Nero Belgian Waffle Bar | April 12, 2019
Meet Bernardo Garcia. If you follow this guy on Instagram (@CaptainPeru), you’ll know that he had a dream about rabbits in the garden so peaceful that he slept in one morning. Or that he tried a new dessert recipe last night and it turned out fabulous.
I know what you’re thinking, but you’re wrong. He’s not your typical Instagrammer who posts photos of every meal he’s had. Bernardo’s been drawing in his sketch journal every single day since March 2013. But more on that later.
We met at Nero Belgian Waffle Bar on Robson St. on a Friday evening. “You know I came to this place when it first opened, more than 5 years ago? And it was only two people working here, from Belgium. Now they have people working for them, and there’s a second location!”
Bernardo has been a proud West Ender for the past nine years. “This area is beautiful. I just found out that in the beginning, my building was meant to be a retirement home. It has tiny bedrooms, tiny rooms. But the view, it’s just perfect. I could never have dreamed of having a view like that.”
Bernardo is now a permanent resident in Canada and truly doesn’t intend on leaving Vancouver’s West End anytime soon. But getting to this point has not been without its fair share of ups and downs. It’s been a journey marked with heartbreaks, job switches, and complications.
Being an artist in Lima
“I’ve always had this thing for drawing,” says Bernardo. “I used to draw greeting cards… instead of buying them. I thought it was more special that way.” But back in Lima, Peru, where he comes from, being an illustrator was not going to pay the bills. Bernardo went into advertising instead. It was a safe way of doing art in Lima. “It was fun, because you were being creative. But it wasn’t illustration.”
Bernardo also gave marketing a try. Working for the marketing team of a car company, his job entailed being the main contact with advertising agencies. He hated it. “You have the pressure from the sales department. You have the pressure from your boss. And the company’s saying that we’re not selling enough, and everything becomes marketing’s fault. So you end up pushing the ad agency harder. It’s like, the company blames you, and you blame them. It was a hateful environment. After a year and a half, I was feeling a lot of pressure and I was getting depressed.”
It was time for a change, time to give drawing a real shot. But, he wasn’t going to do it in Lima.
New city, brand new challenges
Bernardo came to Vancouver with a scholarship for a drawing program. Once he finished the program, he hoped to find a job as an illustrator that would sponsor him. When that proved to be difficult, Bernardo gave graphic design and advertising another try. He met an entrepreneur who was starting an advertising agency, but he needed some time to set up the business before he could offer Bernardo a job. With his one-year work permit running out, Bernardo enrolled in a Business English course and applied for a co-op visa. In the end, the business didn’t work out.
Bernardo landed a restaurant job at a burrito place. “And I became an expert at making burritos.” He became a supervisor within 6 months, and stayed in the job while working on his PR status. Bernardo now works at the University of British Columbia with Student Housing.
One drawing a day
“The thing is, I’m working at the restaurant, I’m working at the university. When will I have time to draw? This is why I came here. I got my papers, I got everything. But I don’t have the money or the time to study again. So I said, you know what, I’m going to start practicing by myself. And since I’m a little bit obsessive, I will just not give up. So what happens if I start doing one drawing a day? And on March 15, 2013, I started.”
“A good strategy to distract whoever’s looking at you when you’re making their food, and make them think that you’re dedicated to your work: block the food completely and move your head from side to side.” 03/15/2013
Just like that, he started drawing every day, and he hasn’t stopped since. “It could be a memory, it could be something that happened to me that day. It could be a thought, or something I’m planning to do. It’s to keep a record of it.”
Flipping through the sketchbook, or scrolling down his Instagram account, it’s impossible not to notice the changes in style and improvements in technique that have happened over the years.
“If you look at the first one, it’s like a scribble. I don’t care much about the faces or the anatomy. It’s about the idea. I have this feeling that I will eventually have a memory problem. So this is going to help me remember things. So if I put the idea on paper, it doesn’t matter what it looks like. [The idea] is what matters.”
But then, he started working on different techniques. Anatomy, shading, motion. Bernardo learned that he enjoyed finding references and putting them on paper. And that became his style.
“If you put condensed milk on jello, it’s pretty good. My dad says that he created this. You just smash the jello. It’s so good.”
Virtual roommates and pursuing one’s passion
Bernardo hadn’t intended to post his drawings on social media. It wasn’t until one of his friends saw his sketchbook and encouraged him to post them online. He didn’t even have a Facebook account at the time, and it took him a year to finally start posting. “My biggest fear was that If I start posting everything, it wasn’t going to be mine. It’s going to become what people want. Luckily, I didn’t get that popular. But it doesn’t matter what you do as long as it’s sincere. And that is easy to read in a drawing, the sincerity in the idea.”
By following his own passion and working on his craft, Bernardo is inspiring others, too. “It’s funny. I got a message today from a guy who’s following me on Instagram.”
“Just wanted to reach out and express my gratitude for being able to follow your artistic journey. Thank you for posting every day. Inspiration and good example… You help more people than you know. “
“That’s an amazing part of social media. Social media has this horrible side that sometimes you start believing that if you don’t get as many likes you’re not as good as you think you are. But obviously it’s much more complicated than that.”
“Have you had roommates before? Have you ever started doing things that your roommate did? Cause it’s easier. You see the person living next to you doing something. I never thought of adding this to my schedule, but I see him/her doing it, I feel like I can do it too.” Bernardo says social media can sometimes have the same encouraging effect. The idea is that, these are regular people who each have their own passion, and if they can follow their passion and make it their thing, what’s keeping you from pursuing yours?
“I always feel like I’m not prepared. That I’m not ready, and my style is garbage. That I’m not good enough. That’s something I feel like I’m never going to be able to overcome. But at the same time, I feel that this is a motivation that has been working for me to keep doing this, to improve.”
“Sometimes, I have bad drawing days, but my bad drawing days look way better than something I considered a good drawing day years ago. If you make a mistake, you’re not going back to the starting point. You’re just going back a few steps.”
Diligence pays off
Bernardo is starting to look into selling his art online, through platforms like Etsy. He has also participated in a children’s book competition, and he is hoping to try it again with a different story, this time with a like-minded writer friend.
“I feel like what I’ve been doing is so simple. Just drawing every day, anyone can do this.” As someone who is not blessed with artistic abilities, I protested. “If you decide to start cultivating mushrooms every single day of your life, you’re going to become a mushroom expert in two years. You’re going to tell me more about mushrooms than I could ever tell you. Or folding napkins, or making burritos, for that matter. Seriously, I make the best burritos.”
It has not been a straightforward path, the past number of years. But reflecting back, Bernardo says that every experience along the way has taught him something. “Despite sometimes they were things I wasn’t enjoying at the time, like the restaurant job, they taught me a skill. Now I can cook at home.”
Bernardo loves cooking and making desserts. His recent trip back to Lima has inspired him to steal his mom’s recipes and try making Peruvian desserts himself, such as Arroz con Leche (literally means rice and milk), and manjarblanco de camote (roughly translates into yam caramel). I’ve tried the latter, and can attest to the fact that it is pure deliciousness.
The simple, but ever-so-difficult lesson here I suppose, is that being diligent pays off. “Discipline works. If you commit to something and you don’t stop, and you become a little obsessed with your craft, you can actually get good at it.”
Bernardo’s story to me is a powerful, humbling reminder that progress is seen on a long term basis. “If it didn’t work that day, you can’t be like, I’m going to give up now. You can become an expert mushroom farmer, if you want!”
On that inspirational note, check out Bernardo’s work for yourself @CaptainPeru.
PS. I’m delighted to report that I’ve finally met Yuriko, whom I feel like I’ve known for years from @CaptainPeru’s drawings! After this coffee chat, they were on their way to buy some ingredients for brownies they were baking tonight, so I can only hope that I’ll get to try a slice of it!
Follow Bernardo on Instagram @CaptainPeru
