A great spring day was at the rendez-vous for the monthly USK Montreal meeting. We met at the parc Lahaie at the corner of St, Laurent and Laurier.

I wanted to test the setup in preparation for Chicago. I am looking for ways to lighten the working surface so that I can work standing or sitting. Today I worked sitting and it was fine. I cut a piece of corrugated plastic - the kind used for elections stuff - 14 x 14. I have a smaller one, but I think I want to work on 8 x 10 or 9x 12 paper, so this bigger size is better. 

I used clip-on water containers - I think they are meant for oil painters to hold linseed oil and such. I put the paint in an empty cough-pills container and attached it to the board with magnets, The container weighs next to nothing and has space for 12 colours. If I want more colours, I can easily add another container. So far, so good. 

I chose to sketch the church instead of the firehouse. I also wanted to test the paper - it failed. I won't take this paper at the symposium. It is not white and it has to much texture for the pen to glide smoothly. I think this will be an issue because I had problems with my pens on other types of paper too. I made three attempts to sketch the church, trying to get the whole building on the paper. I still have issues simplifying the subject effectively because my building is missing various parts.

The setup is in the first picture - it works well with the paper landscape or portrait. 

And my fellow sketcher Ludmila sketched me sketching the church - how cool is this? And I look 20 years younger!

That's right - week 10. The last one. Already. I am changing computers and all my photos are still on the old one. 'nough excuses now. 

The topic of the week - make our own topic! Really. We were supposed to create out own assignment, with boundaries and all. I decided to explore pattern, but I did not define the assignment precisely enough. Just that - pattern. Pretty vague indeed. I did not have to time to explore the topic properly and I think it shows in the results. Having precise boundaries helps direct the flow and eliminate distractions. The more options there are, the more paralyzing things can become.

I think I did however came up with a few interesting pieces, worth exploring further.