Small town

I love old towns with main streets — towns that are a bit run down — and I am always searching for places in Montreal that look like this. That’s why I love to sketch in the old part of Ste. Anne de Bellevue. Lots of little clapboard houses, a boardwalk along the canal and a view of an island across the water. More like a bit of Maine or Massachusetts.

I have been painting with lots of purples these days and wanted to change my palette a bit. Today I used cerulean blue, cadmium red and lemon yellow. All fairly opaque colours that seemed to suit the grey day.

Like apples and oranges

A few days ago I had a comment on the blog from a friend of mine who noticed that I was really committed to this daily sketch thing. She was right. I draw day in and day out, even if I don’t have much time. Today I only had a few minutes between morning and afternoon classes so I drew my lunch before I ate it. It is a pretty ordinary drawing but I did something (which is better than nothing!) and that was my original intention when I started this project 14 months ago. A different drawing every day.

I will be the first to admit that I am my own worst critic. I have discarded many decent sketches because I didn’t think they were worth posting and then when I looked at them months later realized that they weren’t so bad after all. But I am happy that I have stuck with this and now I can’t imagine letting a day go by without putting pen to paper.

Making Water

A few months ago I saw a drawing from Miguel Herranz, one of my very favorite Urban Sketchers. It was a sketch of a long line of people waiting to buy drinks at an outdoor stand in Barcelona. I marvelled at how skilled Miguel is at drawing all these people because I get all confused when the line starts moving. Miguel’s response was, “It was not so difficult since some of them were waiting to ask for their drink, so more or less standing still. The main trick is that apart from the tall girl with the hat most of them are like lego dolls: body, head, arms and legs are taken from different people that took similar positions or gestures, obviously forgetting anatomical precision.”

I tried the lego approach today with this guy selling trees. I drew his head and torso, very quickly in case he moved, and then he disappeared and never came back. So I waited until another guy came along and I added in the legs. And look what happened! I think I will have to spend some time watching Miguel the next time I see him.

Seize the moment

On my drive back from doing a very boring sketch I turned a corner onto the road that runs along the lakeshore. The sky was dark, there were snow squalls swirling and a bitter wind blowing and the whole scene was so much more interesting that what I just sketched. I made a sharp turn into a parking spot and did another quick sketch, this time of the drama unfolding in the sky.

From the sea

I was hoping to spend some time redoing my sketch from yesterday on better paper by going back to the same location, but work kept me indoors. The best I could do as the afternoon light dwindled outside my window was find some objects that reminded me of warmer places.

Experiencing technical difficulties

I am pretty sure that the paper in the pad I have been using for the past few sketches has been bound with the wrong side of the paper facing up. The Arches Travel Book, which I have used before, is absorbing all the pigment I put on it. If you look closely at the buildings on the right side you can see that even with two very saturated washes of red, there are still white spots showing through. This shouldn’t be happening on a good quality paper. Last week I had no problem painting the fire hydrant in snow but when I looked at it again today I realized that I had used the back of the sheet. Here is the link for the pad. If you have had similar problems with it, send me a comment.

Ball-peen hammer

No time to draw today but this was an extra one from another day.

Sainte Cecile in the snow

I spent most of last winter sketching from my car and there were some pretty miserable days when I really froze. I’m not sure why but it took me a long time to realize that it would be preferable to find a café with a window seat. I was probably self-conscious about drawing in public but I am less so now. This was painted from my window seat in a café in the Villeray district. It’s a little bit crooked, I realize, but I was warm and the latte was excellent.

Morrice Hall

This is the result of drawing in really cold temperatures for 52 minutes during last Sunday’s outing to the Redpath Museum. I can’t draw with gloves on so after about half an hour my fingers went numb and even the pen didn’t really want to work any more. I think that was probably the last outdoor drawing until spring of 2013.

By chance

By chance I found a new place to draw today. I was trying to drive south on a main thoroughfare in Montreal but the road signs were ambiguous and I ended up going east instead. That lead me through a part of town where I had never been and I discovered a great café.

By chance they had a free seat at the counter by the window. I love those spots because you have an unobstructed view of the neighbourhood.

By chance it snowed last night and there was still a sprinkling on the ground. Everything looks better with a sprinkling of snow.