If it wasn’t for the Urban Sketchers I’m not sure what I’d end up posting. I’ve sketched in the area before but this time took a bit of a different view. Here’s Sunday’s sketch:
You can take a look at all the other great work the sketchers produced on the Urban Sketchers Vancouver MeetUp page.
Another great outing with the Vancouver Urban Sketchers – we went to the Via Rail station near Main Street. Built around 1917 on reclaimed land in False Creek, this building, in addition to being a train station, has also been Greyhound’s Vancouver home since the old bus depot on Dunsmuir Street was torn down. I’ve been travelling on Greyhound since I was 15 so I’m a little sad it’s shutting down its Western Canada operations, although I’m not particularly surprised. My first sketch is the ticket counter, soon to be a memory. I’ve also posted these sketches to the Urban Sketchers site – you can see my fellow sketchers’ work at this link.
We’re in another heat wave in the city but I found a nice shady spot to sit for a couple of hours and sketch. A group of Vancouver Urban Sketchers met at City Hall then spread out around the grounds. Regretfully, I didn’t bring a pad of heavier paper and the scan shows ripples on the page from the washes, but OH WELL. Just means a visit to the art store for more art supplies! Such a chore…
Went out with the Urban Sketchers today – finally! The destination was the Sun Yat Sen Gardens and surrounding area. I sat at a bus stop and drew what was across the street. After two hours, my drawing didn’t seem finished so I added a few things later.
Today’s work is evidence that I have much practice to do. I think that I don’t know really how to organize or plan my drawing. I kind of see something, try to do a pencil draft then get caught up in too much detail and get frustrated. In the end, I may have a sketch but it’s not very…powerful, I guess. The composition isn’t thought out, there’s no real focus – my attention wanders from thing to thing… But it’s still fun. It’s challenging and there’s always a next time. And if I keep at it, maybe I’ll get better.
Here’s a link to today’s group work – worth taking a look: http://www.meetup.com/Vancouver-Urban-Sketchers/photos/27107002/
Here’s my effort today:
I really need to practice drawing cars.
I’ve had an excellent few weeks out of Officeland and in Drawingland. My first week off saw a blitz of drawing, trying to finish some illustrations for that children’s book I mentioned in April’s post. I’ve been plodding along for months trying to get the right look and feel. I just needed a few free days to pull it all together – and I got them finally in July (yeah, I kind of missed my June deadline…) We’ve finished the first draft and now are in the editing/revising phase, hoping to find some children who can give us a preliminary review.
My next break saw me in San Diego attending the 3rd Annual West Coast Urban Sketchers Sketchcrawl – and I had a great time. I made the Meet and Greet on Friday night, then on Saturday headed to Balboa Park for a drawing day with the usual Show and Tell at noon then again at 4 pm. Sunday morning we all met at Old Town for morning sketching and gathered at noon to share our drawings.
Urban Sketchers is a world-wide community and a super group to be a part of. Since I got home, I’ve tried to keep up the momentum and went drawing with a few Vancouver urban sketchers at Burnaby Village (I can’t believe I’ve never been there). This link will take you to my effort, but you should take a look at everyone else’s work while you’re there.
At Balboa Park, San Diego – viewing everyone’s sketches