Category Archives: Urban Sketching

Cartoons, drawing, Urban Sketching

Art in the time of Coronavirus*

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Hunkered down like everyone else, I’ve found comfort in doing art – I’ve kept up with my Daily Drawings and am online with the Vancouver Urban Sketchers who have started to gather together virtually. We’ve pushed the rules a bit – we’re not necessarily outside drawing the urban landscape but we’re still drawing stuff!

I’ve also been drawing my anxiety. We’re all anxious, right? And we have to find ways to deal with it like keeping in touch with friends, meditating (not enough, but anyway…), beer, (did I say beer?) and silly cartoons:

Cartoon

This is today’s daily drawing, by the way. And, really, I haven’t reached the official retirement age. I also know of people older than me** who appear to have the energy and vitality of people much younger.

Yesterday, the urban sketchers did “Food & Drink” and I participated by spending time drawing my lunch:

Lunch
Pen and Ink, Pencil Crayon

This was also my Daily Drawing. I had the time, so I spent a couple of hours on it for a change. I think I mentioned that I’m accountable to another artist for the Daily Drawing so I asked if I could include one of her Dailies in my blog. The artist is Lori Fillo and this is one of my favourites:

Caulfeild Cove

Stay hunkered and take care!

*This is also a good time to read and here’s a suggestion: “Love in the time of Cholera”, by Gabriel García Márquez.

** Of course I’m a fan!

drawing, Painting, Urban Sketching

Mount Pleasant Sketching

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By golly, this daily sketch thing is very – pleasant. I feel more energized about my practice even on the days when I get home from work, it’s dark and the last thing I feel like doing is drawing. I do it anyway. Because I’m accountable. To another artist who’s doing the same. While I’m still in Officeland, this kind of practice keeps me sane (or reasonably close to it, anyway).

Today, I met up with the Urban Sketchers in Mount Pleasant and did two fast sketches. For the first one I went outside. It was wet-ish, chilly and slightly rainy and water drops kept diluting the ink in my pen. Then, while trying to erase some weak pencil lines, my drawing went a little smudgy. What a mess! I’m posting it anyway. For the 2nd one I was on the third floor at the Mount Pleasant Community Centre. This one is also a wee bit messy, but – who cares! The urban sketchers who got together today have posted their work here if you want to take a look. It’s such an interesting neighbourhood but it’s under threat from development now that the subway is going in. I hope that it retains its character and its old buildings – some of them anyway.

Kingsway & Main Street, Vancouver

Street Scene Main & 8th, Vancouver

 

Cartoons, drawing, Urban Sketching

I don’t care

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I’ve just started a daily sketch exchange with another artist. There are no rules, no judgement, and you can take 5 minutes or 5 hours. You just sketch and exchange – every day. I love it. I have done a sketch every day and just not cared about being perfect, drawing well, judging my work or worrying about how much time I should spend on it to make it “better”. I just do a sketch. I did one at the office last week because I knew I had no time later. 5 minutes – that’s it. I grabbed an old piece of cardboard and a felt pen and drew the plant on the counter while I waited for my ride. One day I drew someone on the skytrain (very quickly before they noticed and became uncomfortable!) Today, at my first Urban Sketchers gathering in a while, I did three sketches! Normally, I go to one of these sessions and fret about what to draw, worry the lines and feel anxious about the result. But now – I don’t care! I just draw. I posted two of my sketches on the urban sketchers site (here’s the link). Below is a smattering of the dailies, including one of Aunt Cyn – a “sketch” after my first Tai Chi class of 2020…

drawing, Urban Sketching

Powell Street Festival sketching

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The Powell Street Festival – on Powell Street and surrounding area, naturally – provided some great urban sketching opportunities. I parked myself on the side of an alley and sketched away. I never posted the sketch though because I was disappointed, thinking that my spacing of the telephone poles across the street wasn’t quite right. Why do I worry about “accuracy” anyway? It’s just a sketch and the point is to get an impression, a feeling, a sense of place. I tell myself. Over and over again.

So, last week my nephew drove us down to the Belgard Kitchen (what a fantastic place!) to join his lovely fiance for a brew and we happened to drive by my sketching spot. Guess what! The telephone poles ARE actually abnormally far apart! Here’s the sketch:

Alley on Dunlevy Street

Actually, I’m still not that happy with it. Anyway, here’s a link to the day’s work by other Urban Sketchers.