Back to Mooreside

I went sketching today with Marc Holmes who is one the Urban Sketchers ringleaders. ( AKA Citizen Sketcher - http://citizensketcher.wordpress.com/2012/05/20/drawing-experiments/) He and his wife, Laurel, were visiting  Ottawa from Montreal for a few days to draw and photograph the Mayan exhibit at the Museum of Civilization.

I took them up to Mooreside, the McKenzie King Estate.  I figured that they would have found the good subjects in Ottawa on their own and that with Mark's affinity for Victorian architecture, the faux ruins at the estate would be something they would be unlikely to discover on their own.

It was a pleasure to share my affinity for  the estate and chat as we did what we do.  As it worked out I  completed one drawing in my little sketchbook at Mark's halfway point and after checking out his work I had time to do a second sketch. Those interludes were influential in helping me loosen up and leave some white space. The photos are Marc working his magic, and the drawings below are my little sketches. You can see the effect of just a few minutes of looking at his work in my second  sketch.