back to school, I went to life drawing. A lot. Like, two or three times a week. For a few years. That’s about a thousand drawings a year. I was just doing a ton of 5 ,10 and 20 minute figure drawings.
Once you start drawing from life, the complexity of drawing really opens up. Drawing from imagination is by definition, refining a formula. You’re doing the ‘style’ you do, and just getting better and better at it. Which is cool and all, don’t get me wrong. But drawing from life – you’re not going to be satisfied with your own shorthand. You’ve got reality right there, laughing at you.
It’s an addictive combination. The never ending challenge versus your growing fluency. It can turn into a self-perpetuating obsession :) I get the feeling it’s a lot like being good at a sport, or playing music – but I wouldn’t know too much about those things.
Drink and Draw Montreal
For the super duper extra curious – I’ve just done a little interview with Drink and Draw Montreal where we discuss a bit about me and my location drawing. Since you’re reading this here you probably get the idea already…but hey! they have plenty of other interesting interviews up as well.
And if you’ve just come over here from D&D, then Bonjour! Welcome! Have a look at all the art – maybe check out my just-released illustrated kindle novel in the post just below. Hope you’ll subscribe and become regulars :)
Resurrection Man – an illustrated Novel
I’m happy to announce the 1995 New York Times Notable Science Fiction Novel “Resurrection Man” by Sean Stewart, is now available as an illustrated ebook featuring 80 of my illustrations.
Sean is the award winning author of such projects as “Year Zero” (the Nine Inch Nails ARG), “I Love Bees”(the Halo ARG) and 12 well received novels, including the Cathy’s Book Series, (Cathy’s Book, Cathy’s Key, and Cathy’s Ring), “Perfect Circle” a 2004 Book Sense Notable Book, and Best of the Year from the San Francisco Chronicle, as well as the Nebula World Fantasy Award year 2000 winner “Galveston”. He was a founding member of 42 Entertainment, and is now at Fourth Wall Studios where they are currently changing the nature of storytelling via integrated media.
This set of illustrations has to be the most challenging project I’ve tackled to date. I’ve certainly done hundreds of drawings for my video game projects – but this was my first experience weaving images directly into a work of fiction. The novel has a eerie atmosphere. Dark and foreboding, but somehow not gruesome, even when it takes some grim turns. It was a great experience, finding that strange tone and somehow injecting it into the drawing.
I spent approximately 3 months with the story, working on it nearly every day. Reading and re-reading, choosing symbols and incidents from the text, pacing out where to place drawings, and of course how to express the atmosphere of the story to the best of my ability.
I feel I’ve been given a tremendous opportunity, being given free rein to illuminate the text. I hope you’ll check it out, and enjoy the experience.
Here’s a few sample drawings from the book – but of course you can download the first few chapters from Amazon, or of course purchase the novel for only $2.99!
Stay tuned for future announcements! I hope to have the chance to do more illustrated fiction. I can’t wait to be able to talk about what comes next.
The Dumpling Makers
Here’s a sketch of the cooks at Qing Hua dumpling house here in Montreal.
The restaurant is small, and always crowded with people enjoying their dumplings. It’s kind of warm and homey, nothing special about the decor. Off to the side is this small window through which you can see a constant bustle of activity. People inside are working furiously, producing tray after tray of hand made dumplings. Each one perfectly sized and shaped, and very tasty!
I did this one (from my own photo reference) as a live painting demonstration at the general hospital. (We just recently participated in their annual fundraising art-show). Just for fun, I made a brief time lapse animation of the painting from start to finish.
Citizen Sketcher 