A week from May 1st to May 7th is International Urban Sketchers Week ! Every year, Urban Sketchers celebrate the art and values of on-location drawing throughout the week. Local chapters across the world are joining by organizing a variety of events and activities. Urban Sketchers Vancouver has prepared a list of drawing prompts to encourage the habit of sketching daily. We hope these prompts will inspire you to sketch and share all week long! Grab a sketchbook, art supplies, and maybe even a friend (or two, or a group!) and share your sketching stories and posts on Instagram and our Facebook group using the hashtags #uskweek2025 #uskvan and #uskvancouver . Also tag @usk.vancouver and @urbansketchers to share with the global community who will be celebrating with us together!  Daily prompts May 1st: Art supplies May 2nd: Cafe life May 3rd: Mountains May 4th: Blooms May 5th: Break time May 6th: Transport May 7th: Collections If you notice we have "Blooms" on May 4th and w...

  As part of celebrations of International Urban Sketchers Week running from May 1-7, we are hosting a sketching meetup at Burnaby Blooms ! We had a meetup at the same location last year, though it was rainy. Hope the weather is better this year to enjoy this event at its best. The Burnaby Blooms Festival is held every year at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts and Deer Lake Park. Let's join this event with our sketchbooks and match the energy of the surroundings. May 4, 2025 (Sun) Meeting spot & time: Outside the Shadbolt Centre overlooking Deer Lake at 1:30 pm Throwdown: Same as the meeting spot at 4:00 pm *We will update closer to the date if anything changes. There are plenty of sketching opportunities here with the picturesque Deer Lake park, the Shadbolt Centre. There are rhododendrons in bloom at this time of the year and if you're into people-sketching, the event itself will provide a great opportunity. Read more about the event here . This is a free admission event...

You haven't checked the Day 1 post yet? Read it here first. On April 5 and 6, 2025, Vancouver Urban Sketchers hosted its inaugural Sketch Weekend on Granville Island in collaboration with the Urban Sketchers Executive Board . Unlike the sunny Day 1, Day 2 arrived with rain, unfortunately. However, the sketchers' energy wasn’t dampened by the gloomy weather. It was truly encouraging to see many sketchers stay engaged and show up for the morning workshop and sketchwalk. Here's a recap of Day 2 of USk Van Sketch Weekend 2025, full of learning, sharing and simply fun moments. [Workshop]  Color First Ink Later Workshop  led by  Mike Daikubara Sunday's workshop was taught by the newly-appointed USk Vice President, Mike Daikubara. He demonstrated a watercolor-first method. By starting with watercolor, a medium that is hard to control, he taught participants how to be bold and to trust their intuition. You have to look at the bigger picture, focusing on the big shapes and lett...

On April 5 and 6, 2025, Urban Sketchers Vancouver hosted its inaugural Sketch Weekend on Granville Island in collaboration with the Urban Sketchers Executive Board . They selected Vancouver as the location for their annual in-person meeting in spring 2025 and suggested that the local team organize an event in the following weekend. We were so delighted to welcome them and to have this special opportunity to benefit from the global network of Urban Sketchers. The weather in Vancouver during early spring is quite unpredictable. The first day of  the event was, however, blessed with clear blue skies! After a few gloomy weeks, the sun finally showed and it made a perfect day for sketching. Here's a recap of the beautiful, sunny Day 1 of USk Van Sketch Weekend 2025. Registration opened at Opus Art Supplies at 10 am. The local art supply shop generously offered their upstairs space for our registration desk. Since it was our first large-scale event and the admission was free, we were wo...