The Professional Webspace of Designer and Illustrator Kevin Cornell:
"Design, Art, and Lackluster Humor."
More Sketchbook Spelunking
I had some time last week to work on my latest sketchbook, which has sat neglected since I came back from my friendly northern neighbor. The current sketchbook is Sixteen — I've had it for about 3 or 4 months now, but until last week it hadn't seen a lick of color. When I finally did get back to the stranded pages, there was a fair amount of pencil roughs begging for pigment-dowsage; and as of this post I can now say that the specific purchase of a snooty watercolor sketchbook was justified.
The building in this spread is loosely-based on a church in Ottawa called "St. Brigid's". I say loosely-based, because the pencil rough was quickly scribbled down as we walked through town, then inked hours later (while drinking, which guarantees flaws) — so I had forgotten all the unique details that made it St. Brigid's. Watercoloring it weeks later probably didn't aid visual accuracy, either. But I might not get too many complaints about inaccuracy, once it's not there anymore. If memory serves me, the church was actually on the cusp of being closed down... or whatever the equivalent of that would be for a church. De-holied (I'd say condemned, but you don't condemn a church; it condemns you). Anyway... it might not actually be there in a few months... which is a sad thought, that such handsome architecture will disappear in a puff of smoke (or the WHOOSH-CRASH-CRUMBLE of Wrecking Ball).
Comments on this Article
There are currently 36 comments.
2. Joshua Lane
Oh, churches can be condemned... but only by other churches (and possibly even by scientology centers). There's a lot of chanting involved and, believe it or not, a fruit salad dinner afterwards.
3. bearskinrug
Testmonkey - Hmmm... you might be right... they did serve Tang at the pancake breakfast...
Josh - That's shocking.... I hate fruit salad....
4. anders
the correct term, I believe, is desacralized...just heard it on the radio the other day, when a font (no, the OTHER kind) was to be desacralized before it could be moved to a better spot in its church...love the B, by the way ;P
5. Shane Guymon
I love the type treatment. I thought it was castle at first...
So I guess your next installment should be a quick sketch of the aftermath...
7. martha
wow... so beautiful (your sketch and painting, i mean)
i want to hang this in my house!!!
11. bearskinrug
Anders - Desacralized, eh? Good to know! And that B is from the signage of a bar around Ottawa... started with a "b"... "Black Rose" I think. It was an Irish Pub... though pretty much every place looked like an Irish Pub. Which is pretty awesome, actually.
Shane - Haha - yeah, a beautiful rubble pile!
Charles - You got that right. I have a LOT of trouble keeping watercolor on the page. And there are trace amounts of feces.
Martha - Thanks Martha!
KM - Haha - sounds like a deal, as long as you take 1/8 of my shitty, shitty memory as well...
Noa - :D
Brandon - Hell! Fart!
12. mearso
Great watercolour, just one question - How'd you get your pics of sketchbooks so good? Every thime I try to take a pic of mine, they end up crappy quality.
cheers
15. bearskinrug
Mearso - Hmmm - are speaking in terms of "How do you get a good scan?" or "How do you get a good photograph?" Because this is actually a scan; and each scanner is unique in how it chooses to interpret the image.
My scanner tends to dull scanned images, make blacks greyish, and make whites a bit yellow. With every scan, I have to use Photoshop's "Levels" adjustment filter to get the image to resemble the original, real image.
Also, when you excessively shrink an image (as I always have to do to post it here), it'll tend to blur a little, so it's best to sharpen it a tad.
16. Terry Tolleson
wow... gotta say it backwards - wow.
Also - there is something about that red tree on the left that is quite pleasing indeed. So majestic and strong looking.
18. martha
yeah yeah... a print... do a print...
PLEASE!!! i'll buy one... i promise!
21. Nikki Noodle
woah man, that was the most climactic scroll down i ever had. beautiful!
also... did you hand cut those nifty little dividers???
22. bearskinrug
yep - though they're not as handy as I thought they'd be... I guess they'd be more helpful in a bigger book!
24. RonaldB
Hey, a chance to check your coloring again, Kev!
So, they're still trying to keep it alive; well, that nifty 90's cursor trail is bound to help (see Photo Gallery)!
25. Popo
"Desanctify" is the term I'm familliar with. And if you like old Catholic churches and beer, Pittsburgh has the place for you. http://www.churchbrew.com/index.html
27. bearskinrug
28. Jared
Here in America, we don't condemn buildings. We convert them (and everything else) into condos.
29. bearskinrug
Well, to be fair, we also give many buildings a chance to become a crackhouse.
30. huxley
@Jared,
Well, you could live in the bell tower and there'd be lots of room to store garbage where the pews used to be in.
32. scott
Ottawa has some of the most beautiful architecture. I was there for a week last year and never wanted to leave. If they tear this church down that will be too bad, because what replaces it probably won't be as easy on the eyes.
33. bearskinrug
Very true... very true. And if I remember correctly, there was already a few boxy, warehouse-esqe buildings blotting that corner...
35. Steve Rose
Hi. St. Brigid's Church in Ottawa is historically protected on the inside and outside. The Episcopal Corporation is trying to sell the building and close the church to it's parishioners, though they are keeping up the good fight.
The building will always be there, though it's fate as a church is uncertain as of Feb 1st 2007. Parishioners are seeeking due process in court where they might over-rule the closure of the church and keep it open.
Too bad when Mr. Cornelly walked by this lovely building, he didn't have a chance to see how gorgeous it is inside.
I've copied your sketch and I hope you don't mind me using it for a future St. Brigid's Church Event of some sort.
36. bearskinrug
Sounds like it's for a good cause - so no problem. Thanks for the update, Steve!
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1. testMonkey
Perhaps it will simply ascend into heaven? Or, from the looks of it, blast off?