Panera Sketch

 On one of our recent cold days I wanted to sketch indoors, not from my mobile studio. I headed over to the Panera in Bohemia. It is set up so that I can get a view of the counter and the people ordering. Of course I got there and nobody was at the counter, so I started with the people sitting at the table on the left and made sure to leave space for people when they went to the counter to order. It worked. There was a bigger pillar with stones and a coffee bar set up there, but I used artistic license to move that because it would take up too much space. All of this was done directly in ink.

Collage Joy Taster

 I've been participating in a 10 day online collage class given by Catherine Rains (catherinerains.com). I took a shorter collage class with her before and really enjoyed it. She gives this class once a year and it includes recorded lessons as well as live Q&A sessions. She is very good.

We started off making an assortment of different kinds of collage papers made from different types of papers and different weights. I used copy paper, tissue paper, deli paper, watercolor paper, and rice paper. She taught us various methods to turn them into colored collage papers. We used crayon resists, bubbles, marbles, scraping, and water resists to design our papers. Some were more successful than others. Here are some of the papers I made.  We worked with 2 primary colored paints plus black and white paint. The last time I used blue and yellow, so this time I tried red and yellow. The colors are not ones I would normally pick, but I wanted to challenge myself.

These are mostly crayon resists.

Here are my water resist papers.

Our first collages were made with geometric pieces in assorted sizes and shapes.

The following day we did two collages. The assignment was to pick our favorite paper and use a piece of it in each collage. It needed to be a different size and orientation on each collage base. These are 3 x 3 inches. As you can see I used the same papers in both collages.

I was happy with both collages. I am planning to do a few more collages in this color scheme and will post them when they are done.

My thanks to Cat for a really good collage class!

                             

Tartinery at Grand Central

 My second sketch at Grand Central was at the food court area downstairs. Tartinery is one of the few food stalls that has actual seating. If you get food from most of the stalls there are standing tables only. It isn't very condusive to eating. I think they did that because previously there were too many homeless people that would come in and sleep in the seats at the tables and the customers had nowhere to eat.

Grand Central Sketch

 My trip into the city last week involved transferring at the Jamaica station to catch the train to Grand Central. Although there should be a direct train from Ronkonkoma to Grand Central is just wasn't running on Saturday...just my luck. The trip took a little longer, but I ended up at my destination. Grand Central is always impressive and I really wanted to sketch in the great hall where the famous clock is. It was super crowded so I looked for a view that was a little out of the way.

I had texted a few friends telling them I was going to be sketching there, but the small group was going to the Metropolitan Museum. I wasn't in the mood to sketch sculptures so I decided to stay put. I told them if anyone was passing through and wanted to stop and say hello to let me know. I sat so that I was at the side opposite the Apple Store. It gave me a view of the clock too. The holiday decorations were still up so I was able to include those too. I tucked myself into a corner near track 32 with my back to the wall so nobody could bump into me. Nobody noticed I was there. It was a great spot except when a lot of people stood in front of me and blocked the entire view. 

When I was done with the sketch I looked at my phone and there was a text from my friend, Mel. He had been there earlier looking for me, but had finished sketching and was heading to the Met to meet the other group. It turns out he was sketching from a spot slightly ahead of me by platform 28. I couldn't see him, but we were on the same side of the hall. It would have been nice if I had found him earlier.

Train Sketching

 Last Saturday I decided I needed to go into the city for some sketching. The NYC Urban Sketchers hadn't gone in on the weekend in several weeks and I was craving sketching something other than Long Island. Even though the group wasn't going in, I decided I would go on my own. I took the 8:08 train from Ronkonkoma. I had to switch at Jamaica to go to my final destination of Grand Central.

There are usually people within view for me to sketch. The problem is that Ronkonkoma is the first stop and sometimes there are no other people seated near me. I lucked out and there was a lady in the middle seat with her bag across from her...and nobody else in the way. I find the Long Island Railroad trains to be rather shaky so I usually sketch the scene in pencil first. I added the watercolor and used a watercolor pencil I had in my bag to outline the scene. A lot of the time I outline with pen.

Here is the setup I had in my lap. I have this tiny wooden palette that is maybe 4 inches long and 1 1/2 inches wide. The top and bottom come completely apart but will stay together because the palette contains tiny magnets. The paint colors are on one piece and the mixing area on the other piece. 

Directly ahead of me I could see a young woman in the space between the seats. She slept most of the way to Jamaica so she was a good model.

Vanderzalm Barn

 This interesting building is part of the Vanderzalm Nursery in Bellport. I'm always attracted to the old gas pump outside. 

Clouds and Blue Sky

 We have had some beautiful clouds lately, and some of them were mixed with blue skies. This was painted down by the bay in Bayport.