City Trip - Part 2

After a long, circuitous Uber ride, Suzala and I arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. We were meeting friends to sketch in the Astor Chinese Garden Court. It reminded me of the Chinese Scholar's Garden in Staten Island, but this was indoors. This courtyard was inspired by one created in China nearly 400 years ago during the Ming Dynasty. A team of craftsmen traveled from China to New York City to build it. They even brought all the materials they needed and did not use a single nail in their construction.

We took a lunch break after sketching the courtyard. It was nice to be with a small group of sketchers for a change. Talking between four of us was a lot easier and more personal than when there are 20 or more other sketchers. lol

We went back up to the Chinese wing after lunch. There were several locations that I considered sketching, but this guard lion really caught my eye. Rather than do just the lion I decided to put him into his museum setting. The statue is from the 11th or early 12th century.

For both of the sketches I used watercolor pencils. The museum prefers that you use dry media when sketching. I did use my water brush to make the wc pencil look a bit more vibrant.