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!

SLOW DOWN

        I found this guy making his way down a branch of a small tree. Why was it going away from the leaves? Where was it going? What was it gonna do when it gets there? Probably finding shade, wanting a break from all that work...eating. 

FRIEND OR FOOD?

         Got this baby T-rex in a toy store on Granville Island. It just had a look on it's face. Naturally I had to photograph it. This is one of the few pics that survived the cut. Here it is present day, in a forest, staring at a lumpy green caterpillar, not really knowing whether to eat it or maybe just be a vegan.

TOFU TOWER

          I don't usually do this to my food, but tonight, I thought I'd fix it up a bit to make it more enticing to eat...then I thought of taking a picture of it...then i thought of adding some of the ingredients I used as background...then...well, here it is: Pan Fried Tofu with herbs and chili, sauteed white mushrooms with Mirin, baby Bok Choy with some honey and fresh grape tomatoes. Dinner is served!

CARROT COCONUT GINGER SOUP

         I had this soup at work a couple of weeks back and it was so good. I thought I'd google the recipe and do it from scratch from the veggie broth to making the puree without a blender, but with my juicer. haha. It turned out pretty good. Pat on the back to myself!

SMOKED MEAT SANDWHICH

    The Paint Nite event took place at Dunn's Famous Restaurant. Dinner was a Reuben Sandwich meal: Smoked meat, sauerkraut and melted Swiss Cheese on rye. It came with a side of coleslaw, half a Montreal Dill Pickle and poutine. I read that the meat is smoked for 17 days and steamed for 3 hours prior to serving. You will be asked by your server if you want the meat lean, medium or FATTY. It's kinda big so one order is good for two. This apparently is huge in Montreal. In the U.S. it is known as corned beef! It was quite juicy, sauerkraut wasn't overpowering and the meat wasn't salty as it might look. It was a pretty good sandwich. Now I regret not ordering FATTY.

PAINT NITE 1

                                               There was an instructor guiding us as we painted along. Her painting is titled: Fireflies. I call mine, "Sunny Side Up In The Sky With A Drop Of Heinz". It started at 630pm and ended at 830. I was kinda hungry but time flew quickly. Art has got to comes first! A glass of wine, some acrylics and some good company on a Wednesday night downtown at Paint Night. I had always wanted to try this! I'm not very good at following instructions but it's all about having fun. After all it is my painting!