Author: Belinda

Outing Sketches – Sister City Sketching Event #5 – Any Historic Building or Eau Claire & Bow River Lumber Co. Building

Is spring really here????? ✨🤞😎🌞

What fabulous weather!!!! To be sketching without a jacket felt soooooo good. Just sketching outside in mid-March was remarkable. Even ran into some fellow sketchers on Friday, and Rod came by on a bike to scope the place out.

Next sketch outing is Saturday, March 27 (11:30am-2pm) – Sketching from your vehicle, Tuxedo Park.

Sister City Sketching Event #5 – Any Historic Building or Eau Claire & Bow River Lumber Co. Building

March 13 11:30 to 2:00

For those new to this event, the week leading up to the second Saturday, thru the winter, Calgary USk’s are going to be collaborating with the Edmonton USk’s by sketching the same theme.

The theme is Heritage Building

This week you have a choice. Sketch any Heritage Building, or meet to sketch the Eau Claire & Bow River Lumber Co. building. You may know this as the 1886 Buffalo Cafe. You are welcome to sketch anytime this week.

Hopefully the weather will hold, if not, dress warm 😊 Meet at 2 pm , northside of 1886 Buffalo Cafe for a photo op.

Why has it become important to sketch this building now….

Construction on Eau Claire Plaza is finally starting this spring! This is a a multi-year project and includes plaza and flood work. Unfortunately that means the Eau Claire & Bow River Lumber Co. building is being moved to the north end of the plaza to protect it from construction. It also means the 1886 Buffalo Cafe’s lease will not be renewed, and they have to leave the premise by the end of April. This building is on the city’s inventory of evaluated historic resources list. Presently it has a great little museum downstairs, worth a look, and while you are there, have breakfast. So let’s sketch it before it moves.

https://globalnews.ca/…/calgary-1886-buffalo-cafe-vacate/
https://www.calgary.ca/…/discover-historic-calgary…

Thank you Gabrielle A for this great idea.

Requirements if you can’t join us on Saturday

  1. Stick to the theme. If not possible see bullet 4.
  2. Submit your theme sketch to Belinda.Ramscar@shaw.ca by noon March 14 (.jpg format preferred). I can also grab your sketch from Facebook.
  3. Capture from direct observation. Not from image or photo. Even though the rules are being unofficially relaxed, I encourage you to sketch from direct observation. If you can’t, please mark your sketch with NON USK or FROM PHOTO
  4. Of course you don’t’ have to follow the theme, just sketch something. anything and submit it. 😊

Received images will be posted on our CalgaryUSk’s website, as per normal. It would be great if you also posted your sketches on the Calgary USk Facebook page. This can be done anytime, and hoping this will inspire others to participate.If you have any theme ideas for future months, please enter in comments.

Note: You are welcome to sketch each theme through the month, and again, it would be great if you posted them on our Facebook page and/or website.

Don’t forget you masks! Must be worn when you can not maintain the proper social distance, especially when meeting at the end for the photo op.
Please stay home if you feel unwell, uncomfortable or are exhibiting any symptoms.
https://www.alberta.ca/guidance-on-outdoor-activities.aspx

Looking forward to seeing your sketches!!!! 🎨🎨🎨🎨🎨

Outing Pictures – Sketching From Your Vehicle – Scotiabank Theatre Chinook Façade

10 sketchers took in the fabulously warm day, and 3 sketchers sketched during the week. Such an odd façade. That is the closest I have been to that “bug”, it is actually quite menacing.

Next sketching event is March 13 with Edmonton USK. They will post themes shortly.

Sketching From Your Vehicle – Scotiabank Theatre Chinook Facade

Feb 28 11:30 – 2:00

Note Time Change: This is a SUNDAY

Description: Let’s sketch the quirky, Egyptian-inspired façade of the Cineplex Theatre. Lots of parking lot vantage points to be had! Thank you Deb D for the sketch location suggestion.

Meet: Start sketching when you arrive. Feel free to arrive earlier if you wish. Plan to meet up at 2:15 to share sketches, and for a quick photo-op outside the doors to the theatre. If more than 10 people arrive, we will break into two groups, well distanced from each other.

If you are not comfortable meeting then you are welcome to go during the week. Send your sketch to Belinda Ramscar by noon Feb 28. Email address listed on our web page, . jpg format preferred, or post on our Facebook Page and I will grab it.

If snowing or below -20 Celsius, event will be cancelled.

Don’t forget you masks! Must be worn when we can not maintain the proper social distance, especially when we are meeting at the end for the photo op.
Please stay home if you feel unwell, uncomfortable or are exhibiting any symptoms.
https://www.alberta.ca/guidance-on-outdoor-activities.aspx

Sketches from Sister City Sketching Event #4 – Theme Bernard Callebaut

Happy Valentines. Thanks to everyone who participated!!

Next sketch is February 28 (Sunday). Sketch the movie theatre façade at Chinook Mall from your vehicle.

A gentle reminder that a sketch of an object is not an urban sketch. A sketch of the object including the background to show its location is an urban sketch.

Great job everyone. Take care and stay safe! 🎨🎨🎨

Jim G -The store closest to me (17th Ave and 8th St SW) appears to be closed permanently, and with the cold weather, I decided to take a photo of the store and sketch from the photo at home. Took about 2 hrs 15 min, so pretty close to a regular outing, but technically not an urban sketch. Heavy sigh.
Janice B – My covid evidence…sigh…
Sue K
Gabrielle A
David H
Belinda R -Thursday between appointments I sketched Bernard Callebaut’s shop front at Dalhousie. Added text and values at home. Who knew vehicles are so hard to draw🤭 You see them everyday, but when you really “see” them, they are complicated. My first attempt looked like the vehicle was inside the shop🤣
Ellis B -I was as disappointed in my drawing as I was in the chocolates. These are impossible to eat without dripping the sweet liqueur all over yourself. The cherry inside is a little dried fruit.  They come with a warning that they still contain the pit! The individual wrap is fancy with a turned in edge.  Next year I’m going to get Lowey’s  Cherry Blossoms at a huge saving. (Yes they are still available in Canada.)

Rod Z – Yesterday I walked the neighbourhood looking for a local scene but found the people waiting for the train in the cold to be interesting. Took photos and then did rapid sketches as if I were on site.

Important

Relaxed Rule on Drawing From Direct Observation

You may have noticed this mentioned in the post from USk Edmonton Themes post for February. I checked with Yvonne R to find out where her information came from as I could not find an official announcement. Here is her response.

“USk hasn’t “officially” endorsed sketching from photographs (you won’t find this info recorded in print) but I listened in to a Zoom meeting of chapter admins where it came up in discussion. USk’s position still adheres to the manifesto but, recognizing the extremely unusual circumstances, is allowing local chapters to make decisions about drawing from photographs as an alternative. Their position is that as long as people are sketching local sites, even from a photograph, they’re exercising their creative muscles and contributing to their own mental health. Several chapter admins in that meeting had already made drawing from photos an option in their areas and the USk admin acknowledged the value.”

I encourage you to sketch from direct observation as much as possible, but if that means you are not sketching at all, then by all means sketch from a photo of a LOCAL site. Please mark your sketch as NON USK, so other members know it is from a photo.

Remember this is still a “sketch”, please do not submit work you have taken many, many hours to complete. The idea is to get the “feeling” of the subject in a loose and not overworked manner. Save your “Rembrandts” for other Facebook pages.😉