Sketches from a couple meet-ups in the last two weeks: The Powell Street Japanese Festival happens in a park at the centre of the Downtown Eastside - formerly the Japanese neighbourhood of Vancouver, now Canada's poorest postal code. The Japanese people are an integral part of BC society now, despite the infamous internments during the war. The current denizens of the park are more on the fringes, some of them sleeping in the relative security of daylight, a few ranting loudly, and many enjoying the diversion of the big crowd at the festival. It made for a lively drawing environment. Like any good festival, there was lots of food, and, of course, dancing - in this case, older ladies dancing traditional, highly formalized dances about cherry blossoms and other things Japanese. This was during Vancouver's smoky phase a couple weeks ago, so the bright red Rising Sun seemed an appropriate background (I just wish I could draw a round circle...).
At the other end of the Vancouver real estate spectrum, this week's meet-up was in the Yaletown area, the urbane centre of wealthy young professional Vancouver. I find it a difficult sketching place - the glass towers are just too recent/planned/sterile for my tastes. But the riding and walking path along the seawall is a very active place, the view over the water is amazing, and there are boats, lots of boats. I included a big format fish-eye panorama, trying to capture the whole scene while sitting in the shade under the Cambie Street Bridge - challenging and needs work, but fun to try. And the best subject - another sketcher, who sits still as long as you do, even if that's only ten minutes at the end of the day.
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