A V-Sketch Hunt in Ottawa

"COVID Sketching" by Mark Leibowitz (used with permission)

If you follow the New York City urban sketchers group (like I do) you will know that they have been leading the charge in developing new ways to build community, sketch "together-apart" and share our sketches online.

The urban sketching manifesto really insists on sketches done from direct observation (rather than photographs) but desperate times sometimes call for desperate measures!

Mark Leibowitz ( a friend of the Ottawa Urban Sketchers) has come up with a brilliant plan to explore our surroundings, find interesting subjects to sketch and share them online.

With BIG thanks to Mark Leibowitz, Mary Lynch, Arthur Fredericks and the New York City Urban Sketchers, let's do a V-Sketch Hunt in Ottawa!

Mark Leibowitz

Cindi and Mark Leibowitzz in 2014, sketching in New York City

What Mark had to say at the outset of his Manhattan V-Sketch Hunt:

"Good Morning Artists in Residence. I’m glad you could join us. My name is Mark Leibowitz. I’m one of the founders and one of the current organizers of NYC Urban Sketchers. We’ve had another tough week. It’s good to have an art passion that absorbs our attention and calms the spirit.

We have a Virtual Sketch Hunt planned for today. The idea came from a suggestion from Mary Lynch and a project that was developed several years ago by Arthur Fredericks. Many thanks for their creativity.

Here are the rules: If I said sketch a place where people dance ballet using Google Maps - Street View, you might first google NYC Ballet, and you’d discover there are several places, like the NYC Ballet or ABT the American Ballet Theater. You’d get the address and then use Street View to get a view you can sketch. You can zoom in, or crop it anyway you like, but the picture source itself must come from Google Maps - Street View. So to review, you’ll see a list of 25 NYC subjects. You can find the subject anyway you like, using whatever sources, but your sketch must come from the Google view. "

If you would like to join the NYC sketchers and participate in their V-Sketch Hunt, its a VERY welcoming group, go to their Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/groups/nycurbansketchers/
A V-Sketch Hunt in Ottawa Using Google Maps

INSTRUCTIONS: Limit your search to Ottawa. Although you can use the internet to research things, the image you draw must come from Google maps - Street View.

NOTE: If you’re unfamiliar with Google’s Street View - you can find a tutorial that the NYC Urban Sketchers have posted by clicking this link: http://nyc.urbansketchers.org/2020/03/practice-instructions-for-second.html

Here are the suggested subjects:

Find and draw an Ottawa essential service that you are grateful for.

Find and draw a statue or sculpture featuring a famous man.

Find and draw a statue or sculpture featuring a famous woman.

Find and draw a statue or sculpture honouring First Nations history

Find and draw a telephone booth.

Find and draw a fire hall (with a firetruck).

Find and draw one of the 105 embassies in Ottawa

Find and draw an Ottawa bridge.

Find and draw an ethnic restaurant.

Find and draw an Ottawa museum.

Find and draw a famous place

Find and draw a scene that shows the streets being repaired.

Find and draw a scene on the Ottawa River

Find and draw a scene o the Rideau Canal 

Find and draw a bar in the Byward Market

Find and draw a restaurant in the Byward Market

Find and draw a boat docked somewhere around Ottawa

Find and draw some Ottawa Brutalist Architecture

Find and draw a heritage home.

Find and draw any scene with bicycles

Find and draw a cemetery.

Find and draw a street vendor

Find and draw a building dedicated to the arts 

Find and draw a view of Ottawa from Quebec

Find and draw a pizza shop

Find and draw an independent book store

Find and draw an outdoor mural or street art or graffiti

Find and draw something in YOUR NEIGHBOURHOOD you want to share

 
Instructions: Draw for beauty or quantity using whatever media you like

Do as many sketches as you like and post them to our Facebook Group https://www.facebook.com/groups/937458512999363/ Tell us something about your sketch. Why you chose it and if there is a story you would like to share.

Stay safe everyone and happy sketching!

Ottawa Public Health COVID-19 Updates

https://www.ottawapublichealth.ca/en/public-health-topics/novel-coronavirus.aspx 

Ontario Public Health COVID-19 Updates

https://www.publichealthontario.ca/en/diseases-and-conditions/infectious-diseases/respiratory-diseases/novel-coronavirus

Canada Public Health COVID-19 Updates

https://www.canada.ca/en/public-health/services/diseases/2019-novel-coronavirus-infection.html