Sketching in Moose Jaw

I came here to post some more recent doodles and realized I somehow completely forgot to post my pics from Moose Jaw!? At the end of April, Amanda had a chance to travel to Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, for a work-related conference at the Temple Gardens Hotel and Spa. She's always wanted to go there and jumped at the opportunity, and I got to tag along. It was a VERY busy conference that kept her busy from 7am to 7pm most days - and all her meals were provided, so I was pretty much left to my own devices. 

When we originally planned the trip, I was figuring it would be warm out, being the END OF APRIL... I had planned on wandering around the town and sitting and drawing things... but then at the beginning of EVERY WEEKEND IN APRIL we had a snow storm!? And the last weekend, just before we travelled, was no different! The snow had melted enough that the travel wasn't terrible on the Sunday, but it was still quite COLD!! 

In the end the first few days I just ventured out for walks, it was too cold to sit too long! 

Tuesday it was above freezing long enough that, in the afternoon, after a long walk, I did sit and try doing one little drawing... 

The Moose Jaw Public Library - which was located in the park across from the hotel - Also, many of the session Amanda was attending were held at the Library. 

I didn't do the colouring until I got back to the hotel... 

The next day it was a degree or two warmer so I got out and did a couple more drawings. 

The first was St. Andrews church, which was part of the United Church of Canada for decades, but apparently was sold to a new congregation (Victory Church?) last summer. it was located across the street from the Public Library. 

This one I also waited to colour back at the hotel... 

The other one was Zion United Church, just a few blocks away... 

This one I didn't get around to colouring until I got home on Thursday... 

All of these drawing were in a smaller (5'x8') Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Art Journal that I started four years ago and then abandoned (or... misplaced...?) I stumbled across it recently and thought I'd try using a smaller sketchbook that I usually use. It doesn't lay as flat as I prefer - like the Handbook watercolour journals made by Speedball that I had been using a few years back - for the Birds of Saskatchetoon). I like the size... but I'd like something that lays flatter and is easier to draw across the two-page spread like I was doing in these pics). 

There were a lot of interesting old buildings in the town that I might have liked to have sat and drawn... 

City Hall. 

Catholic Church. 

Some warehouse with faded advertising on the side. 

Another building downtown.

Some were shut down or empty and boarded up, like this motel

and then there were some odd-looking bodged together atrocities...

like, whatever the fuck is going on here... 

but visually interesting... at least to me!?

I spotted a pair of Northern Flickers in the park on one of my walks... at first I thought it might be a territorial dispute... but after watching them carry on a bit, I think it might have been mating behaviour?!

On the last day, after Amanda was done with her conference, we had a few hours before we had to head home, so we stopped by a few galleries - starting with the Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery. 

(Which is also part of the library...)

I liked the show in the gallery. 

The museum was interesting too... 

But this seemed a dubious claim... I mean, the casualty rates in the Great War were very high. I think one in ten of the 600,000 or so Canadians that served, died. To suggest that more than THREE QUARTERS of those that marched away from Moose Jaw never returned, seems a bit off... unless the soldiers of Moose Jaw were the unluckiest bastards that ever lived... or the stupidest...? OR, what seems more likely, many of those that served, survived, but never returned because, having seen OTHER PLACES for the first time in their lives, decided they'd rather stay there than return to Moose Jaw!? 

We also visited a commercial gallery That had a lot of different art from a variety of different artists. I though these were really fun... but I forgot to make note of who the artist was...

They'd made this really cool dice tower out of clay! 

Amanda had suggested getting it... but I've been wanting to make my own for sometime... and I'd still like to do that... (and ideally out of something that wouldn't be so LOUD!)

This was also very cool and, again, Amanda and I pondered it for a moment before realizing we didn't really have any place we could PUT it in our house... 

Anyway. That was Moose Jaw. 

We also soaked in the mineral water pool a few of the evenings we were there. Amanda liked it. I'm not a fan of pools, or being in water in general... but I went along anyway and it wasn't the worst. 

Oh, and there was a fun little game and comic store I went in that just opened last fall. I didn't take any pictures or draw it... or... even buy anything there... but I thought it was a rad little thing to just exist in Moose Jaw! I hope they make a go of it and are there next time, should we ever go again! 

I Drew a Thing

 Having cleaned my pens, yesterday, I decided it was time to start DRAWING!

(well... technically, I decided it was time to start drawing again BEFORE I cleaned the pens... that is WHY I cleaned the pens!)

It being Thursday, I thought I would start with the Thursday Portrait Challenge by Studio Tea Break on Bluesky. I had participated in these when I used to have a Twitter account. Studio Tea Break eventually moved to Bluesky, so... 

This week's Challenge was ‘The Princess’ (Painting of a Shawi Berber woman from Algeria), painted by Frederick Arthur Bridgman sometime between 1870 to 1878. 

This is my take on it. It's a start... 

I like the Thursday Portrait Challenge. It's like the time-honoured tradition of Painting from the Masters - copying the works of those who've gone before to learn their techniques through the process of DOING them. I guess this isn't exactly the same thing, because I very definitely did not do this with oil paints! 

Here is the original... 

Frederick Arthur Bridgman - The Princess (1870) - borrowed from Wikimedia Commons: 

https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Frederick_Arthur_Bridgman_-_The_Princess_%281870%29.jpg

Studio Tea Break can be found here:

https://bsky.app/profile/studioteabreak.bsky.social

My stuff on Bluesky can be found here:

https://bsky.app/profile/timinsaskatoon.bsky.social

I have previously posted on this blog a number of the Portrait Challenges I did through 2022 here:

Virtual Studio - Thursday Portrait Challenges

Welp...

It has been almost a year since I posted anything here... 

It has been almost as long since I even drew ANYTHING!?

I cleaned my pens today.

Lets see where that takes us... 

Monday, 19 February 2024

 Royal University Hospital ER

My mom is in hospital. She hasn't had a great year. It's a long story...

Critters on Bicycles - Amanda Rides her Kona Coco

 Back to doing these for an October Challenge... I guess...?

Amanda Rides her Kona Coco. 

Critters on Bicycles - Shannon Again

Our friend Shannon had a house-warming party earlier this year, to which I was invited... and... I missed it... 

Then she had a birthday party... and, again... I missed it... 

Both times I'd meant to have this finished to bring as a gift.... and... didn't... 

(that might have been a small part of the reason I didn't go to either... but mostly I just can't stand gatherings....). 

It is finished now... 

Shannon the Hedgehog rides her vintage cruiser bike named "Geraldine".

I drew Shannon last year in the 2022 Critters on Bicycles Challenge Sketchbook:

Critters on Bicycles - Shannon the Hedgehog

I'll be seeing her tomorrow, so I won't be posting this on Instagram until after that... because... SURPRISE... but I'm relatively certain she does NOT follow this blog... so... 

Kind of dropped the ball with getting going on any of these drawing challenges for October... Kind of thought I'd do some MORE Critters on bicycles - to finish filling that sketchbook, as I... didn't get around to doing that... yet... 

There are 20 pages left in that sketchbook... There are a few left in the 40/50 days of 40K Challenge Sketchbook as well, which I also was working on last October... maybe I could finish that one up too (There are 11 to do to finish the initial 40... but there are 10 extra pages in the book that I's planned to do another 10 characters on!)... 

We shall see.  

Vacation in Ontario

 I went on vacation in Ontario and all I drew was a few lousy sketches... 

Seriously, I went there thinking that's all I'd do - sit around and draw stuff all day. There wasn't much of a plan and I'm not super into doing all the regular touristy things... and I hauled SO MUCH ART SUPPLIES....

The trip came about because Amanda had a conference to go to in Niagara Falls - the 12th World Congress on Alternatives and Animal Use in the Life Sciences - in Niagara Falls, Canada! She's been to a few - they've generally held them every 3 years and alternate between somewhere in North America, and... somewhere else - Usually Europe. 

Amanda's often met up with her mom when she's travelled to these (or other conferences) and I've stayed home with the kids... It's been a while since she last went to one (the last one was cancelled due to the pandemic - and then they held one online...). Our kids are older now, though... One of them is technically an ADULT (I know, WTF!?), so... I asked if maybe I could tag along... 

Short version of what ended up being a long and ridiculous story, It was decided that I'd go along, and we'd tack on a few days in Toronto on either side. 

I took lots of pictures... but I'm only sharing this one... at least in this post. (maybe I'll do another one with more pictures). These are the newish shoes I had that I wore on vacation, along with the two bags I took. the more colourful one was brand new and my "carry on" that had clothes and stuff. The purple and black Timbuk2 bag (with the fancy new patch from Spencer Hawkes/Nomad Patches)had all my art supplies.... and a few other things... 

Our flight to Toronto left at 6AM!? So we had to be there at 5AM... and up even earlier than that to get a cab to the airport... and then wait... Amanda, being Amanda, decided it was "technically" a "work day" (ie she was getting paid to travel) so she opened up the laptop and started doing work emails for an hour while we waited. 

And I drew a picture... 

I'm not a fan of flying. So I tried to busy myself with drawing while flying there. 

I was so crazy tired... but once I'm up, I just can't go back to sleep... so... drawing... 

And that was it... until we got to Niagara. 

We stayed two nights in Toronto and had a full day and a half of wandering around...

I brought my Rapidograph pens to use, as they are my favourites to draw with. But the ink kind of exploded out of them and all over the case I'd put them in... I cleaned them all out, but didn't have extra ink. I knew there was an art supply store in Toronto that had rapidograph ink, but I forgot to write down which one, and we didn't end up going to any those first days there and so all the drawing I did was with Staedler and Sakura pigment liners (my "back up" drawing utensils). 

(As it turns out, the are supply store that had the ink was the closest one - like, two blocks from our hotel... but in the end we didn't go there until the second last day of our vacation... and... by that point I'd kind of given up on the idea...) 

Again, the trip to Niagara meant getting up in darkness and walking back down to Union Station to catch an early morning train to Niagara Falls. I was too damed tired to do any drawing on the train... When we got there we were able to drop our bags off at the hotel and then wandered down to look at the falls... and took a circuitous path back up towards the convention centre to get Amanda registered. During our wanderings, we found a place to sit down and eat and, while we waited for our food, I drew another picture of Amanda... (above) 

The view from our hotel room... 

a view OF our hotel room... 

Amanda doing MORE work emails IN our hotel room one evening after getting back from the conference... which she did EVERY evening... 

I didn't do ANY drawing in Toronto on the way back 

One final drawing on the plane ride home - which I didn't finish colouring until the next day... 

And that was it... 

The lack of drawing was a bit disappointing. I think I need to PLAN things in advance ("I will go HERE and DRAW THINGS for the afternoon"). There was no real plan most days... and while some people find that freeing, I find I fall into an indecision loop for the ENTIRE DAY and DO NOTHING?! 

I guess I did learn a few things about what to take and what not to take... and what to take it in!? Which will be handy if I ever go on another vacation!? 

One thing I definitely won't be taking again is the Timbuck2 courier bag. I use it all the time, in town. But, generally speaking, when in town, I'm riding a bike to get around. I thrown be bag into a basket and ride to where I'm going and then I just carry the bag from my bike into where ever I was going and there ususally isn't much walking around. While it id VERY handy for organizing stuff and carrying it around... it SUCKS to carry, especially when FULL of sketchbooks and art supplies and anything else I think I MIGHT need for the day, when walking around ALL DAY.... Definitely better to use a small backpack! 

Empty Rapidograph pens of ink, before getting on planes. Bring ink with me to fill up when we arrive. Teh pressure changes when taking off is what caused the inks to explode out of the pens... it was a MESS. (so, still want to bring "back up" drawing utensils for the plane!) 

I'm not sure about colouring stuff... I brought Derwent inktense watercolour pencils... and Derwent inktense watercolour pans... I did use both... I ended up using the pencils more - because I'm more used to using those and there are more colour options, and on the plane they were more convenient, sort of... but in other ways they were a little less convenient - unravelling the giant roll that I have them all in. I think I might try a book-like pencil organizer...? or just learn to USE THE PANS and paint like a regular watercolourist!?

A Visit from Adelle

 

Our friend Adelle stopped by for a visit last week. 

New Shoes

 I got some new shoes. 

While waiting for Keiran on Saturday, I tried to draw them... not my best work... but, it's something!?

Waiting

I haven't been posting much here, lately. Probably because I haven't been drawing or painting as much the last few months. I did do a few drawings while sitting in waiting rooms and offices over the few months, however...

Finnegan aged out of the Pediatric Diabetes program, so in February we went to meet his new adult endocrinologist. Diabetes sucks chunks, but it's made slightly less awful when you have decent people keeping an eye on these things and it was a huge relief to meet the new doctor and find he was competent and compassionate. 

Colours are funny. The wall in the background here is the same as the one behind Finnegan... but in the picture above with Finnegan it looks more yellow (it's green in the sketchbook).

New sketchbook. pages aren't as thick and sometimes stuff bleeds through. 

Just after I'd started a woman sat down in the black chair and noticed I was drawing, she apologized and asked if it would ruin the drawing. I'd mostly sketched out the line work, so it made no difference. 

A quiet afternoon as the Saskatoon Community Clinic. Again, about halfway through this one, a group of four came in and sat in some of these chairs... They were less aware of what I was doing. 

Same place, a couple weeks later. I think I did the colouring, for this one, after we got home and despite having taken a reference photo (below), I did it from memory... which, obviously, is not always 100%. 

I never take pictures while drawing in waiting rooms - This was while we were waiting in the examination room. 

It was a long wait, and I brought along one of my Derwent Inktense Paint Pan Travel Sets and tried colouring there with a limited palette. (most of these I've coloured with Derwent Inktense pencils - as it's a bit less messy when on the move and can even be wetted later, if there won't be time to dry before the book has to be closed and squirrelled away)

Same room a couple weeks later, different angle - looking at the chair I was sitting in in the previous picture. 

This fellow joined me in the waiting room. I only got a brief look at his face, because whenever I looked up he'd notice and look over at me! Most of it was done from memory afterwards. 

Hourly Comic Day

 I guess the first of February is Hourly comic day...? Not sure when it started. Saw people participating in the past and thought, "hey, that'd be fun to do" but always forgot about it until I started seeing the posts appear the next year... Well THIS YEAR... someone I follow on Twitter mentioned it a few days in advance, so... I was sort of prepared... sort of... 

The idea, I think, is to draw a comic every hour about what you've been up to for the last hour...? And post it on some sort of social media (I've seen them on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook).

I managed to crank them MOSTLY out "on time"... mostly... almost... until about 5pm.. I did do a few after that, but didn't get around to posting them. The rest I finished up today... So... here is a day in the life, sort of... I don't normally spend the whole damned day drawing comics about trying to draw comics all day... 

I busted out a brand new sketchbook to do these all in... and.. filled 32 of 48 pages (I think I'll tear the rest out and just use them for separate page doodling and such) 

And that's it... 

It was fun. If nothing else, it proved to myself I CAN get a LOT of shit done in a day (or two) when I'm FOCUSED on something... not that it's all going to be AWESOME... but shit gets done! 

Will I do it again? Maybe. I'll have to think a bit more about format beforehand. Also, I should probably learn to use the freaking iPad - seems like that's what most people are doing. No mess, quickly upload - without having to take pictures and edit and format those pictures...