Two weeks ago we finally were able to go on vacation for a few days to one of my favorite places, Victoria British Columbia in Canada. We have been there countless times but I have never been there to sketch among other fun things of course! I Started by visiting the Fisherman’s Wharf which is a small community of boat houses and restaurants painted in the more colorful hues you can imagine! The place is fun and the food is great. There you can catch a small boat taxi that can take you to different parts of the Inner Harbor such as downtown, across to other hotels or to other boat house communities where you can also take a trail that leads to downtown and Chinatown or even to the Galloping Goose trail that many bike riders take.

During one of our walks we went to Beacon Hill Park. This is a community park very large in size and contains flower gardens, a rock garden, a playground, a music stage as well as large open areas to play soccer and other sports. This Park also connects with a trail by the shore where you can sit and admire the stunning views of the Olympic Mountains in WA State.

The Parliament. I love this building and I am always impressed by the detail of this structure and its architecture. I am not an architect and therefore my drawings of parts of this building do not do justice to the beauty of it but I decided to give it a try. I obviously was not satisfied with the end result and this violates my rule of do not judge thyself J but I was unable to leave without at least trying. At the end of the day we sat in the Parliament’s Rose Gardens and I sketched. During the process I tried not to feel overwhelmed by the beauty and complexity of the structure and I was able to produce two sketches.

The last day we went to the British Columbia Museum and enjoyed a spectacular exhibit about Mammoths. Exiting the Museum, I had a few short minutes to at least record my visit there with a quick sketch. For this particular sketch I used my Micron 01 sepia and colored it with a variety of Faber-Castell PITT artist pens with different shades grays. The flags hanging from the lamp post and the lights are done using Winsor & Newton Professional watercolors. The rest of the sketches are done using a Micron 005 in black (this is my favorite to draw so far) and Winsor & Newton professional watercolors and QOR watercolors. Why I use Microns rather than pencil is a topic I will discuss in a later post.

After four days of enjoying the city, walking its trails, breathing the salty air from its shores, talking to pleasant people and admiring the local art it was time to say “until next time” and board our ferry back to Port Angeles, WA.

Thanks for accompanying me on this trip, and until next time!

Daisy