Vancouver Draw Down!

Online daily drawing by Charissa Wall

Are you an artist? Or just artist at heart? Maybe just a doodler? Regardless of your talent level, check out this free cross-Vancouver event! 

Vancouver Draw Down is an annual, daylong celebration of drawing that challenges every single Vancouverite—young and old—to dispel their preconceptions about drawing, touch a pen to a piece of paper, and make a mark. If you can write your name, you can draw!

On Saturday June 9, 2012, 18 different arts and cultural organizations across Vancouver will host a total of 27 diverse, hands-on drawing workshops in community centres, museums, art galleries and on the street! You can add to a mural, do a pinprick drawing, doodle, sketch, improve your still life or life drawing techniques, create your own font, draw inside a 12-foot high paper tunnel, and much more. The workshops are designed with a come-and-go atmosphere, and participants are encouraged to move around to different events throughout the day.

All workshops are open, inclusive, and free (or free with admission). Led by professional artists, these creative happenings are about process and pleasure, not about technical skill. No matter what your age or skill level, there's something for everyone at Vancouver Draw Down.

This is the third annual Vancouver Draw Down, and the biggest one yet with participation from: ArtStarts in Schools, Collage Collage, Contemporary Art Gallery, Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Mountain View Cemetery, Museum of Anthropology, Satellite Gallery, Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Vancouver Art Gallery, and numerous Vancouver Parks Board Community Centres including Britannia, Champlain Heights, Creekside, Kensington, Renfrew, The Roundhouse, Sunset, Thunderbird and Trout Lake. 

Click the "Read More" button to see a full listing of FREE Vancouver Draw Down events around our city.

Photo courtesy of Melissa Baker

Patterning the Community at Sunset - 10am-12pm

Sunset Community Centre - 6810 Main Street, Vancouver

A creative mural project with Juliana Bedoya that transforms windows into enormous glass canvases in celebration of diversity and multiculturalism in our city. FREE

Drawing workshop at Kensington - 10am-12pm

Kensington Community Centre - 5175 Dumfries Street, Vancouver

Join artist Jasna Guy and make a crazy bugs carbon paper monoprint, a post-it- note finger-print map, a good fortune wish or a collaborative drawing! FREE

Experimental Drawing at Trout Lake - 10am-12pm

Trout Lake Community Centre - 3360 Victoria Drive, Vancouver

Join Anthony Schrag and Brian Lye for an instruction on experiential drawing. Wear clothing appropriate to moving, getting mucky and exploring the world! FREE

Drawing Attention at Emily Carr University - 10am-4pm

Emily Carr University, 1399 Johnston Street, Granville Island

An all-day drawing assembly facilitated by Emily Carr's Teen Art Group that focuses on techniques in pencil, charcoal and chalk. FREE

Alphabet Soup at Goldcorp Centre for the Arts - 10am-4pm

Goldcorp Centre for the Arts, Simon Fraser University, World Art Room 149 West Hastings Street, Vancouver Explore the shape, line and design of typography by creating your own font. FREE

Tracing Memory at Mountain View Cemetery - 10:30am-1pm

Mountain View Cemetery, Celebration Hall, 5445 Fraser Street, Vancouver

Take a walking tour of the cemetery grounds, and get inspired to create a memorial pinprick drawing in a workshop with artist Elizabeth MacKenzie. FREE

Community Wish Flag Workshop at Champlain Heights- 11am-1pm

Champlain Heights Community Centre 3350 Maquinna Drive, Vancouver

Join Zee Kesler and Erin Leigh Pasternak in creating a Wish Flag printed with your own personal messages and symbols of goodwill. FREE

Face 2 Face at Renfrew - 11am - 1pm

Renfrew Park Community Centre, 2929 East 22nd Avenue, Vancouver

Create blind continuous line contour drawing with Donna Cowan. Fun for everyone, they're portraits like you've never seen. FREE

Micro/Macro Drawing Lab at The Roundhouse - 11am-4pm

The Roundhouse, 181 Roundhouse Mews, Vancouver

Step inside Radix Theatre’s Micro/Macro Drawing Lab to magnify worlds within worlds as you transform the tiny into the enormous. FREE

Human and Animal Forms at MOA - 11am-4pm

Museum of Anthropology at UBC, 6393 N.W. Marine Drive, Vancouver

Explore the way in which human and animal forms are depicted in various works of Northwest Coast Aboriginal art, led by art educator Damara Jacobs-Morris. FREE with museum admission ($14.50-$16.75)

Draw Each Other! at Creekside - 11:30am-1:30pm

Creekside Community Recreation Centre, 1 Athletes Way, Vancouver

Join artist Calla Power to explore the art of portrait making and the art of togetherness as you draw serious and silly portraits of each other. FREE

The Face of our Community at ArtStarts - 12pm-4pm

ArtStarts Gallery – 808 Richards Street, Vancouver

Get "drawn in" to a collaborative window mural, participate in a still life drawing activity with a twist, or doodle on the sidewalk chalk art mural. FREE

Map Room at the Contemporary Art Gallery - 12pm-4pm

Contemporary Art Gallery, 555 Nelson Street, Vancouver

Explore the many potentials of drawing and mapping as an act and state of being with artist and educator Landon Mackenzie. FREE

Drawing with the Masters at the Vancouver Art Gallery - 12pm-4pm

Vancouver Art Gallery, 750 Hornby Street, Vancouver

Be inspired by the extraordinary work of Matisse, Picasso, Gauguin and more. Learn about the distinctive drawing techniques they used, and try them out. FREE with gallery admission ($7-$22.40)

Drawing Your Dreams Workshop at Thunderbird - 1pm - 3:30pm

Thunderbird Community Centre, 2311 Cassiar Street, Vancouver

This event for “non-drawers” of all ages with artist Yoko Tomita invites you to drop in and draw at a fun, easy and inspiring workshop on the theme of dreams! FREE

Inside and Out at Satellite Gallery - 1pm-5pm

Satellite Gallery, 560 Seymour Street, 2nd Floor, Vancouver

An active environment for mark making of all kinds. Take part in a drawing workshop, a ceramic fragment repurposing project, draw on the 12-foot high paper tunnel, or digitally spin clay pots on a touch screen. FREE

Circus! at Collage Collage - 2pm-4pm

Collage Collage, 621 Kingsway, Vancouver

Draw up a circus! Join acclaimed illustrator and artist Julie Morstad for an imaginative afternoon of drawing and collage, collaborating on the creation of a whimsical paper circus. FREE

Exquisite Corpse and other workshops at Britannia - 2pm-4:30pm

Britannia Community Centre, 1661 Napier Street, Vancouver

Create surrealist "exquisite corpses" with the draw and foldover technique, workshop still life + life drawings, and experiment with non-traditional drawing implements. FREE