Urban Sketcher

Posted on Sep 24, 2013 in Vancouver | 0 comments

On Saturday, September 21, us Vancouver urban sketchers met at Finch’s Market, a funky new cafe in the historic Strathcona neighbourhood here in Vancouver. The bad weather even held off apart from a few sprinkles of rain, so I was still enjoying the easy bike riding that comes with good weather. I had a great time and I think the others did as well. 13 of us showed up, some people drew outside, others in the cafe.

I used to rent an office downtown kitty-corner from Finch’s first location at Homer and Pender from 2003 to 2007, and have great memories of their brown-paper wrapped baguette sandwiches.

At some point the staff noticed: “Hey, everyone’s drawing in here! What’s going on?” So I told them about our meetup group. It was a fun change for them to not see everyone typing on a laptop.

The focus and concentration of sketchers, as well as their enjoyment of what they are doing, is palpable.

Vancouver urban sketchers at Finch’s Market. I am 4th from left.

Posted on Sep 23, 2013 in Vancouver | 1 comment

My friend eman is moving up north. I am just realizing he will leave a gap behind in my life. We have known each other for a solid 25 years. We both studied graphic design at Emily Carr University, we are both freelance designers and have worked together on several accounts.

Over the last 8 or 10 years or so, we’ve increasingly encouraged and inspired each other’s art practice; his in photography, mine in drawing. It’s not that difficult to fly to and from Whitehorse, but “beer o’clock” on Friday afternoons will be on hold for the time being (or we have to sip via Skype) :). On hold, too, will be our photo/sketch walks, and show & tell times.

Bon voyage, eman! You’re an inspiration.

Posted on Sep 19, 2013 in Vancouver | 0 comments

The beautiful Precious Metal delivered a great mix of heavy metal and burlesque, and interesting poses.

I am really enjoying drawing clothed models these days. Well, semi-clothed is more accurate.

Precious Metal was modelling at the alternative-model mid-week Dr. Sketchy session at Hot Art Wet City. From their website, it is “an art gallery, shop, and blog in Vancouver, BC. Art shows feature fun and accessible art, interactive events, workshops, seminars, talks, and more. Pop-culture and fan-art themes, narrative and figurative work, graphic design, illustration, low-brow, pop-surrealism, prints, originals… you won’t find lengthy artist statements here. HAWC supports emerging and established artists from Vancouver, BC.”

I am thinking about recreating some of my sketches of burlesque women as copper etchings. The drawing below would work well. But before then I should probably finish my first copper etching project. So much to draw, so little time!

Posted on Sep 18, 2013 in Vancouver | 0 comments

This was a beautiful, large-scale pageant of boats and ceremonial tribal garments, as well as a touching ceremony. It was full of emotional pain and sadness, shockingly so. There are deep wounds in the First Nations consciousness. It’s easy to forget those in one’s everyday life.

Many First Nations people attended this event, and it appeared to be very meaningful to them. I felt almost like an intruder, sketching the proceedings. But a couple of people said nice things to me about my drawing. At the end, as we cheered on the canoes paddling out of the ceremonial area, it felt to me like a bit of heaviness had lifted.

Snippets from reconciliationcanada.ca:

… Watch as beautiful cedar dugout canoes paddle into False Creek from Vanier Park to Science World and are welcomed in a traditional ceremony to the Coast Salish lands.

… Indian residential school survivors will partake in the water that day and paddle up for protocol for recognition and honor.

… The cultural significance of the canoe movement is the resurgence of songs, dances, names, language and teachings.

… up to 110 canoes attend these cultural tribal journeys.

Posted on Sep 16, 2013 in Vancouver | 0 comments

The Park-a-Park/disposal bin was moved to Granville Island, right in front of Emily Carr University of Art and Design. So of course we sketchers had to climb in there again. I moved across the street shortly after our meet and greet though, it was the perfect opportunity for me to sketch the art school where I spent four years of my life. The drawing could benefit from some colour, but there wasn’t time that day.

I was reminiscing a bit about my college years while drawing it. I thought of Fred, Ted, and Ken, my trio of fully-bearded design instructors who had to share a single vowel. They were the steady ones in what seemed like institutionalized insanity at times. But my first year at ECUAD in what’s still called Foundation Program was probably my favourite — it seems like such a luxury now that I got to spend a whole year taking a wide variety of art courses before studying graphic design for the remaining three years.

One of my most memorable instructors from first year died just this summer: Dennis Burton. Born in 1933 in the prairies, he was an excellent painter and drawer, kept consummate sketchbooks which he displayed all around his classroom, and believed in the craftsmanship of drawing. I probably worked harder in his class than in any other. His stylized images of women’s garters (and women in them) from below, above, or at the craziest angles are some of his best-known work. Dennis told us they were inspired by the Sears catalogues that were delivered to his rural home when he was a boy, their undergarment section containing the most revealing imagery of the female form that he had ever seen.

My first life drawing sessions ever were in Dennis’s drawing class. He always put on music, mostly jazz, and chatted with the models, which put us nervous newbies at ease. His obliquely worded assignments, such as “draw a sleeping animal”, could produce a wide range of fascinating interpretations. And despite an asthmatic student’s complaint, Dennis kept smoking in the classroom while ranting about the “philistines” in the school administration who were thinking of actually banning smoking from the entire school. Yes, it was a different era.

After our drawing session in the bin, I took “my sketchers”, as I affectionately think of them, to New Leaf Editions where I’ve been working on copper etchings of some new urban sketches for a poetry book. The owner, Peter Braune, gave them an insight into his traditional printmaking studio.

Posted on Sep 10, 2013 in Vancouver | 2 comments

The Dr. Sketchy Vancouver session on Sunday September 8 featured Camero Luvroc as Marilyn Monroe. Above: a 1-minute pose. I like the thick marker for its bold, expressive line quality. And how it doesn’t allow me to get hung up on detail.

I think the above was a 5- or a 10-minute pose. This was my favourite sketch from the evening. The figure seems to have some gravity, but nothing is laboured, and I drew most of it in a fluid line.

I think this was a 15-minute pose. I used a white Pitt marker on wood veneer, trying to draw highlights only. You can see a few black strokes on her right arm where I gave up on just the highlights, and tried to add shadows as well, which wasn’t necessary. I am mainly showing this for the beautiful wood texture and as an inspiration for others to use wood veneer as a drawing surface — it’s not my favourite sketch ever. I got really uptight about the tutu, which is probably the opposite of how one should go about drawing the fluffiness that is a tutu. But I will keep trying to draw on wood veneer pieces, I think the idea has potential, I am excited!

Posted on Sep 10, 2013 in Vancouver | 0 comments

The last page in my moleskine watercolour sketchbook. I tried to leave this sketch a bit unfinished. Or maybe I just didn’t want to stare at the people for too long.

For Sunday Sept. 8, I had set up two sketching outings, one in my favourite disposal bin, the Park-a-Park, the other one at a Dr. Sketchy Vancouver session in the evening.

Julien had arranged for the Park-a-Park to be moved to the Food Cart Fest in False Creek for just the Sunday afternoon. Three other sketchers came: Dino, Glenn, and Rachel. Julien, his girlfriend and a couple of their friends hung around there too. Glenn, Rachel and I figured out that we’re all neighbours — it just took sitting and drawing in a disposal bin together. It’s great to know there are sketchers living nearby; when the fall and winter rains arrive, I foresee a couple of impromptu sketching sessions at one of the many hipster coffee shops in our neighbourhood.

In the bin, with Julien, we had several random, yet all art-related conversations. I’ll try to summarize a couple of the topics, because they were interesting, and I want to remember what we talked about:

Big name artists who employ large numbers of assistants

And not just to mix their paint and prep their canvasses and empty their ash trays, but to actually execute art for them: artists like Andy Warhol, Damien Hirst, Dale Chihuly, and many others have done that or are doing it now. That model of the artist’s studio already existed in medieval times, when a master painter would train many apprentices to paint in the “house style”. So does it really matter whether something is drawn by hand, by the actual artist, or is it the idea behind the art that matters? What role does craftsmanship play in art?

My brother-in-law, who builds and rebuilds unicycles and sailboats and motors, but professes to dislike both modern art and frou-frou drinks in fancy hotel bars (the latter purely to spite me), says it’s the lack of craftsmanship in much of modern art that turns him off. But I think art is not just about craftsmanship, there has to be something more. A unique way of interpreting the world, maybe.

I think a good mindset as an artist is to realize that you’re an alien who’s been dropped into this world from outer space. Then you set out to discover everything. Just keep the alien thing on the down-low.

Drawing people in public vs. photographing them

Like most sketchers, I have a hard time staring at strangers long enough in order to draw them, I really don’t want to intrude on anyone. With models, I have permission, but then it’s posed. Of course, friends or family or other sketchers may allow you to draw them, but they won’t be 100% natural either. Candidly drawing or photographing strangers on the street is a bit like photographing wildlife; it’s tricky but capturing a true-to-life pose or expression can be wonderful.

Dino said he tried to draw some native artists who were selling their crafts on the street, and they all got very irate when they noticed him drawing them. Maybe they were concerned about him intruding on their turf, being another artist? But I am certain that they cannot forbid him to draw them. Just as in street photography, where everybody who’s out on a public street is fair game for your camera, drawing a street scene with people in it is perfectly legal. Drawings of people are even permissible in places where photography is forbidden, such as during court proceedings.

Rachel pointed out that drawings are edited to only show that which is considered important by the artist, and are therefore not considered as neutral or realistic as photographs, hence the court artist is accepted where a photographer is not. Also due to time constraints, often a sketched portrait will be more of an impression than high realism. It’s about telling a story.

I tried to find some writing on street drawing and ethics, but I’ve only found entries on the ethics of street photography. Some of the thoughts here might apply to drawing as well:

• Ming Thein on street photography and ethics
• Eric Kim on street photography and ethics

As sketchers, I think it’s important to exercise our right to draw in public. It can feel awkward at first, but one gets used to it.

And we can’t help ourselves anyway.