Deux Lits Sur Rue Duguesclin

Woke up early this morning and decided to sketch the view from my bed (again). I've been finding it hard to sleep in the mornings because the light fills the room way before its time to get up. When Dominique saw how industrious I'd been in the morning, she realized I didn't know there were shutters outside the windows. She showed me how they work, and tonight I'll sleep like I'm in a tomb. Thank God. One more night on 4-5 hours and I won't be speaking ANY language. 

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Funny that in a city of half a million people both places I'm staying here in Lyon are on the same street. The first, chez Berenger, had this knock-out view! The second, chez Dominique, is absolutely magical. My bedroom looks onto a very typical Lyonnaise building with its tile roof, wood valances and little iron balconies. 

The two hills are called "la Colline qui Prie" and "la Colline qui Travaille"; the hill that prays and the hill that works. Fourviere, of course, has the basilica, and Croix Rousse is where all the silk workers lived and worked. 

I went on a guided walking tour of the presqu'isle with the school yesterday. The history of this place is so interesting, with hills that work and pray, male and female rivers that surge together, church and commerce that have a 'mine is bigger than yours' fight on a hilltop (The Tour Metalique was built to trump the Basilique, by a whopping 2 feet. Take that, church folk!)

'Bound' for France!

 Oh how I love my new sketchbook!  I made it (with the help of this youtube video) using an old French hardcover book I bought for 25 cents at the Centre Culturel Francaise here in Vancouver.  I recovered it with this gilt brocade paper I bought at Opus on Vancouver Island, and filled it with my favourite watercolour paper, some solid coloured paper for line drawings, and a fun collection of patterned papers that I have no idea yet what I'll do with.  That, I suppose, is part of the adventure. 

I've been planning this book, and this trip, for months now.  Some little bug climbed into my ear about a year ago and said "Hey, Canadian girl, it's time you really learned how to speak French".   I signed up for a French class at the Cultural Centre here in Vancouver, found a language buddy to practice with (bonjour Florence!) and started listening to 'Learn French by Podcast' everyday on my endless jaunts to and from our stores.   

 Voila, un an plus tard, here I am prepping and packing for my big French adventure!  It's the pay-off for a year of hard work.  I leave this Friday (only two more sleeps!) and arrive in Lyon the following day.  I'll spend two weeks there doing a language immersion course that I found at Cactus Language Training.  When that's done, I'll meet my husband Greg in Paris for another couple weeks of adventure.  It's been so fun to plan.  All of our accommodations are either through airbnb or homeexchange.com.  Not a single night in a hotel in over a month of travel!

I'm pretty much packed, thanks in part to the fab blog HiP Paris, and am so excited.   I'll try my best to sketch and post as I go.

A bien tot!

The Start Of Nothing New

All For Only $3.99

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My 2013 challenge for myself?  As a reaction to rampant consumerism (mostly my own) I've dubbed 2013 "The Year Of Nothing New".  No purchasing anything new, non-consumable, that will one day end up in a landfill.  Possible?  Well, if it was easy it wouldn't be a challenge.  My first perceived 'need' was a handheld lemon reamer - tired of dismantling and cleaning my citrus juicer after every lemon juice moment.  After striking out in 3 thrift stores, Caede and I headed to Value Village.  There I found the exact reamer I wanted in a $3.99 grab bag with an apple corer, cheese slicer, latte foamer and ginger bread man cookie-cutter, none of which I already had.  I even went looking for the perfect gingerbread cutter before Christmas and came home empty handed.
Was meant to be.

Look at how perfect this little copper fellow is!

So far so good.  Although... It is only January 6th.

Stay tuned.  

Black's Pub, Whistler and Doot, doot, doot lookin'...

Out the backdoor.  I'm perched on a barstool in the kitchen catching the view.  Greg is cooking up our new favourite 'feed a large crew' breakfast; giant bags of 'hash' from Costco with a flat of eggs and a pound of bacon.  We've had sooo much family around all year (which I love!) that we've become pretty proficient at feeding them.  Costco helps. 

I love the light up here, and the crunch of fresh snow.

This sketch was done at Black's Pub in Whistler Village.  We sat and had burgers and beers while half the kids went to see Django in the local theatre.  After living and working up here it's fun to be here just as a tourist.  Lots of action.  

Fam Mortal Kombat Tourney in Whistler

I finally knocked the cobwebs of the sketchbag, picked up a new watercolour sketchbook (thanks Opus sale) and started noodling again.  These have been busy times, plugging a wedding (ours) right in the middle of our busiest season.   And here, in the middle of it all, between Christmas and our New Years Eve wedding, we decide to do a family (yes, all 16 of us, not counting the dogs) trip to Whistler.  The kids are holding a massive Mortal Kombat tournament.  They gather around the TV and whoop like a grey cup game 7 as they digitally pummel and pounce on each other.  Our job seems to be shovelling enough food onto the table to keep it all humming.  It's gorgeous up here, a total winter wonderland.  Yogi is in heaven, romping around in the snow, having all these people to scratch his belly.  We're all sleeping here in the house.  It's a bit crazy, but good.

EDiM Hold Still... I'm Drawing You

It's May!  Time for the Every Day in May Challenge.  The challenge is to do a sketch each day, taking subject cues from a pre-chosen portion of the 'Everyday Matters' list.  You'll find this year's  list later in this post.

The sketch here is from the second item on the new list.  "Draw something that represents a New Year's resolution of yours".  You might think the resolution was to sketch more, but not.  My resolution this year was to get out of my little bubble, become more involved in the community around me.  This sketch is from a life drawing session I went to yesterday here in the hood.  I found out about it on a Vancouver Meet-Up group.  There were six of us tucked into this very cool art studio (thank you Sarah) a few blocks from my house.  It's a shared space, with all kinds of cool artwork/workspaces set up in most corners and the sound of musicians rehearsing in the background.We had no model, so we took turns doing 5 minute sketches of each other.  Had to be quick.  Most of the colour on this one was added later at home.


Here's the whole EDiM list for this month:


1. Draw or paint a landscape
2. Draw something that represents a new year’s resolution of yours
3. Free choice. Draw anything you like.
4. Draw a present you have received. Why is it special?
5. Draw something sweet
6. Draw a holiday card
7. Draw a spoon and journal a little about it
8. Draw an egg carton, with or without eggs in it.
9. Draw a brown paper bag
10. Draw an apple
11. Draw something with wings
12. Draw a button or buttons
13. Draw something breezy - something that blows in the wind - a flag, leaves, your choice.
14. Draw your lunch and journal about it.
15. Draw a traffic sign (stop, yield, crossing, directional, arrows, etc.)
16. Draw a store in your neighbourhood.
17. Draw some bread and write about it if you like.
18. Draw a nearby body of water - ocean, lake, pond, river
19. Draw your artspace - drawing board, desk, studio, table - draw where you create.
20. Draw a streetlight
21. Draw something that makes you happy, and write about it, too.
22. Draw an ear, or two or three or more
23. Draw a souvenir of a place you’ve been. Write a bit about your memories of the place.
24. Draw something cold or cool. Chill, people.
25. Draw some flowers (or colourful showy foliage if you’re in the S. hemisphere and don’t find flowers in bloom.)
26. Draw the ingredients and/or process of a favourite recipe - and journal about it.
27. Draw some clouds and write about them
28. Draw a mailbox and write about the most important piece of real world mail you’ve ever received(not email - snail mail.)
29. Draw somewhere new. Go somewhere new to you and draw what you find. Write about it, too.
30. Draw something representing your favourite sport.
31. Draw what you’re afraid of. Write about it, if you dare.

  If you're a sketcher, or think you'd like to be, give it a go!  It's honestly the best thing I ever did as far as tuning up the drawing skills goes.  The last time I did it, I ended up doing the whole month's worth of drawings with a box of  kids crayons.  I love flipping through that sketchbook; it tells a story.  And, I'm proud of myself for sticking with it the whole way through. I feels good just to finish something.  The sketches from the first year I did it are all on this blog.  Here's day one, just in case you're curious. :-)

Alaska Sketchbook Pages

The first few pages of my Alaska Sketchbook. More to come!

Tragedy on the Sea Wall

Inspired by Cyberdave's Vancouver Sketches, I headed to the Seawall a few days ago to sketch.  Yogi and I have been running along this route every morning lately.  It's absolutely stunning, littered with great sketching spots.

The day after I sketched this, we headed out for our run.  7am.  We had the seawall almost to ourselves to ourselves.  I saw a paddle boarder drifting along slowly, fairly close to the wall. Then I noticed a Coast Guard vessel, also drifting slowly in toward the wall.  As the two of them converged on a point, my consciousness snapped into focus and I realized what I was looking at.  The paddler had spotted a body, and was leading the Coast Guard ship in for pick up.  Yogi and I stood.  It felt dismissive to turn our backs and walk away, and wrong to stand and stare.  We drifted awkwardly together with the couple of other people on the wall, all of us holding our hearts and shaking our heads as a woman was pulled up onto the boat.  Nothing has appeared in the news.  So sad.  I'm carrying a thought for her, whoever she was, with me today.

At Seawall With Dog and Dinosaurs

I did this sketch at the seawall the other night.  I didn't have time to paint it then (if you read the text in the sketch you'll know why) so I just added some colour now.  I'm playing hooky from work today.  Will go in later, but right now I'm needing to fill my soul with a little art, a little music, and a little actual daylight.  Thirteen hour days inside a mall, which is how I spent my yesterday, does not a summer make.

Note to self: Find more excuses to go outside and play.
 

New Style Obsessions

I have a few new obsessions lately.  One of them is work, which is why it's been SOOOO long since I posted (thanks, Hap, for the nudge).  I'm spending seven days a week in our stores right now, hiring, training new staff, etc.  I'm in the mall before it opens and there usually until after close.  I know it's temporary, and the days are actually pretty fun.  We're in the beauty industry, so things are pretty, and the new staff are all great people to pass time with.  I spend so much time now in consumer/fashion land, and that's led to my other new obsessions: painting my fingers and toes (means I'll chill out and stay still while they dry, plus nail polish is one of our best selling items so it makes sense to 'be polished'), fashion blogs that I cruise while waiting for my nails to dry (http://www.stylelikeu.com/ and http://www.deluneblog.com/ are two of my faves), and buying funky eyewear online (http://www.clearlycontacts.ca/,  good deals). 
So, that's where I've been; in a mall, living off of starbucks coffee and food court fare.  I squint in direct sunlight and know every word to the top 40 songs that play over and over on our instore music system.  The new staff is almost trained though, and there's a light at the end of the tunnel.  Two, actually.  At the end of August I'll be heading off with 499 other industry folk to a conference in Cancun, and two weeks later I'm taking my beautiful mom on a one week cruise to Alaska.  Paint bag will be joining me on both trips.  And maybe a few bottles of nail polish as well.

A Life (Changing) Sentence!?

My new scanner is very blurry, so here's the text..

My model buddy lisa invited me out to a runway show for Vancouver's Eco-Fashion Week.  "It's fashion-y" she said. "Wear heels."  I wore this great little wool strapless Kenzie dress and vintage choker from my sister's closet.  The dress has an empire waist, front pleat and pockets.  I love pockets!  Then for the shoes.  I was deciding between these fantastic 4 1/2" slingbacks and my comfy stack-heeled everyday boots.

And then, from seemingly nowhere, the little voice in my head piped up and said "It's February, and you're forty-seven".  I zipped up the boots.  The show was great.  I loved Nicole Bridger (www.niclolebridger.com).

Still not talking to the voice in my head though.

New Hood

Braved the February chill this morning and sat at the end of our block to capture this view.  I've been in Vancouver pretty much full time since November.  We took a townhouse in Yaletown, which is about equidistant between our two stores down here.  Life has been a circuit of work, dog-walk, sleep.  I keep walking past all these great sketching sites every morning, afternoon and night when I take Yogi out to the puppy park and 'poopy island' (the giant grassy median one block over from here).  Every day I walk past something and think "this'd be a good place to sketch", and somehow three months have rolled by without taking the time.  We just planned a trip to Zihuatanejo, so I thought it was time to get out my bag and get the sketch brain going.

This spot is a busy one.  I'm sitting at the T intersection of Beatty and Nelson.  There are bikes, dogs, one million cars and busses, several passers-by, and one lady asking directions to Expo Boulevard.  Traffic is racing past my toes, headed onto the Cambie Street Bridge via Nelson.  Our townhouse is on the left here, obscured by the cars and trees, and that's the lovely Sun Tower Building at the far end of Beatty, on the right.

Hooked On Books

Hooked on Books, Main Street, Penticton

Sketched this over my morning coffee, Yogi at my feet.  Hooked on Books, here on the right, is the newest store to carry my book, and they've invited me to do an event in their wonderful shop!  On September 23, 7-9 pm, I'll be doing a talk on waking up your creativity.  I'll be selling books, including handmade blank sketchbooks and covers.  Admission is by donation, proceeds going to 'Raise a Reader'.  I'm very excited about the whole thing.  If you're in Penticton come on down.

I haven't been blogging much lately.  My dad hasn't been well.  He's in the hospital in Kelowna, an hour away, and we've all been taking rotating shifts sitting with him.  He's 86 and has had a wonderful life.  It's hard to see him struggling now, but we're glad to still have him with us.  I've been so busy between working, sitting with dad, and putting together my new book proposal (more on that soon) that I've forgotten to go sketching lately!  Today was the first time I've dipped my brush in water since the Wells trip.  It felt good.  Sketching is always like a little brain holiday from everything else that's going on.  Love it.

More Travel Sketchbook Videos!

OK, making the video tour of Wells prompted me to go on a video making SPREE!  Here are some of my favourite old sketchbook journals, made into videos on youtube.  Fun!  Click on the journal cover and it'll take you to the video.

Wells Sketchbook 2

The Wells Sketchbook:  I know I posted a few of these while I was en route, but the images were from snapshots and not that clear.  Here's the whole book scanned.  This is such an amazing place, I could have stayed and filled another three books if my real life weren't beckoning me back home.

Front Cover Wells 2010 Journal

back cover

Folding Hard Cover for Handmade Sketchbooks!

I recently switched from using hard-covered watercolour field sketchbooks to making my own flip sketchbooks out of watercolour paper (how-to video here).  I love the books, but the one drawback was that, without a hard cover, the books weren't protected and would get a little beat up with use.  The other challenge was that I no longer had a hard surface under my paper to work against.  So... I made this cool cover!  The folding sketchbooks just slide in under an elastic on the spine.

When I finish one, I can take it out of the cover and pop another one in.

Both sides have flip-out panels, so no matter which way the paper folds out, there's a panel underneath it.  There's a silver elastic down the centre spine to hold it in, and a white ribbon to hold the whole thing closed in my bag.

This fabric was a dress I bought (cheap) for a French themed dinner party.  I never really wore it in real life.  Looking at it now, it's kind of funny how much the sketches look like Yogi and me.  They are even the kind of outfits that I wear (when I'm not in paint covered sweats).  The dress looks much better on a sketchbook cover than on a person.
I learned a few things that I'd do differently next time, but overall I'm totally happy with it.

Tomorrow morning I leave for Wells!  The camper van is packed full of art supplies and fun toys (guitar, good books and music).  I've prepped a ton of canvi.  Ten days of sketching/painting/yogaing/camping.  Beam me up!

Weird Life Drawing Night

I had kind of a weird time at life drawing last night.  I think I was just in a very different head space.  I was feeling like my life drawings lately have been sort of 'all the same', and even though I've been thinking I'm capturing a more realistic slice of life than I was before, that it might be safe and boring.  I wanted to get looser.  And I wanted to get over my Payne's Grey addiction that was starting to creep into my sketches.  The results seem to be lacking in any accuracy,  and not yet loose enough to be worth it. There are a few moments I like though, like the warm reflected light under this one's chin and on her far arm.   I'm also trying to draw more with the paint rather than outline and fill.  Sometimes working, sometimes not.  The other thing I was feeling aware of last night is that when I spend this much time in art brain, I stop being able to communicate very well.  I get all tongue-tied and quiet and insecure, which if you know me you'll know is unusual.  I'm so deep into observe mode that I stop being able to express.  Not every time, but sometimes.  I wonder if that happens to everyone?

This red one was done during a particularly crashy and aggressive piece of music.  It's funny how those things filter in, probably a combination of how it affects both model and artist.  

These reclining figures were fun.  I think the weirder the perspective, the more I have to rely on observation rather than knowledge.  That's probably a good thing.  Didn't want to believe I was avoiding the foot that fell off the page in the lower one, and so there it is poking in at the top.  

This model is always so good.  She knows what'll be interesting, and really holds it well over the 20 minute poses.  

Around My Neighbourhood Sketchbook Video

Here's another one of my little sketchbooks all filled up, this time from in and around my neighbourhood.  In fact, every scene in here, with the exception of The Cannery Building, is on my morning dog walking route.

Just click on the book front or back (or right here) and it'll take you to the youtube video version.   

The video how-to for making these little flip journals is right here