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?
…
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.
The Costume Shop
Finding this drawing was a strange experience. I was on my way to a lecture on ‘defining the value of art in society’ or some such nonsense. Turned out to be a bit too theoretical for me. Far too much talking, not enough art making. But I digress….
I need to cut across the campus, so I take these little metal stairs I found, figuring I’d end up coming out by the library. Well, the steps go down and down and into this little courtyard – with no exit! It’s a dead end! Just a pit in the earth between buildings, filled with leaves and dried up crab apples. I have no idea why they bother to make a stairway to nowhere.
But – while I’m down here – I notice the offices don’t have shades. They probably never get any light down here. And inside is this fascinating workshop where they’re doing something interesting. I first noticed the huge Elizabethan cartwheel ruff around the neck of a dress dummy. They have racks of funny hats and long capes, and marionettes hanging from the ceiling. It’s like a little fairyland down in this air shaft. How perfect! I had to come back the next day and do a little sketch. I wish I’d drawn all the stuff in there – but it felt so strange peering in the window. Like I’d have to run away if anyone came in.
lost and found sketches…
I was scanning a drawing the other day – to my surprise, I found some lost sketches on the back side of the paper. I’d completely forgotten I’d done these little notes at the Gulbenkian Museum in Lisbon.
Regular readers might notice a slight different about these. I’ve taken to lightly ‘outlining’ the shadow shapes – little contour lines around what would be continuous washes – say in the hollows under the eyebrows, or in the shape of hair in the sculpted beard. I’m not sure I could make perfect sense of these now – but if while I’m standing there painting, I’d be using these little clues to work out the light and dark shapes that create volume.
A few minutes with Rodin/Claudel
[after “The Implorer”, Claudel]
Les Grands Ballets here in Montreal put on a small drawing contest in honor of their production Rodin/Claudel. (“A work about the torrid romance between Auguste Rodin and Camille Claudel”). I’d heard about the open invitation to come and sketch two dancers in poses inspired by the sculptors – so I thought – That’s for me!
It was well attended I think, for this sort of local radio/facebook/PR kind of thing – looked like around 60 or 70 people turned out to draw or watch drawings happen. I was surprised it was a series of 5 minute poses – quite challenging for an ‘all-skill levels’ type of drawing competition. Especially on the two figure compositions. 5 minutes with two figures is not a lot of time if you try to get all the hands and feet and faces in:) I chose to econcomize on these sketches. Just go for the feeling of the pose/sculpture. The dancers were of course, elegant emoters (if that’s a word) – and no doubt well aware of the original works. It think it’ll be fun to play spot-the-sculptures in the full performance.
Unfortunately I cannot show you my favorite drawing – as it was selected as one of the five competition winners, and hopefully now sits in a nice frame on the choreographers wall. But, they did give me a pair of tickets to the performance next weekend – so that’s not a bad use of five minutes time on a rainy Saturday.
I do wonder if they’ll get into the part where Camille goes mad, smashes up her sculptures with a hammer, and eventually ends her days imprisoned in the asylum. You have to wonder if living in Rodin’s shadow did her in.
[“The Kiss”, Rodin]
[The Thinker, Rodin]
Some snapshots of the event, courtesy John Hall of Motion Photography. I’m in there toward the middle of the pack :)
Citizen Sketcher 