Event recap: Day 1 — USk Van Sketch Weekend 2025

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 wondering how many people would actually show up. It turned out, though, there was so much more enthusiasm than we expected!

[Workshop] The Full Picture - Sketching Your Entire Experience led by Genine Carvalheira

Our first workshop was taught by Genine Carvalheira, Past President for Urban Sketchers. She guided participants on capturing “the full picture” of an experience—with all their senses, not just what they saw. The workshop's focus was on how to create something that you can flip to in the future and think: “oh yeah! This happened that day, and I ended up drawing that because this other thing happened…”

1: Planning
Look at how much space you have and pencil your layout as circles on the page, saving the largest space for the main focus and leaving white space for breathing room and notes.

2: What is the story you want to tell?
The subject for the workshop was the Granville Island Public Market. Genine asked participants to think about what makes it special and what makes this particular outing special. How did they get here? What could they hear or smell, and what were they feeling?

Tips on incorporating all the elements while staying focused:
Using different “fonts” for emphasis or to evoke different moods (like with book and magazine covers); and using two different colors to group vignettes together without overwhelming the page.

The group wrapped up the workshop with a material talk/sketchbook show and tell.

And, a group photo!

[Workshop] Choosing and Celebrating Color led by Annette Morris

Annette Morris, Education Director for Urban Sketchers, taught a workshop on watercolor. She walked participants through how to select and adapt local colors to suggest mood and offer a unique interpretation of a place and moment.

She led the group to what she called “the ugliest building on Granville Island”, which is the volunteer/security building right across from the Ocean Concrete Factory (ugly not in the sense of character, but it's dull color-wise). Her reasoning here was the building was so ugly that we could paint it in a way we liked. She suggested that color should reflect how we feel, not necessarily being true to the reality.

Here is how they explored colors.

Annette's WIP

Annette showed a page of her sketchbook that breaks down how colors reflect feelings.

Tips: A good sketch should contain the following four types of colors:

Colors that are next to each other on the color wheel
Colors that are opposite on the color wheel
Colors that draw attention
Color with high contrast (extreme value)

Sketchbook show and tell under the blue sky!

[Sketchwalk] Fast & Fearless: The Art of Travel Sketching led by Zandro Tumaliuan

Zandro Tumaliuan, designer and partner at HDI/Hager Design International in Vancouver, led a sketchwalk themed fast & fearless. He led participants to two locations on Granville Island, as they sketched together on location.

First location was a little parking lot off to the side of Granville Island, with a view on downtown.

Zandro sketched parts of the parking lot with the building behind.

Zandro sharing how he approaches sketching, including how to get proportions down, what to include and what not to. During sketching, it's important to not fret over copying down every little detail, instead only focusing on what you want to express and what you want the spotlight to be on.

Other executive board members also joined in on the fun!

Second spot was a little pathway behind the Sandbar Restaurant, under the bridge with a distant view on the Burrard Street Bridge and a hanging boat decoration.

Zandro engaging in a friendly chat with an art student, offering his wisdom and sharing his experience on the art journey.

Look at the results from the group!

Urban Sketchers Executive Board's presentation and sketchbook sharing

In the afternoon of this beautiful blue sky day we had the executive board's presentation. Urban Sketchers Vancouver has been hosting meetups for years and now we've finally connected to the international network of Urban Sketchers! A lot of members, new and existing, could use the chance to know more about the global Urban Sketchers community, its structure and what it stands for. Zameen Art House, an art event/workshop space on Granville Island, offered a venue for this community gathering.

Each of the executive board members sharing their journey with Urban Sketchers and how they came to be a member of the executive board.

To a lot of us Urban Sketchers were just people meeting up for a group sketching session for a long time, but turns out there are a lot of events around the world. For example, the first week of May is International Urban Sketchers Week, where local chapters across the world organize activities and events to celebrate on-location drawing. There's also an event grant program chapters can apply for to help promote urban sketching!

The board members encouraging us to be more involved in urban sketcher activities, even to apply to become an executive board member! This really brings out the community feel of Urban Sketchers.