Doodlebug Dabblings: Edward Hopper inspired Vancouver Character homes

Thursday, July 9, 2015

Edward Hopper inspired Vancouver Character homes

Before starting this project, I discussed with the students the importance of an artist role in history. I simply asked them, "When you are studying history, what do you usually look at?" And they all immediately responded, "Art!"

In Vancouver, real estate is a hot commodity and property values are ridiculously expensive. At the moment, it is a very hot political topic because what is happening is that the property is worth far more than the house and the character of Vancouver architecture is being demolished at an alarming pace.

So I discussed with the students that we could make sure part of Vancouver's heritage would not be forgotten by recording the character homes that have given Vancouver it's charm. That as artist, we can highlight the beauty of the homes so that viewers might think twice before allowing them to completely disappear.

And because we were doing homes, I thought what better artist to show them than Edward Hopper? I thought it would be a great lesson in paying attention to light and shadow.

I printed out a wide variety of unique Vancouver homes in black and white for the kids to use as reference and once they were happy with their working sketch, we transferred the image by rubbing white chalk on the back of the sketch and retracing it onto black paper.

Then using oil pastels, they created their homes in a color palette of their own choosing.

I was so happy with all the results and I truly believe it captured the charm of our city.