WHO LET THE DOG OUT?

      When things start to get a little hot, step back, take a deep breath....and cool down!

BREAKING FAST

      Now that's a way to break a fast. From Yolk and Commissary, one of their best sellers: Braised Beef Short Rib. The Stilton Cheese rounded out the flavor of the entire sandwich and brought it all the way home. (The truffle-lemon Hash Browns (wedges) on the side were gooood.)

DR SKETCHY #1

             It was my first time to do some life drawing. The theme for the night was Cabaret. This is an alternative life drawing session where you start with a model wearing an interesting costume.  She did several 1 minute poses, then progressively took a few things off. A different color costume after the break.This time she did a few longer poses (10, 15 minutes). After a couple of poses in this tight corsette, she said to one of her colleagues: "Let's take it off." We got to draw her both clothed and almost completely undressed. The lighting was great showing contours and cast shadows. She was very good with her poses, keeping it dynamic as much as she could. The numbers represent how many minutes the pose took. The very last was a challenge set by the host. The challenge was to incorporate the Eiffel Tower in that sitting position. I tilted her head a bit and used her side profile as reference, drew in the left arm with an open hand from memory. I couldn't remember exactly how the tower looked like, so I kept it small, loose and sketchy.The model came up to me after the show and asked to look at my drawings. She had a big smile on her face seeing the one with the Eiffel Tower and took a picture of it with her phone. After 3 hours of sketching, my wrist was sore and I burned through several pages of paper. I used a blue pencil which is why there is little contrast in the sketch. Overall, it was time well spent and the sore hand was worth every minute of it.

VANCOUVER DRAW DOWN ON GRANVILLE ISLAND HOSTED BY THE URBAN SKETCHERS

CHINCHILLA

         Everything about this little nocturnal rodent from the Andes Mountains is adorable. They are active and playful creatures, require a variety of toys to keep them busy and need lots of room for playtime and exercise. It was around 7pm when I took this shot. Was it time to wake up?

RED SLIDE

Watercolors were something I've always wanted to try but never got to because I felt more comfortable and more in control with graphite on paper. After hearing about the Urban Sketchers and seeing some of their awesome on site sketches and watercolor work, that was enough for me to pick up my portable watercolor palette and give it a try. This is a playground from the George Mclean Park in Burnaby. Once upon a time, this was all that was needed to have fun!