Lonsdale - Upper Levels Highway

With a couple hours free on a lovely early fall afternoon, I finally returned to my project to draw all the blocks on Lonsdale.  My random number generator sent me to the block where Lonsdale passes over the Upper Levels Highway, so I was able to capture one of the great cultural treasures of North Vancouver - the hours-long traffic jam that extends across the whole city every day as people try to get to the Second Narrows Bridge.  It was a fairly intense drawing experience on the bridge, with traffic roaring up Lonsdale behind me, and traffic going nowhere beneath me.  I did remember one essential drawing tool - noise-cancelling headphones.  That made it quite bearable, and I was thankful that I didn't have to draw that block on a rainy evening in November.

Spare moments

Motivated by starting a new mini-sketchbook, I found some good sketching moments on this week's work trip to Edmonton.  It seems there's a lot more time for drawing than you would think, if you don't do silly things like work all the time...

Fun challenge - try to find Satan in the drawings below.  Hint: He's playing a stringed instrument.  He actually seemed to be a cheerful fellow, but pens slip sometimes.  Or maybe the Guinness let me see through to his true nature?

Flamenco opening tonight

A group show of flamenco-themed art "Arte y Pasion" is opening tonight at Basic Inquiry - 1011 Main Street, Vancouver (across the street and just north of the Via and Greyhound station).  Everyone is invited to the opening, 7-10pm.  It should be exciting - there are 80 works from 27 artists plus unframed sketches, and there will be flamenco guitar music and dancing courtesy of Flamenco Roasario.  I have 4 pictures in the show and a handful of sketches.

An eve with Adam

Adam was our model at Simply Drawing on Thursday evening.  (As an unfigleafed model, he's probably a bit tired of the Garden of Eden allusions, but I couldn't resist).  Having done a fair amount of life drawing, there's some trepidation walking into a session, knowing that it's going to be three hours of struggle.  So it's a relief to see a model with features that make the drawing easier - wrinkles, ample curves, well-defined muscles, quirky faces, or ... dreadlocks!  Lots of big dreadlocks!  And a dreadbeard!  (If that's a thing.)  Adam was a joy to draw, especially when I remembered wise words that Shari Blaukopf said in a workshop "You can make your lines and washes accurate or not - that's up to you.  But you have to make them interesting."  Drawing or painting every dreadstrand was out of the question, so I worked on interesting, or at least fun.

As an aside, I've been busy with work recently, mostly pushing artistic endeavours aside.  But tonight I saw a picture on the internet painted in 1943, an urban-sketch of Marakesh.  It was by an amateur artist, name of Winston Churchill.  I understand that he too had a pressing day-job at the time.  But he didn't let it get completely in the way of what was important...

 

Dr Tiki

Dr Sketchy returned to a cafe, after the no-fun-loving City of Vancouver shut down the show at the Wallflower Cafe - some licence technicality about not allowing women on stage where good food is served and no gang members are present.  A venue up the street - which should probably remain nameless, because you never know when a Vancouver municipal employee might read my blog - hosted the event, with Lydia deCarlo as Cheeky Tiki.  She had the '60's housewife "exotica" look down pat, with the yellow dress, the hair, and, of course, the leopard-print underwear.  And the cool music to go with it all.  I forgot how much I missed Dr Sketchy nights.  I'll be following it around to its future clandestine locations - until the City of Vancouver shuts it down again, for illegal use of a giant clam shell or simply for being too much fun.