My most minimal kit

Yesterday I posted a drawing that I had done while waiting for someone at the hospital. A few people wanted to know what was in the smallest kit that I carry in my purse for sketching while waiting. Instead of describing it, I took a few photos for a show and tell.

I have lots of small sketchbooks that are “in progress”. That means that they are not the A4 size ones that I use for full colour sketches, but rather ones for doing value sketches, jotting down ideas or throwing in my bag for days when I know I will be waiting somewhere for a few minutes and may have time for a quick drawing. These books are full of warm-up drawing, bad drawings and scribbles. The stuff sketchbooks are made for.

The books I like best for this are the softcover series by Stillman & Birn. They are very light and the paper is excellent for drawing and light washes. The one I used yesterday was an 8″ x 8″ Beta. The paper in that one is fairly thick and it takes wash well without warping.

I also take along a pencil bag that I bought years ago from Muji. It’s transparent, which allows me to find stuff quickly, and it’s pretty durable too. Of course, there are bags like this everywhere, including at my local dollar store.

In the photo above are the necessities that I carry in the bag when I know I have no time to paint, just to draw. Of course there are duplicates, so the bag looks a little fuller, plus there’s a pencil sharpener in there which takes up lots of space.

So, from left:

• A Derwent Line Maker permanent pen
• A white Gelly Roll pen for white lines
• A Platinum Carbon desk pen with Platinum carbon ink in the cartridge
• A brush pen with black water-soluble ink
• A brush pen with black permanent ink
• A Pitt Artist Pen, Black (assorted sizes in bag)
• A mechanical pencil with a 2B lead
• A tiny spray bottle
• A tiny travel brush
• A 6″ metal ruler for making vignettes

A good addition to this would be a water-soluble graphite pencil or a Art Graf block to get grey tones quickly with a little water. A water-brush with a reservoir would also be useful.

Today I was out painting with friends at the Fort de Chambly — a beautiful spot just south of Montreal with an old French fort. It’s right on the water and surrounded by trees and parkland. We painted in the shade, on the water side, and my sketch was done in watercolour and gouache. I add a blob of white gouache to my regular palette and I’ve included a photo of what the palette looks like at the end. Quite a mess, with lots of white paint on top of the watercolour, but with a quick rinse in the sink, it’s back to its pristine self.

Have brush, will travel

The remnants of Tropical Storm Isaias came through Montreal yesterday. This morning the sky was still turbulent, although there were patches of brightness in the distance. I had some time to draw the overcast view from the 4th floor of the MUHC (that’s our newish superhospital) while waiting to drive someone home from an appointment.

My bag always has some sort of sketchbook in it, especially when I know I have to wait somewhere. This time it was a Stillman & Birn Beta, square softcover version. I started my skyline drawing using a Platinum Carbon desk pen, but with all this hatching, I soon ran out of ink. I managed to find a Pitt Artist Pen with a fine point in my bag, but had no paints with me to add a grey wash. Fortunately I found a brush pen filled with water-soluble black ink in my bag, so on the left hand page in my book, I blackened in a dark square of ink. I sprayed that with a little water (I also always carry a little spray bottle) which created a puddle of grey wash. And with the little travel brush, that I also carry in the bag, I was able to pick up some diluted ink and finish my drawing.

Low tide

I had one little 7″ x 10″ sample of paper left from Papeterie Saint-Gilles so I tried it out yesterday using a reference photo I took in La Malbaie at low tide. This sheet has rough-textured surface, and is 100% cotton rag, handmade in Saint-Joseph-de-la-Rive. If I had to choose between the two sheets I tried, I would say I prefer the smoother surface one that I used to paint cherry tomatoes. It really took the colour well. In fact, before coming home, I did go back to the store to buy a few larger sheets that I hope to use in some studio watercolours. I have a feeling I will have lots of time for that this winter!

A hole in the mountain

Rue du Quai in Pointe-au-Pic is a popular spot for many reasons. There’s a row of colourful buildings at the base of a cliff, a spectacular view of the bay, a steep staircase that leads you up to the historic Le Manoir Richelieu hotel, a railway stop for the Train de Charlevoix and an iconic snack bar. On the overcast morning that I painted it, the masked crowds had just departed on the train, heading towards Baie St. Paul.

I chose to paint this view because having the dark cliff and the distant mountains in the sketch is so typical of many of the views in Charlevoix. That’s the reason I like painting there. There’s always a wall of trees or rocks behind everything. In fact, if you look up the topography of the region, you’ll find out the rolling hills were created by the impact of a meteorite about four million years ago.

Compositionally, this was a difficult sketch because of the road that curves up the left and the tracks and path a bit lower down that curve to the right. Plus I sketched standing up, with my palette precariously balanced on a fire hydrant, just to make things even more challenging.

When I got home I realized that the sketch didn’t really work well because the light rocks of the cliff and the dark trees around the rocks were too different in value. I pulled out my palette and darkened the rocks with a light wash of grey. In hindsight, with some advance planning on my part, I could have avoided the problem.

After I did the sketch in colour, I wanted to evaluate where I went wrong, so I created two value sketches to analyze the problem. My first colour version was something like the “before” sketch below. The rocks on the cliff were about the same value as the sky, so compositionally, there was a hole in the cliff.

After I darkened the rocks, it became more like the “after” sketch. The trees and rocks combined to form a more unified shape. This is something I will try to remember when I turn some of my Charlevoix sketches into larger watercolours.