Tuesday, February 10, 2015

Sketching at the Met

The NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Met on Saturday. The Metropolitan Museum of Art has so much to sketch that it was like being a kid in a candy store. I think we could have sketched there for a week and not run out of subjects. Except for lunch, I never left the first floor and barely touched on the collections there.

My first stop was the Roman and Greek collection on the 1st floor. The drama of the high ceilings and the light of the room stopped me in my tracks. All those tall columns with their straight lines contrasted so well with the rounded sculptures of the figures. I wanted to include it all but as you can see it didn't all fit on the page which was only 5.5 x 8.5. Luckily a woman and her little girl sat and posed for a few minutes while they checked out the map. I used watercolor pencils and my Lamy pen to sketch this, and then added water when we were in the cafeteria.


Lunch was next and although I was busy eating and talking I did get a very quick "mandatory Jim" sketch done.


Heading back upstairs a few of us went into the exhibit with the armor. I started with a sketch of the knight on horseback from the side, but loved the view from the rear so I sketched that too on the same page. This time I used my waterbrush on site to finish the sketches.


My final sketch at the museum was in the room with the Temple of Dendur. I tried to include the temple, the windows to the outside, some of the gallery visitors and the Statue of Amenhotep III in front of it all.


It was a really great day but time flew by much too quickly. I hope we visit again soon.

8 comments:

  1. Hello Joan! I so love your sketches! So varied! You are so very, very talented! Love all in this series! Especially the knights in armor! When I was a little boy I loved to sketch knights, soldiers, Indians, and such! I loved using old comic books as guides to my drawing! I learned so much from Prince Valiant! Great comic book illustrations! Used color and black pen and ink so well! Keep them coming! I haven't been to the Met in years! NYC is such a great city! Especially for museums! So much more! Enjoy!!!!
    Michael

    ReplyDelete
  2. Wow, the Met must've been fantastic! My goal is to go there someday. Wonderful sketches, including Mandatory Jim! 😊

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wow, the Met must've been fantastic! My goal is to go there someday. Wonderful sketches, including Mandatory Jim! 😊

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thank you so much, Michael!! I really enjoyed the trip to the Met. I hadn't been there in quite a while.

    Tina, thanks. It is one of those places you just want to go back to see again.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Joan, I'd love to have spent this day with you. What a gorgeous group of sketches you've done!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks so much, Sherry. You would love it there!

    ReplyDelete
  7. Brilliant - I knew exactly where you were before reading. Love them all. You have a great way of making it looking easy and I know it is not.
    I was tickled with the grand view in the Roman.Greek one with the upper level showing in the back. - it really emphasized the huge space. Touch of red against all the stone colors - wonderful!

    ReplyDelete
  8. Brilliant - I knew exactly where you were before reading. Love them all. You have a great way of making it looking easy and I know it is not.
    I was tickled with the grand view in the Roman.Greek one with the upper level showing in the back. - it really emphasized the huge space. Touch of red against all the stone colors - wonderful!

    ReplyDelete