Rue de l'Eglise

Rue de l'Eglise, a photo by interior_perspective on Flickr.

Is it easier to draw familiar buildings or something completely new to the eye? Do we always have the whole scope of what we want to draw? I think some buildings catch our eye immediately, while others awake our senses in a more subtile manner. For example, I've seen the adjacent hall to this church many times but it was always second to the church's main façade. That is, until I took a different route and approached the building from another point of view. Then I saw its geometry, the wooden beams of the roof, the deep shadow marking the front door, the little garden (not sketched), the details that delineate what I think it is its own personality. I thought of it like a neighbour you cross paths with on your way to work: you exchange nothing but a polite "good morning" for a year or more, until one day you find each other at a common friend's dinner party, then you start a real conversation and the discovery begins.

Grocery shopping. Montreal.

Grocery shopping. Montreal., a photo by interior_perspective on Flickr.

I have decided to start a new set on flickr with drawings done while my toddler sleeps. If everything goes right, she will have a nice 90 minute nap and everyone would be happy. If not, I'll settle for 30 minutes. As long as I have my pocket sketchbook and some drawing media. There is always a pen or a pencil in my bag(s), but the Lamy, the Noodler's Flex Nib and the Microns travel from bag to desk to kitchen table and therefore they're not always on hand.

This sketch was done with a ballpoint pen. The lady was a perfect model: she barely moved during my sketching. Maybe she was tired of pulling her cart uphill from the big grocery store half a mile away.

10 min walk to the park + 40 min sketch + 10 min walk back home. Baby slept all the way. Lady was still there when I left.

36th SketchCrawl 1

36th SketchCrawl 1, a photo by interior_perspective on Flickr.

The 36th edition of the SketchCrawl took place on Sat, July 14th and Montrealers gathered at the Atwater Market to sketch together. The Lachine Canal runs behind the market, where this first sketch was done. In the background, a condo & loft complex build out of reconverted industrial buildings. They have great living spaces with high ceilings, wide windows and great views of the canal.

Ecomuseum1

Ecomuseum1, a photo by interior_perspective on Flickr.

A visit to the Ecomuseum today. We got there late and only had an hour to visit, so this time we did the tour backwards: first the birds of pray, then back to the entrance and up the other trail to see the bears. My absolute favourite is the wooden promenade where you find the birds of prey enclosures. All this magnificent birds have sustained some kind of injury but are now well taken care of in this, their new home and are the delight of visitors of all ages.

McGill Medical Sciences Building

McGill Science Building, a photo by interior_perspective on Flickr.

It has been a few weeks since I sketched this building during a visit to downtown Montreal. I went to the McGill University campus and parked on Pine Street. Lots of late XIX and early XX century houses to sketch around, but I went for the McIntyre Medical Sciences Building, a 16 storey concrete tower built in 1965.

backyard@spring

backyard.spring, a photo by interior_perspective on Flickr.

One more view of the backyard. This would be the last one where the trees are bare. It was drawn before the trip, but couldn't post it before with all the hassle to get ready to go abroad. This week the trees are in full bloom, the scilla (little blue flowers) are gone and the dandelions have invaded the lawn.

Riviera Maya

Riviera Maya, a set on Flickr.

Back from a one week vacation to the Riviera Maya, in Mexico. I was dying to dive head first in the turquoise waters nearby the Tulum archeological site and got my wish. I am so grateful that I was granted the opportunity to go back to one of the most beautiful places on Earth. I wish there had been more time for sketching... To my surprise, back at the hotel, there was a small temple at the hotel beach. It is a little construction known as "el nicho" which is very similar to the God of the Winds Temple at Tulum. It stands on a large rock in the middle of a small bay and there are many palapas nearby to comfortably sit and draw.

Views of the neighborhood

Montreal-backyard-1, a photo by interior_perspective on Flickr.

This is the first of a series of drawings of the different views of the neighborhood I get from home. I wish I had sketched more while we still had snow.

Our neighborhood was built in the 50's. There are detached and semi-detached single-family houses lined by mature silver maple trees.

A quiet afternoon, cold and sunny. I like the way the shadow of the tree branches falls on the wall of this house.

Quick update

2011 has been a busy year with the arrival, in January, of my youngest daughter. We are close to celebrating her first birthday, and before I start planning about the cake I carved out some time to update the blog and flickr. So here they are!

Fall sketches

After a long hiatus, I felt the need for some encouragement and decided to take a sketching class at the Montréal Botanical Gardens. The instructor guided us through a process that included writing a few lines about what we wanted to convey with our drawings. I found that really useful, not only to unblock the hand but to better frame the subject and to select the emphasis points.

I worked with pencil and non-permanent ink, but decided to apply a touch of color at the last of the three sessions, on Sunday October 17.

Chinese Pavilion. The color theme for this year's The Magic of Lanterns is blue.

Small bridge at the Japanese Pavilion

Japanese Pavilion

Pagoda at the Chinese Pavilion

Around the neighborhood

Three sketches done with ball point pen.

Easter Sunday

We had a quiet Easter Sunday at home: church in the morning, homemade brunch, and lots of sketching by the Lakeshore Cultural Centre in Pointe-Claire, a West Island suburb of Montreal. My daughter and I packed a box of drawing supplies (sketchpads, watercolors, markers, brushes, pencils...) and sat on a bench overlooking the lake. I love this spot because there is a great view of the Saint-Louis Lake. It was a perfect afternoon for a walk to enjoy the warm weather and the breeze. My first sketch was of a maple tree, and later I drew a group of seniors sitting on lawn chairs close to the water (they were having a rather heated debate about physiotherapy!) The sun was setting and mosquitoes clouds began to rise. For some reason, they had a preference for the young sketcher by my side and left me alone to draft a general view of the lake and the distant church. She managed to finish her sketch despite the buzz, color and journal entry included, I am so proud of her!

Fruit cravings

This week my body was really craving for lots of fresh fruit, but instead of heading to the market in the first place, I went to dig into my desk drawers to find this sketch from the 2007 sketchbook...

The church before the rain

I usually make an effort to avoid talking or writing about the weather, but this year we have had an unusually short winter in Montréal, and now it feels more like the end of April than mid-March: there is no more snow in the streets and our sunny week came to an end with some showers. I managed to do this sketch of the church before the rain came. It was a very pleasant time that to spend with my daughter, a real urbansketcher-in-a-bud.

Musicians

Downtown Montréal was all lights and music on Saturday, Feb 27th, as thousands of people took to the streets to participate in one or more of the 180 cultural activities that ran through the night. I made this sketch at my first stop while listening to the contagious rhythm of gypsy music.

Conference at the Woodwork Hall

More than a decade ago, when I landed in Montréal, my attention was captured by this building but never actually researched its history. Fast forward a decade: a conference happened to take place at Université du Québec à Montéal inside the Woodwork Hall (Salle des Boiseries). I asked if anyone knew what part of the former church we were in, but no one seemed to have more information. Knowing that in Montréal, and the whole province of Québec, education used to be in the hands of the Church until the 60's, when the Quiet Revolution occurred and a lot of changes took place, I assumed the church was purchased by the university during this period, when schools and colleges became under the responsibility of the State and a lot of religious buildings were repurposed. To my surprise, I discovered that St-Jacques Church was in fact Montréal's first Cathedral! It was consecrated in 1825 and burned down in 1852 (along with 1200 other buildings). They eventually built Mary Queen of the World Cathedral and proceeded to rebuild St-Jacques to serve as a parish church in 1857. The building endured two more fires and reconstructions, until it was purchased by the University in 1973.

During my research, I came across this photo which shows how the block looked like in 1976. St-Jacques spire and transept, considered historic monuments, as well as Notre Dame de Lourdes chapel, were later integrated into the University campus.

At the park

Every time my mother comes to visit I ask her to bring me literary magazines, so I can read essays, short stories and poetry in Spanish. There is something about a magazine that allows you to read also the pulse of the society where it has been edited that make them more attractive as presents than books, especially when books are more readily available from local and internet bookstores, but having subscriptions for 3 or 4 foreign magazines could be pricey... Anyway, I took my magazine to the park two weeks ago, with all the intention to read it cover to cover while sitting on a bench and enjoying an hour of sunshine, but while reading Benedetti's Huellas the itch to sketch was overwhelming and voilà... Glossy paper is great for Staedtler pigment liners and it doesn't buckle too much with a very light wash of watercolor (applied today).

Drawing and experimenting

While trying to focus on drawing with pen and avoiding pencil (or mostly, the temptation to erase), I could not resist giving this sketch a touch of color, but the only pigments available on my backpack were a pack of Pilot Highlighting markers, the kind you can remove by friction. Although I felt the need, I was very hesitant —read afraid― to apply color. It happens every time: I really have to muster up the courage to apply a few touches. Oh! How I admire those with a bold sense of color! (Just look at Miguel's sketches here) Sometimes I ask myself if I could live in a black and white movie, but then a little voice tells me to remember that I used to love all the visible light spectrum, so, what happened? Well... somewhere along the road my "color sense" got kinda blocked, or spooked. So I must cajole it gently to come back to reason and treat itself to the brand new tubes of watercolor that have been patiently awaiting for it to raise from its depression. I wish to become a fearless sketcher, a free soul to experiment with tracing, estimating, measuring, highlighting the features and essence of what captures my curiosity and desire to understand this world.

(And the little voice whispers: That's enough blogging, aren't you supposed to sketch?)

The West Gate: Montreal Chinatown

A quick escapade to Chinatown to eat at the Noodle Factory, a tiny restaurant on St-Urbain Street, between Viger and René-Levesque. Had wonton soup and steamed dumplings, just the right thing to warm me up!

Finishing touch

Shadows are trouble for me. It seems that I can not get the right amount of contrast without darkening the whole area, like it just happened with one side of the church. Well, it is just paper, right? Back to the drawing board, with more practice and observation, but if anybody knows of a good book about light and shadow please let me know!