Unsuspecting Subjects

When I was in the city on Saturday the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade was also going on. I didn't see too many people dressed in green on the trip in but there were some on the way home. These ladies were sitting diagonally across from me on the train and I had lots of time to do the sketch. They obviously had gone in for the parade and looked exhausted.

These people were on the train in the morning but I didn't bother using color since they were sketched on flimsy paper, not watercolor paper.

Downstairs in the newer section of the Morgan Library and Museum I sat for a while on the couch. Another sketcher was sketching across from me so I did a quick ink sketch of her before we left to go have a drink and share our sketches.

All of these people sketches are a good warm-up to the "1 Week 100 People" Challenge which I will be participating in again.

Information about the challenge can be found HERE.

Maybe you would like to participate too.

Tree Sales and Project

As we are getting into December there are tree lots hoping up around the area. This was a small one in Oakdale. It didn't look too busy when I was there sketching.

#momentsketchers

I am going to attempt to do the Doodlewash December 2018 Art Challenge using the prompts, although I am going to be rather busy for the next week. I will try my best to keep up. The first prompt is lights. These were on the street in Patchogue and include a nice wreath.

I am also going to use this in a special project. An internet friend who lives in Chicago posted a message that she is adopting an entire military unit that is deployed overseas. There are 182 members of the unit and she is planning on mailing out 200 original art postcards to them. She asked several Urban Sketching groups to help with the cards. I won't be meeting up with the NYC Urban Sketchers before the cards need to reach her to be mailed with the others, so I volunteered to do 20 myself and send them to her. The easiest way to reach my goal is to do all my sketches for the next week or so as 4 x 6 cards. The cards can be any theme so I will do an assortment of them...with this one as my first.

Rockefeller Center

Last Sunday the NYC Urban Sketchers were meeting at Rockefeller Center to sketch the tree and the assorted decorations and activities there. I thought Mark, our organizer was crazy...Rockefeller Center on a Sunday in December??? I couldn't imagine sketching in the crowd that would be there.  I went in with my friend, Suzala on the Long Island Railroad. She has trouble walking any distance so we took a taxi from Penn Station (34th St) up to Rockefeller Center (50th St). When we got there we found a bench with a so-so view. I left her there and went to walk around the promenade and see if anyone else from the group was there. By the time I got back she had been chatting with the security guards. When they saw that we were sketching they told us that we could move to a special section where there wouldn't be crowds and we would have a pretty unobstructed view of the statue of Promethius and the tree. The area was fenced off from the general public so we wouldn't have to worry about people banging into us. It was perfect!

I had already started my sketch including one of the security guards but moved as soon as the offer was made. They were even nice enough to allow any of the other sketchers who came along to join us there. Here is my first sketch with one of the guards. He stayed nearby so I was able to finish him easily.

For my next sketch I simply turned around and faced the opposite way toward 5th Ave. This view is one of my favorites during the Christmas season. There are angels with lights tucked into all the greenery all the way up the promenade. It is pretty during the day and just wonderful at night!

Doing a white angel wasn't easy. I moved one of the trees so it was behind the angel and did some negative painting in her dress and wings. Then I used a white gel pen to add some texture. I'm really happy with the way it came out. 

Two more quick stories about the morning. Suzala had on a foot brace so she can't wear her regular shoes. She was wearing sandals with heavy socks, but it was a pretty cold day and her feet were cold. There was a security woman there with a bomb sniffing dog named Sammy. Suzala of course made friends with the woman and the dog. The dog came and sat on her feet for a while to keep them warm. Also while we were sitting there a young couple came in to take a photo and the guy got down on one knee and proposed. I wasn't fast enough to sketch them. lol

Saturday - Part II

Saturday was a special day for the Urban Sketchers...their 10th anniversary. To celebrate in style they scheduled a USk WorldWide Sketchcrawl. At least 110 Urban Sketcher Regional Chapters from all over the world participated and the work was live streamed on Instagram from different select cities starting in Australia and moving across the world. NYC was participating and we met in Times Square to sketch. Unfortunately for us Saturday was the coldest day we've had since the winter. It was below freezing in the morning and the temperature rose to a balmy high of about 43 degrees.

I did go prepared. When I came home at the end of the day I felt like one of those Russian dolls with one layer under another layer...you get the point. I had 2 thermal layers under my jeans, special heavy "heat holder" socks, 2 thermal tops, a turtleneck and a heavy sweater under my winter coat. Add a scarf, hat, and 2 pairs of fingerless gloves. For the most part I was warm for the first few hours, but when the sunlight went behind the skyscrapers I started to get cold.

Times Square has these risers that people usually stand or sit on. I was sitting on my folding chair so my rear end wouldn't be on the cold risers, but I had a lot of trouble balancing everything in my lap with my bulky coat, so I ended up sitting on the riser for a while. Here are a few short videos and you can see me sketching in the first one. lol

Here are Katie and Leslie sketching.

(Right to left) Sonia, Paula, Suzala and Leslie.

Here is the sketch I was doing of the view ahead of me.

I also did a sketch of some of the people sitting on the risers, including Leslie who was in the video above.

When I moved down from the risers I was sidetracked by the sailors celebrating Veteran's Day in Times Square. I did a quick sketch of one of them.

More tomorrow.

Washington Square Park Continued

There was so much activity going on in Washington Square Park. Right in front of me there was a man doing tarot card reading (and he had quite a few customers).  NYU was having their graduation so all day long there were grads in caps and gowns posing in the park. Of course there were food carts and assorted people milling around. I only captured a few of them.

While I was doing my sketch this cute dog was sitting next to me. His owner said he was getting old and didn't move around much, so he would be a great subject. He only seemed to perk up when another dog came over to visit. His name is Marco Polo.

On the way home we had seats on the subway for part of the trip, so I had a few models across from me.

Suffolk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial

The flickr.com blog for Urban Sketchers had a theme for the week to do a sketch of something that honors someone. This was my first visit to the Suffolk County Vietnam Veterans Memorial. It is at Bald Hill in Farmingville and is located on one of the highest points on Long Island.

I included the Suffolk County police officer who was standing there as a reference for the height of the memorial.