Fall Colours
Author Archives: John Hofman
Heading into Autumn
The weather is changing, kids are returning to school and their parents are going back to work. The tourists that used to be mostly families are replaced with retirees. The days are getting notably shorter so that the time sitting at the waterfront after supper becomes limited and colder.
Yesterday afternoon, I made a sketch in Maffeo-sutton, possibly for the last time this year because the rain season started right on schedule, that is, today we have a choice of staying indoors or getting wet.
The colours of the leaves were not quite orange or even yellow, but I could not resist to compliment the blue of the canvas roof. Here, pen and ink was used for the drawing on 9″ x 12″ watercolour paper and completed with watercolour.
With the drop in temperature and the strong wind, I stayed more between buildings in the city to make sketches.
This is a view from Dallas square. A forest of signage and light-posts to direct the traffic, in an attempt by the City and insurance companies to mitigate the tendency of drivers to hit each other. Pen an ink with markers in an 8″ x 11″ sketchbook.
From a very small park at the intersection of Wallace and Bastion streets one can look across Terminal Avenue, which was originally a ravine that would flood at high tide, and see the courthouse and some apartment buildings on top. Also, looking down you see the rooftops of the shops and a gas station along Cliff street. Pen and ink with markers in a larger sketchbook of 8″ x 10″ size, a product from Heinz Jordan & Co.
The other day I stopped at Macdonald’s for a coffee and a muffin. This time there was a seat available on a bar stool at the window overlooking a parking lot and shops of the Terminal mall. Coloured markers where used in a small 5″ x 8″ sketchbook, also from the same paper company.
Another mall, located within 5 minutes walking distance from our apartment has no benches or designated seating area on the premises, except for the coffee shop and the restaurant, of course.
However I sat down on an elevated concrete pier that supports the large signage panel at the entrance, which I never took notice of in all the years we lived here. It also provided shade and a view of the parking area with the Casino and a new Hotel in the background.
This is a sketch in a small sketchbook, not very suitable for watercolour, but sometimes one has to make due regardless. I was not seated as comfortable as at Macdonald’s, so that my line-work is somewhat wobbly and not vertically aligned; comes with the territory I guess.
Last Monday morning I was sitting on the outdoor patio at Serious Coffee along Commercial street to draw this picture of a used record store across the street, called “Fascinating rhythm”. One detail was done carelessly, or messed up, requiring a review as shown in the inset on the same page on a larger scale; next time better.
However, the story of the day was that of a federal political nature. The coffee shop is part of the convention centre, and all of a sudden there appeared several uniformed policemen and plaincloth agents, with bullit proof vests clearly visible as their jackets were puffed up. They walked right by me and went inside with an employee of the conference centre. When they came out again I overheard one of the agents asking the employee how to get on to the roof.
Then it dawned on me that Treadeau, the Canadian Prime Minister was in Nanaimo with many members of the liberal government in tow; they were meeting at the conference centre for a few days. Later on I actually saw the man himself walking by, surrounded by several people, presumably security personnel and other politicians.
Swy a Lana lagoon at Maffeo-Sutton Park.
The downtown waterfront park contains a lagoon, that is connected to the ocean at high tide. It has a peculiar name derived from aboriginal legends according to colonial historians.
I often wondered how to depict the sweeping curve of the retaining wall that surrounds the lagoon and beach.
Yesterday I ventured a pen sketch of this scene with some watercolour added.
On a nice sunshine day there are usually parents with small kids playing in the sand or in the water.
Summer Sketches Close to Home
Recently many sketches were coloured with alcohol based markers in a sketchbook from the dollar store that fits nicely in my shoulder bag.
A theatre group performing at Maffeo-Sutton Sutton Park
Weekly dance group practicing under the band stand in Maffeo-Sutton.
View of the park central area from my usual position on a comfortable bench.
Jazz festival behind the fence blocking the view of the band but not the sound.
View of a part of the old downtown district from the front of City Hall.
Walkway along the waterfront
Apartment building on Mill Street. There is is only one bench to sit on for sketching, hence the outline of a someone’s parked car that was in my way, but that I had to contend with.
Thursday evening market on Commercial Street downtown, a weekly event during the summer.
Maffeo-Sutton central area viewed from the other direction for a change, as there were no food vendors that normally block my view in the late afternoon. Water colour was used here, but the thin paper is less suitable for it; it starts to buckle.
Arts on the Avenue in Ladysmith B.C.
Every year in August we visit the Arts on the Avenue event in Ladysmith, where 3 or 4 dozen of artists and artisans display their work, which attracts many people. My wife goes around and visits several artists she knows. I make a quick walk-through and decide on a spot where I can settle down with my sketching stool to make a sketch in pen and ink with watercolour.
This year I picked a spot on the corner of 1st Avenue and Kitchener Street to draw the building across the street. It took me about two hours to come to this result.
A guitar player in the tent across from me performed nice songs, picked from a wide range of genres; anywhere from J.S. Bach to the Beatles.
Making Marks
Recently I have been experimenting with markers in my 6″ x 9″ sketchbook from the dollar store. These markers are so called alcohol based, as opposed to waterbased.
One would expect that waterbased markers wash out when using a waterbrush, but that only works on very smooth (slippery) paper. I didn’t like it and now only it occasionally in watercolours to brighten up small spots with the high chroma pigments of the markers.
Alcohol markers take trial and error work to get used to. Some time ago, when we went to Victoria, I bought a set of markers for architectural sketching. They come in a nice case and are expensive. You don’t realize this at first, but there seems to be a disproportional number of grey and near-blacks in the set that are not very useful.
However, about three quarters are hues with varying intensity, For example, there are about 5 markers starting at a light value, muted yellow, increasing in value to light brown. Similarly with blue and green, but not red. They are also transparent, which makes it interesting for creating texture.
One spot in the waterfront park where I like to sit to escape from the recent heatwave, looks out on an open area with a tent-like structure in the trees, with highrises in the background and with other objects to draw, to leave out or to move around on paper.
The same structure from a different direction in watercolour:
Watercolour has many advantageous as it has an “infinitely flexibility”. Here is another one with markers using two muted hues that are opposite on the colour wheel.
And another sketch in pen and ink with watercolour.
Grey markers used to sketch the grey, 1950’s Federal building in downtown.
The Lion’s Bandstand is the other significant building structure in the park, sketched with pen and ink as usual and three colours added with markers.
One of several views from the park towards the mountains of the mainland through a gap between Protection Island and Newcastle Island, a.k.a Saysutshun.
Finally, four warm shades of a house along Albert Street, using markers.
Monday’s Paintout
Last Monday morning I ventured out with “Plein Air Nanaimo” to meet in the vicinity of the Yacht club for a paint out.
By midday the temperature was expected to approach 30 degrees, so that I settled down in the shade of a large broadleaf maple tree.
From this location one had a perfect view of the east end of Mount Benson Street. I got there early and worked diligently to get the drawing done of the scene, before parked cars would block my view
The lighting was perfect, as the morning sun provided alternating light and dark shapes. Only once did I have to ask a car owner to move his chariot two feet over, so that I could see up the street to get ideas from the scenery that I could use to complete my picture, as well as to obtain a reasonable facsimily of this street.
A “tourist snap shot” of the the street looks like this:
I tend to edit scenery quite a bit, which is considered the creative part of sketching from the real world and is more fun than copying photographs.
Monday Morning
Today was the first paint-out of the Plein Air Nanaimo group for the 2024 season.
Like previous years, we started in Bowen Park with very good weather conditions.
The main attraction for me is the rapids in the Millstone River. This is actually more like a creek than a river, but it is a very scenic feature in the park, particularly how it meanders through the valley with the tall trees overhead.
My equipment was minimalistic; an 8”x11” sketchbook from the dollar store, a water brush and just three pigments in an old peppermint tin box.
E&N Trail
Sketch of a house along the E&N trail. This is a trail along the Esquimalt to Nanaimo railway, that I use often to walk or to ride my bicycle.
A New Sketching Season
For the last few days we had to put up with rain, sometimes day and night. But last month we enjoyed several days with warmer weather and a lot of sunshine.
I took advantage of the favourable conditions to get some sketching done around the neighbourhood and in the Old City Quarters of Nanaimo.
To my great surprise, the City Works Department removed some decorative steel structures including a huge replica of a tuning fork that stood for many years on the Diana Kroll plaza in the centre of town. I made a sketch of one of their pick-up trucks from the second floor window of our studio.
Another sketch depicting a view from a bench in the park downtown, looking across the river estuary at some old houses. This is a repeat sketch from many previous occasions of this view while sitting on the same bench.
I start to like the use of illustration markers. They beat watercolours in terms of expediency of use; less tools to manipulate. And markers don’t wrinkle your paper. But they are not as versatile in choices of value and colour. This is a sketch of a house on Selby Street as viewed from a bench in front of a coffee shop called “the white rabbit”.
The next one is a house on Albert Street. The choice of markers with light colours seems limited, at least in our local stores. Also, they are expensive and they don’t last. However, there is quite a variety in very bright and/or dark colours available for illustration markers.
My favourite downtown square at the waterfront is the Pioneer Plaza featuring the “Bastion”, a historical timber structure. It is always a challenge to draw this thing on location.
I mix the purple with the (too bright) yellow markers to get a subdued warm grey.
Sketch-It 