Urban Sketcher

Posted on Mar 7, 2014 in Vancouver | 0 comments

Lobby of the Pan Pacific Hotel

Lobby of the Convention Centre East

The challenge in setting up sketching sessions in the winter months for my meetup group is to find sheltered, heated public locations with bathrooms, accessible by public transit, and something interesting to draw. Museums are great, but they’re not free. So I try to vary it.

Still, this time my plan looked like a wash; the Convention Centre West, where I wanted to draw on January 11, was closed for a private function. But we walked over to Canada Place, which now houses the Convention Centre East, and drew there. It’s best to stay flexible when you’re a sketcher. If you can’t draw the thing you planned on, you can always draw something else.

After going through all the seasons in one full year with the Vancouver Urban Sketchers, we now have a good library of sketching locations at our fingertips.

Posted on Mar 7, 2014 in Vancouver | 0 comments

I need to go back in time a bit: On January 5, we had the biggest ever meetup of the Vancouver Urban Sketchers. Over 50 people signed up, and I think 45 of them actually came! Luckily, I had picked the downtown main branch of the Public Library, a cavernous building which can easily absorb that amount of sketchers without sustaining structural damage.

We spread out and drew up a storm, then invaded a coffee shop to show each other our drawings. I think the large crowd was due to a bit of a New Year’s resolution factor, as in “this is the year I will finally get back into drawing and spend less time exercising.”

Although when I told this to a friend of mine, she said “I would never make that resolution. In fact, I’ve decided not to draw this year at all.” And it’s true, she never draws.