Quick Sketches for Creative Spark

Here are a few quick sketches done for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt recently. 

Something full, something empty, and a vegetable.

Shelving

Matt the Model

A few times a year the Patchogue Arts Council pays for a model for the Patchogue Sketch Club. The last few times we've had Hector model for us. This time we had a new (to us) model named Matt. He was a definite surprise and modeled as stripped down as you can get and still be PG. He has a really interesting face with a long curling mustache, a wild head of hair, and a solid body. I usually sketch small but found I had to sketch Matt the entire length of my paper. He posed in a variety of positions for different intervals. I hope he is invited back again.

Sayville Park Foliage

This is one of the locations down by the Great South Bay that I return to often. It is the beginning of the shaded area of the small park as you pass the little beach in Sayville. 

Beach Days Begin

 Sunday was a beautiful, warm day so I headed down to the little beach on the Great South Bay in Sayville. I thought about the sketches I had done in the workshop I took with my friend recently and did this sketch in a similar manner. The sketch itself was mostly a continuous line sketch.

Port Chester Sketch

 I was up in Port Chester for a memorial service for a good friend. Before I headed home I stopped to do a sketch in the area. It helped relax me after a day of journeying through special memories. This was done in the sketchbook that has the lousy watercolor paper. The color bleeds too much. I am hoping to remedy that. I bought a jar of "watercolor ground" which should add some sizing to the paper. I hope it helps.

Toyota Service

 I never mind when my car needs to be serviced. There is always something/someone to sketch. It would be nice if I could watch what the mechanics were doing, but that isn't possible at most service centers so I had to settle for the people in front of me. Finished this slightly before the oil change and tire rotation were finished.

Robinson's Pond

 The Patchogue Sketch Club finally got to actually go out and sketch recently. Our destination was Robinson's Pond in East Patchogue. It was a very windy day and we had a very small turnout. I sat on the sidewalk behind the bridge to skech one of the houses that overlooks the pond. The swans made an appearance but then floated under the bridge to the other side of the road.

Olish's Farm

On Mother's Day I thought it would be a good day to go out and capture some of the floral baskets that were on display in the local nurseries. I headed over to Olish's Farm in Eastport and was not disappointed. There were all kinds of baskets and potted plants for sale as well as numerous other decorative elements. 

 

Porch Seating

 I love houses that have big front porches where you can sit and watch the world pass by. This house in Sayville had several chairs ready for some relaxing body to occupy them. I'm available! 

Bridge Repairs

Memorial Day and beach season are nearly upon us and the bridges to both beaches that I tend to go to are being repaired. I was able to sketch the bridge that connects Smith Point Beach to the mainland from the parking lot. I loved that I was able to see the big, yellow crane next to the bridge. They have been narrowing down the traffic to one lane open, so traffic is halted either going or coming there. Since this is the only car access to the beach as well as the campground there, it is really important that the bridge is repaired and stays open. I hope the finish the work soon.

I would love to sketch the work being done at the Robert Moses Bridge, but there is no place that I can see where I can legally park and see the work being done.

Building in Eisenhower Park

I was meeting friends for lunch in Westbury and went a little early so I could sketch for a bit before going to the restaurant. I drove into Eisenhower Park in East Meadow and found this unusual building. I have no idea what it is used for but I liked it and did a quick sketch.

Starbucks and Cinco de Mayo

The Patchogue Sketch Club was meeting, but the forecast was once again for rain so we moved to an indoor location. I brought along some fruit to use for sketching and Mark and Teresa sketched it too.  

For the sketch above I used a sketchbook I had bought in Venice. It is leather and had paper that I was told was watercolor paper. It is a bit textured and absorbs the watercolor as well as the ink. Some of it shows on the back side of the paper. I don't think it has a lot of sizing like our paper here usually does. 

Jerry and I celebrate Cinco de Mayo with tacos from The Fat Boy Burrito Company in Patchogue. Luckily I decided to do take-out and called ahead. There was a line outside. The food is very good!

Outboard Marine

I like finding marine related buildings like this one in Islip. It is fun to sketch the vehicles and details. 

Trees by the Beach

 The trees down by the beach in Sayville have unusual shapes do to being exposed to the wind from the Great South Bay. They are gnarly and mishapen, but beautiful anyway.

Lewin Farms Greenhouse

The north fork of Long Island is home to quite a few big nurseries. It is the perfect place to do some plant shopping.  The plants by the greenhouses at Lewin Farms in Calverton always look good.

Borough Park in Waldwick, NJ

Over the weekend I took a ride to visit my sister, Mickey who lives in Waldwick, NJ. It was a nice day so we took a ride over to Borough Park in Waldwick. I was able to do a sketch and we also got to log in a few steps while we were there. Across the water there was a deer feeding on the plants. 

Lighthouse View from Captree

The Fire Island Lighthouse can be clearly seen from the parking lot across the bay from the island itself at Captree State Park. 

Up the Hill

In Bellport there is a street that runs parallel to the water at the end of Bellport Lane. The street goes up a hill after you pass the entrance to the Bellport Dock. With the flowers in bloom it looks really nice. 

Related to Exercise

 A prompt for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt was "related to exercise." I pass this banch of LA Fitness in Patchogue quite often and it fits the bill.

Workmen

 There has been a lot of road and utility construction going on all over this area. Recently I spotted a group of workers digging and doing something on one of the corners of my street. Of course there were a lot of workmen, but it seemed like only two were doing anything. lol

Cherry Trees

We are lucky to still have some cherry trees in bloom here. These were in Oakdale. 

Gardener

One of the promps for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt was "having to do with gardening." I took a ride over to Mama Farm owned by the actress, Isabella Rossellini in Brookhaven. Imagine my excitement to find a young woman actually sitting with flats of plants to go in the field. What a find! 

Continuous Line Practice

The Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt date was coming to a close so I decided to put some of the items into one still life and do a continuous line. The items were something in a box (toothpicks), used for cleaning (Simple Green), used for cooking (wooden spoon), soft or squishy (the duck), smooth (the Keenex box), and crunchy (tortilla chips).

Workshop "From Sketches to Stories"

The NYC Urban Sketchers offers some workshops each year. Shawne Cooper, a friend of mine was offering what sounded like an interesting workshop called "From Sketches to Stories." It involved not only sketching but writing too. I decided to join in. The original location was supposed to be the Elizabeth Street Garden, but rain was forecast for the day, so a decision was made to hold the workshop at Pier 57, a very welcoming indoor location looking out at Little Island.

Shawne showed a variety of her sketchbook pages where she used writing to correspond with her sketch. We were given a page of photos of planting arrangements (pots, urns, etc) from Elizabeth Street Garden. Using tempera sticks we blocked in a solid shape for the item we chose. Once it was dry our assignment was to fill the solid area with our reaction to the change in location. This we did with marker on the shape we had created. Here is mine.

The next assignment was to look at Little Island and come up with a few things that it reminded us of. The structure of the park reminds me of tall champagne glasses. Our goal was to write about some memory that this reminded us of and write about that. Of course we did a sketch of Little Island and what it reminded us of and then we wrote about that memory. I combined the Little Island design with a champagne glass, a champagne bottle, and a bit of the ocean.

When we were finished each sketcher shared her/his page with the group. It was really interesting to hear the stories that were created by each person.

In case you have never seen Little Island, this is what it looks like in real life.

We did one more very quick activity and then took a few photos.

The group at work inside Pier 57

Grand Concourse at Grand Central

 The architecture and the assortment of people at Grand Central could keep me sketching for quite a while and it never gets old. I like sketching the view with the tunnels receding to the various tracks, subway lines, as well as the LIRR and Metro North trains. We had a good number of sketchers since it was a good location where we could sketch and stay dry. The guards had several rules including no sketching while sitting on the stairs and no sketchbooks could be on the floor while we were painting. Most of us bring along a stool to sit on and usually paint holding our sketchbooks in our laps. It works well.

Track 24 at Grand Central Terminal

 A rainy day required an indoor location so the NYC Urban Sketchers changed our outdoor location to Grand Central Station. We arrive at Grand Central Madison which is the newer end of the terminal and a very long walk to the original part of Grand Central that everyone thinks of when they hear it. Also those trains are 15 floors below ground level...yes, 15 floors!!! My first sketch of the day was done by Track 24 of Metro North. The train destined for Stamford was sitting there at the track with one of the train employees standing on the platform. What caught my attention was the posture of the workers right in front of me as he leaned against the railing with his elbow propped up. He did move a few times and additional workers joined him for a few minutes. During that time I worked on sketching the train itself. Luckily it remained in place for long enough for me to get most of the details. (I took a photo just in case.) After it pulled away and the man moved away I was able to add in some of the details for the track itself. 

I was really happy with the way this came out.

Patchogue Starbucks

Last week the Patchogue Sketch Club met at Starbucks. The theme was paper airplanes, which I had absolutely no interest in doing. Luckily there is always a view to sketch at Starbucks, even if most of them all look the same. This one has a drive-thru so I was able to catch a barrister with headphones by the window. 

Marina View

 There are a few marinas in Patchogue that are fun to sketch from outside the fence like this one.

Spring Colors

I knew there would be some trees in bloom at a certain location in Oakdale along Sunrise Highway's service road. There are some corporate buildings and a large grassy area with some pink blossoming trees across the lawn. 

Apparently the lawn is popular among the geese who were enjoying themselves in typical goose style.

 

In a Can

One of the items for a recent Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt was "something in a can." I had bought a few cans of anchovies as a treat for Jerry to have on his pizza. I wanted not part of them...just the colorful can. That color was hard to resist. I made sure to hide this one so it would still be around when I was ready to sketch it. I used mostly Posca markers for this. 

Dandelions

Ildikó Kerasay did a lesson for Sketchbook Revival called. "Dandelion, herb or weed." She gave a lot of information on the properties of the HERB, dandelion. We were able to sketch the parts of the dandelion either from the references she was using or find our own. It took me a while to find some dandelions and sketch their parts. I was surprised that they were actually difficult to remove from the ground...small but mighty.