My last Toronto sketches

The latest Toronto sketches I've done last summer. Since then we were getting prepared for relocation and all my sketching attempts were postponed.  

However it Toronto it was well known that I'm able to sketch only during lunch break.

Somewhere in August I rushed to Spadina Staircase to catch the summer sun and this majestic view. In my lunch break of course :) The next sketches were done already this winter at the new place.

Urban Sketching Disappearing Landmarks in Toronto

Toronto is said to be one of Canada’s fastest growing cities. Consequently, you’ll see a lot of construction year round in the city. Old small buildings are being replaced by new tall buildings in every corners of the city. I’ve only been living in Toronto for a little over two years, and already many areas don’t look the same as they did only two years ago. This growth often comes at the expense of the architectural history of the city often to the sadness of long time residents who have a history with some of these buildings. This gave  the Toronto Urban Sketchers the idea of creating a book capturing some of the landmarks of the city before they disappear, as a way to commemorate them in a creative way. So over the past couple months, we gathered around places like Honest Ed’s, the Cookbook Store, Captain John’s Restaurant Boat and more, to capture their portrait while we still had time.

21 sketchers collaborated in putting together our first book : Urban Sketching Disappearing Landmarks in Toronto. We self published the book. Towards the end of 2015, I got invited by CBC Radio to talk about the book. The interview inspired me to create a little video montage of our journey thus far.  It’s a great little memento that you can see below. 

If you’re interested in purchasing the book, it is currently available on Amazon. I’m looking into the possibility of having the book available in local bookstores and libraries. It’s a first for me so we’ll see how that goes. But it was a great experience for myself and for the group and we’ll probably try to create another one this year.

A long line at Starbucks

We had a meeting at Yorkdale shopping mall yesterday. It's always hard to find a parking spot there. And it's also not easy to find a sketching spot because there were so many things happening in the mall.

We walked around and finally we decided to sit at Starbucks. I went to buy a coffee and it was a long line. I felt so tired after I got one and started sketching. 

I looked at Starbucks and the line was still very long. Then I have found that I forgot to bring my pen, so I used a pencil instead and painted with watercolor. Back home, I put the black lines and the wordings on the page. 

Market Day

Spent the day in Kensington Market today for the last Pedestrian Sunday of the year. No cars allowed, although I did choose to put this parked car in the foreground. I tried to gain some perspective with different sized people, while painting the wonderful iconic fruit market situated right in the heart of the Market.

Drawn loosely with 6B pencil and lots of watercolour added on 90lb watercolour paper.

Favourite part of this was painting the fruit and veggies!

Tons of subject matter in Kensington! I absolutely recommend it for those looking to be inspired by new subjects, shapes, colours and shops!!

Nora MacPhail

Sketching at IKEA

Just before the weather started to get a little nicer, a couple weeks ago, the group met at IKEA to sketch inside the store. I got this idea from Nina Johanson, over in Sweden, and thought it would be a great indoor spot for the group, and it was!

The store is full of interesting and colourful subjects to sketch and has tons of comfortable spot to sketch from. Looking for the sketchers during our session was a bit like playing "Where's Waldo".

Below are the resulting sketches for the day. Everyone did a great job, as always. And a couple of us stayed to eat IKEA's famous meatballs. Overall it was a great outing and definitely a keeper for cold winter days. 

a Sunday in April

Today I did an urban sketch of 850 Yonge Street in Yorkville, Toronto. The building was the well known 'the cookbook store' for over 30 years. Sadly, this lovely old building is soon to be a condo. 

In 1885, the building was owned by Charles J. Frogley who ran it as a confectionery and bakery. His name still appears up top! Here is a LINK with some info about the building. 

Also, here is a pic of my sketch box (about the size of a lunchbox) which holds my travel watercolour kit and up to 8x10" watercolour paper. The lid remains propped up as it balances on a table or my lap. I was sitting in the cafe across the street. : )

Thanks and Happy Urban Sketching Everyone.

Nora MacPhail

Sketching the Line 2015

With all the construction going on on the subway line, I often have to take a shuttle bus instead to get to town, especially on Sundays. It's a little inconvenient, but at least there are shuttle buses and this time there was enough space to sit, so I decided to sketch some of the people in front of me. It's interesting to see how strangers sit next to one another sometime. In this case, the girl on the left was sitting as far away as possible to the guy on the right. I think she was so preoccupied by her phone, that sitting comfortably was not even a question. A older man was standing right near the door in front of them, I really like the contrast of his bright yellow cap and his fluffy grey curly hair. 

Speaking of sketching in public transits, Sketching the Line, an international exhibition of sketches of commuters by commuters, will be happening again next year. Earlier this year, Art In Transit featured 78 sketches drawn by 18 artists on screens in various Toronto subway stations, the Edmonton LRT, and the Calgary Airport. Some of the participants included fellow urban sketcher Richard Alomar and Jason Das from New York, as well as local artists Bobby Chiu, founder of Imaginism Studio. 

Art In transit is currently looking for more sketches for their second exhibition. The deadline to apply is January 31, 2015. If you're interested in participating visit their website to find out more.

Public Sketchbook Project

A couple weeks ago I discovered this neat little project curated by Above Ground Art Supplies store called the Public Sketchbook Project. They a sketchbook and all kinds of art material in various local coffee shops for people to sketch while they're having coffee. There was all kinds of interesting artwork in there already and I decided to add a little sketch of my own of the view from where I was sitting and a shameless plug for our sketching group.

Sketching at Bampot

Last weekend, a couple of us went sketching at Bampot Bohemian House of Tea. It's a very eclectic looking space with a lot of interesting things to draw and sketch. We had a great turnout and great sketches from everyone as you can see below.  I kept mine simple and sketched teapots and teacup on the table. I was more focused on talking and eating. 

Sketching at the Harbourfront, the Sculture Garden and the Roundhouse Park

I've been pretty busy the past couple weeks and didn't get a chance to post about our sketching outings over the past couple weeks. We visited the Harbourfront, the Toronto Sculpture Garden and the Roundhouse Park.

The Harbourfront
There is a lot of interesting things to sketch at the Harbourfront. Despite being a gray day, we had enough time to spend a little time outside to sketch the many view from the  harbor before rain came pouring down on us. Member of the Kitcherner sketching group came to sketch with us as well, which was nice. There was a lot of activity going on that day and free food sample from a festival going on at the time.

Toronto Sculpture Garden 
We had a beautiful day for the sketching event at the Toronto Scuplture Garden. The garden is a great initiative between the city of Toronto and the Louis L. Odette family, giving artist an opportunity to experiment with public space since 1971. The artwork currently exhibited is by Jed Lind and is called Gold, Solver & Lead made with first generation Honda Civics. An archive of previous work is available on the Toronto Scuplture Garden website.

CN Tower
A couple of us met at the Rounhouse park to sketch the CN tower and the Toronto Railway Museum. Unfortunately that day was a little cold so we didn't spend a lot of time outside. Still, we got a moment of sunshine that gave us enough time to complete at least one sketch. Then we headed over to a local coffee shop to continue sketching. This is the time of year where it's hard to predict the weather and we'll probably be mostly sketching inside until next spring, but seeing how beautiful the weather has been this past few days, we might get a couple more opportunities to sketch outdoors before winter.

Sketching in the Cemetery

A couple weeks ago we ventured to the Mount Pleasant Cemetery, one of the oldest in the city and National Historic Site of Canada since the year 2000. The site is huge and filled with interesting architectures, sculptures and gardens. It's a popular place for locals to walk their dog, cycle and jog. We were fortunate to have a perfect sunny day for sketching. As a result, the sketchers were very prolific and produced a lot of great sketches as you can see below. Despite spending the entire afternoon there, we barely scratched the surface of great subjects to sketch. We stayed on the older side which contains mostly older christian tombs dating back from the 19th century. Perhaps we'll have to go back again to visit the other side which is a little more modern and includes fountains.