Shadow come and gone

Here’s the second of the two sketches I did yesterday. Marc and I stopped here because the late afternoon sun was casting a beautiful shadow of the tree on this little house. We didn’t have much time so I started to draw and as soon as I took out my watercolours it became overcast. Completely dull. I mixed up a wash and then the sun came out again — for about a minute and then it was gone for good. So this is my fleeting impression of what the tree shadow looked like.

Marc’s sketch was completely different. He draws on a much larger sheet and his drawing had practically the whole street in there. It was a gorgeous start and I am very curious to see what it will look like when he posts it here.

The sunny side of the street

This is my second attempt at sketching this scene. Why was this view so difficult? Because to get this vantage point I have to park under a dark overpass and I can’t see my paint mixes in my palette. What I really wanted to convey in this was the buildings on the left in sunlight and those on the right in shadow. The first time I painted it I ended up with a muddy mess but  this time I tried to keep the colours lighter even though I couldn’t really see what was on my paper either.

I had a companion painter with me today. Marc Taro Holmes and I drew together at the Redpath Museum a few weeks ago and this time it was his turn to trek to my end of town. He painted in the car with me, which is new for him, and when he thaws out from the experience (it’s pretty cold in the shadows these days!) you will certainly see his view of this scene on his blog. We had time to do two sketches each but I will save the other one for tomorrow’s post.

‘Round the back

On the other side of this building is the main street of Pointe Claire Village. It’s filled with glittery window displays, hurried shoppers, and the hustle and bustle of the holiday season. ‘Round the back I found this old garage and seventies cars covered in plastic. I’d never noticed this place before. All this old stuff is so much more appealing. There’s rust, peeling cinder blocks, and even a vintage yellow Datsun.

Transit

What was I thinking with this? Shadows going in all directions. Signs, posters, sandwich boards. This wasn’t only an exercise in what to keep and what to eliminate in my sketch. This was an exercise in knowing when to stop adding paint. But at -7 degrees C it’s easy. When my hands are frozen, even in the car, it’s time to give up. One discovery I made today: the seat heater stays on even when the engine is off.

Looking up

Today I went back to an old favorite. My Winsor Newton Series 7 brush has been in my painting kit for years. It’s handmade from Kolinsky sable and the reason I love it is that it holds so much paint. So I can mix up two different washes and dip the brush into both of them. And then depending on the pressure I use I can get thin lines or thick strokes and vary the colour from the washes hidden in the brush. There aren’t many brushes that can do this…

A bird story

What a day to paint outdoors. The rain was really coming down when I parked facing a deserted Pointe Claire Yacht Club. I started to draw this scene when a gull landed right in front of me on the hood of my car. It was kind of annoying at first because he was blocking my view so I waited a while to see if he would fly away. It was pretty windy in that spot by the lake and I was sure he would eventually see me and take off. But he stayed for a good long time. Long enough for me to draw him. His body was perfectly still but his head was darting left, right, centre, left, right, centre. Eventually he spotted another gull, cried out and left. Here’s my sketch of the yacht club…

…and here is the gull.

Public Hall

Yesterday my friend Jane gave me a guided tour of old Lachine. There’s so much to sketch in that part of town — lots of beautiful churches (including one of the oldest on the island of Montreal), a fur trade museum, and a scenic waterfront next to the Lachine canal. That was part of the problem. Too much to choose from! I overworked 2 sketches and gave up in frustration. And in a last-ditch effort to post something today I stopped on a side street, took a deep breath, looked up, and then did this quick sketch of the roof the Public House and the electric wires. Sometimes things just don’t go as planned.

Overpass

Not long ago I started reading a book called “An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration from the Private Sketchbooks of Artists, Illustrators and Designers” by Danny Gregory. Seeing all of these creative sketchbooks made a big impression on me and in fact it’s one of the reasons I started this sketch blog. Because when I read it I thought that one sketch a day wouldn’t be that hard to do. One of the illustrators that I kept going back to in the book was Butch Belair. His cityscapes are dark, gritty and powerful and so unlike what most people think watercolours should be. This scene in Ste. Anne de Bellevue made me think of him.

Marché aux puces

Lots of stuff in my house comes from this flea market. There was a time when I spent every Sunday combing through the dusty wares in this place. Behind this red brick building there used to be a series of tiny sheds that connected to each other like a big rabbit warren. But today I discovered that all those little sheds are gone and now there’s a parking lot for the school across the street. Good thing I don’t need any more junk.