The first site I chose to see and sketch on my first day in Copenhagen, Denmark was perhaps it’s most popular tourist attraction. Yet in my Lonely Guide, it is not even in the Top Experiences in the Danish capital. In fact some guidebooks say skip it entirely and go elsewhere. When people first see it, they are often underwhelmed by how small she is. Her name: “The Little Mermaid”.

I guess the word “little” is in the title so it really shouldn’t be a big surprise at the underwhelming nature of the statue.

I walked from the Metro station and after a 15 minute ramble, I knew I was getting close because there were more and more people and more parked tour buses. When I first got to the statue I could not see it because of all the picture snapped hordes in front of the statue.

So I took out my sketchbook.

I have to admit that I had previsualized the sketch. I wanted to try and capture how popular this statue really was and it is visited by both land and water. I wanted to try and capture that chaotic, frothing at the mouth, European tourism. Think of the crowds surrounding the diminutive Mona Lisa.

In the final sketch (featured sketch) I have exaggerated the size of the statue while minimizing the size of her worshippers.

And once I visited the statue, I was not disappointed. The crowds ebbed and flowed like the tide. Snapping pictures or taking a selfie and then retreating back to the comfort of their idling tour bus.

So I had set the bar rather low and from here, Copenhagen could only become more amazing.

And it certainly was!

High on my pinniped wishlist was the Arctic toothwalker: the walrus (Odobenus rosmarus).

We saw our first walrus on the pack ice on our third day. It was a large male resting on its cool floating bed. The walrus did not seem alarmed by a large ship in its vicinity. He looked up, surveyed the ship, and then returned to its nap. Over the next few hours we saw four more walruses including a female with calf (they were more skittish and disappeared under water).

This was not to be our best walrus sightings of the voyage, our best experience was saved for our last full day on the western side of Spitsbergen. This was in the fjord Bellsund.

A guide spotted about 20 walruses hauled out on a sandspit so our afternoon landing plans changed as our focus was getting great looks at a mass of walruses (known as a herd).

The Zodiacs dropped us upwind and was quietly walked towards the end of the sandspit and the resting walruses.

Once we were about 50 yards from the herd, the guides had us form in a line so all could have an unobstructed view of this iconic Arctic marine mammal.

We slowly crept closer and the walrus herd was not perturbed in the slightest. This is a beast that the ice bear has a hard time preying upon, so a pack of camera wielding nature lovers was nothing!

This was a great time for a sketch. So I took out my small Hahnemühle sketchbook and started sketching walrus.

On our morning shore visit our Zodiacs headed to the hunter cabin and beluga carnage at Bamsubu.

I was on the first Zodiac ashore and I planned to sketch the hunting cabin amid the bones. The rustic cabin, built by Arctic necessity rather than true craftsmanship, stood on a rise and I sketched it in with my brush pen.

I was originally told that I would have little time to sketch during landings because the group had to keep moving and we didn’t have prolonged stops. But it was the photographers that slowed up the groups not a lone Corvidsketcher with sketchbook and pen.

Within ten minutes I had finished two sketches, one of the cabin and the other a beluga whale skull.

We arranged ourselves into three different hiking groups, I chose the medium hike led by our expedition leader Phillipp.

We headed up the hill to look at a stone cairn, once a lookout for belugas. Phillipp announced to the group that he had something to show us and we headed inland, away from the cabin and carnage. Here we came upon some other carnage. This time younger bones and hair. White hair. It could he from the Svalbard reindeer but the claw spoke of the ice bear.

Well I had finally seen a polar bear. . . Ish. The bears live by feast and famine with a high mortality rate for the young ones and the rising temperatures at the poles are diminishing their hunting platforms, sea ice, for their favorite meal, the bearded seal.

After reflecting on the former bear we headed uphill to a rocky outcrop with a commanding view of the fjord. Once at the top, Phillipp had a challenge for us: find a spot, sit quietly for five minutes, and take in the sounds of the Arctic. In outdoor ed terms this is called a silent sit.

I reinterpreted it as a silent sketch. Challenge accepted.

I first caught sight of the Plancius, my home for a week, in Longyearbyen Harbor.

So I sketched it.

I was aware of a man with a camera milling about. After my sketch he told me he took my picture while I was sketching. He told me that he was part of an expedition to the North Pole. Svalbard is certainly the starting point of Polar adventures.

The m/v Plancius was built in 1976 as a research vessel for the Royal Dutch Navy and was christened “Hr. Ms. Tydeman”. She was purchased by Oceanwide Expeditions in 2004 and rebuilt as a passenger vessel. She was renamed Plancius after the Dutch astronomer and cartographer.

I had plenty of other opportunities to sketch the Plancius from shore. My favorite Plancius sketch was on a hike at Bamsebu. We headed up the slope with amazing views of the fjord with Plancius anchored in the middle.

It was here that our guide had a challenge: sit for five minutes quietly and take in the sights and sounds of the Arctic. This is called a silent sit but I did a silent sketch instead (featuring sketch). This was an easy challenge for me but about three minutes in I heard the tell-tale sounds of cameras.

When we made Zodiac landfall we had to always remember that we were in the land of the world’s largest carnivore, the polar bear.

Before any passengers made a landing, the landing site was surveyed both from the bridge and by Zodiac to make sure there were no recent signs of polar bear activity.

Once we landed, all guides were armed with a flare gun and a high caliber rifle. Keeping passengers safe was important but no guide wants to kill a bear. The first option if a bear was heading towards a group, was to use a flair gun in an attempt to scare the bear away. The rifle was the very last resort and none of our guides had ever had to use one in the field.

I’m not sure how reassuring this was, I hoped they were good shots but our lead guide assured me they regularly practice.

Luckily, no rifles were fired on our week-long adventure. But unluckily, spoiler alert, we saw no polar bears.