Five hours in Vancouver, B.C.

Who goes to another country just for a few hours of urban sketching? My wife even joked: "Where do you think you are, in Europe?"

Last week, I took a 4-hour train from Seattle to Vancouver just to do that. I met Asnee Tasna, who was visiting from Bangkok, local sketcher Don McNulty, the best host we could possibly have, and Gail Wong, who also came up from Seattle with her husband.

Despite a little train delay, we hit the ground running early in the afternoon. This being a city surrounded by water, it was just fitting to hop on a little boat and go to a place called Granville Island, a former industrial area south of downtown that has been transformed into a vibrant neighborhood and shopping district.



During the boat ride, I did a quick line sketch of Don and Asnee that I colored on my the train back home.

At Granville Island we grabbed some take out food at a lively market and promptly started sketching the art-deco style Burrard Bridge, which dates from the 1930s. I can't remember if it was Asnee or Don who said it was "compulsory" that we sketch the bridge. I appreciated the direction, because there was so much going on around us that I didn't quite know where to start.



Gail, who teaches at the University of Washington, taped a video of Asnee drawing to show her architecture students. Asnee, unfortunately, had no way to come down to Seattle because it's very difficult for Thai residents to get visas to enter the U.S. With more preparation time, maybe we can bring him back to teach a workshop in Seattle!

At the end, we laid out our sketches on a wooden bench and took some "trophy photos" before jumping back on the ferry so I could get to the train station on time.



In all, I was in Vancouver for just a little over five hours, but the trip was well worth it. The opportunity for a Thai, a Canadian, an American and a Spaniard to sketch together doesn't present itself everyday, so this was a very special occasion. I know the memory from this experience is going to last forever.

(Don't miss the accounts and sketches posted by Asnee, Don and Gail!)

On TV!

Kudos to my fellow Seattle sketchers for joining me to promote The Art of Urban Sketching book on TV this morning! We appeared on New Day Northwest, the morning variety show at KING 5, the local NBC affiliate. Gail Wong, who coordinates the local urban sketchers group, shared the hot seat with me while David Hingten, Jane Wingfield, Mark Ryan and Jackie Helfgott sketched the show and mingled with the audience. Have you gotten a copy of the book? I'm curious to know what you think!

The BBOOOOOOKKKK!!!

Today is the official book release date of The Art of Urban Sketching.

The title of this post comes from the subject line of an e-mail I received yesterday from my sketcher friend Teresa Lawson in Port Townsend, WA. Her excitement about The Art of Urban Sketching makes me realize that it was all worth the effort!

I hope the book will inspire many artists like Teresa to keep sketching their cities and motivate others to get started. A huge thank you goes to all the urban sketchers who contributed and trusted me with their words and pictures, and to my one-of-a-kind spouse and family for the support, encouragement and all those hours spent downloading and cataloguing tiff files so I could spend more time curating the content.

If you pick up a copy and like it, consider leaving your feedback on the Amazon page so others can learn more about the book.

Happy urban sketching, folks!

Sketching in museums

Too cold to draw outdoors? Museums are a great place to indulge in urban sketching during the winter season. I recently sketched at Seattle's Museum of History and Industry for my newspaper column. On the photo, you can see a sketch in progress of the locally famous "toe towing truck."

But as fun as sketching inside a museum is, you may encounter some obstacles. For reasons I can't really understand, some museums have strict rules about sketching, going as far as banning wet media such as watercolors. Are they afraid we'll vandalize their art collections? If that was the intention, a car key could do more damage. I think museums should be more friendly to artists. We are their number one customers!

"The Art of Urban Sketching" hits Singapore bookstores

"The Art of Urban Sketching" isn't officially out until February, but in Singapore, the city where it's being printed, some sketchers have already gotten their hands on it!

Photo from Urban Sketchers Singapore Facebook Group.

Teoh Yi Chie (pictured left) says in his blog that he got the last copy on the shelf at Basheer bookstore. According to comments on the USK Singapore Facebook group, the bookstore sold out all the 85 copies they had and will refill the shelves as soon as they can.

Teoh Yi Chie is an sketcher and art blogger who reviews art and design books on his site, Parka Blogs. I was thrilled to read his positive review of The Art of Urban Sketching. He also posted this cool video where you can get a feel for those 320-pages of sketching goodness.


From Parka's flickr photostream.

Dibuja Caracas

Sketch time at the barbershop

I can finally check the barbershop off my list. Ever since I saw João Catarino's barbershop sketch on the Urban Sketchers blog more than three years ago, I've wanted to sketch while getting my haircut. But I never seemed to muster up the courage to do it. Not being that good at the art of small talk -- a handy skill to have in these situations, I've always feared an avalanche of questions from the hair stylist if I started drawing. But this last time, my itch to break a new pocket Moleskine was bigger than my desire to sit quietly and watch 15 or 20 minutes of potential sketching time go to waste.

"You go right ahead," said the hair stylist when I told her that I'd occupy myself sketching while she trimmed away my hair. She respected that. Didn't give me any strange looks. Didn't ask further questions. She didn't even seemed surprised that I wasn't interested in the football match on TV -- every haircutting station at this "Sports Clips" barbershop is equipped with a giant flat screen tuned to ESPN or whatever sports channel you may want.

At the end, I was happy with my haircut, and with my sketch. I'm pretty sure I'll be coming to "Sports Clips" again.

Turkey time

Photo by Lisa Sheffield

The things we do to get a sketch! I recently spend some time drawing turkeys for my Seattle Times column. It was pretty scary. I kept having to fight them off with my Niji waterbrushes so they'd stop pecking at my sketchbook. One of them almost grabbed my brush off my hands!

On Facebook, I invited readers to send captions for this photo:

—‎"Hey, back off! He's working on a masterpiece -- ME!" (by Melissa Gong)
—"And why are you not sketching???" (by Nina Khashchina)

Leave your caption as a comment and I'll add you to the list! For more photos from my turkey sketching time you can also visit this flickr set.

And to those celebrating next Thursday's holiday, Happy Thanksgiving!

How to draw horses

Knowing I would be sketching horses for this week's column, I took a little time to learn about the animals' anatomy beforehand. A Google search on how to draw horses led me to this useful page at elfwood.com, a SciFi/Fantasy art and fiction website.

The article, written and illustrated by Suzanne Jessup, included just what I was looking for: simple diagrams of a horse skeleton and muscles.

Jessup also writes that she's "of the school of thought that you can not draw anything well unless you know how it is put together."

That seems to contradict another rule I also follow: Draw what you see, not what you know. But I think she's still right.

When it comes to drawing live creatures, an understanding of anatomy really pays off. And the same could be said about sketching buildings. Even a basic knowledge of architecture can make a big difference.

Illustration Age

What a nice surprise to discover my work featured on Illustration Age, a website with a motto I fully support: "Long Live Illustration."

I have to thank one of the new Illustration Age editors, Mark Kaufman, for the shout out to my "sketchpad journalism" —I love the sound of those two words together. Mark is a fellow Seattle-based illustrator and the creator of one of my favorite alternative comic strips out there, American Affairs Desk.