Happy New Year

Happy New Year!!!

Since my favorite place is the beach I usually try to get there to start the new year off.

Today I drove over to Robert Moses State Park to check out the beach there. I was tempted to paint the lighthouse, but I couldn't get a good parking space with a view of it. I needed to sit in my mobile studio because there were gale force winds at the beach today. The wind didn't stop many people from venturing there. On one section of the beach there had to be at least 50 people on the sand watching something...and a hellicopter flying over the area. I have no idea what was going on and was not tempted to check it out.

Instead I went down by the boardwalk area and positioned my studio so I had a good view of people walking back and forth to the sand. I captured a few groups of people enjoying the day.

Boardwalk & Sketchbook Revival Royal Tern

Some of the water locations here have small boardwalks like this spot by the Sayville Boat Basin. The marina isn't open to boats because it is too early so there are no boats in the slips.

I have been watching some of the video lessons for Sketchbook Revival to catch up. The 2 weeks are now up but the videos remain available until April 18. I'll watch as many as I can and do a few more of the lessons. This morning I did a sketch of a Royal Tern in a workshop let by Shari Blaukopf who is an urban sketcher I have been following for years.

 

One Week 100 People - Day 2

 For my Day 2 sketches I decided to head to Sunken Meadow State Park to sketch at the boardwalk. When I try to sketch people walking it helps for there to be a good distance where they are walking toward me, so I have time to get their details down. This particular park has a few ramps that lead from the boardwalk to the parking area so I sat facing one of them because I knew a lot of people would pass in front of me and I would have a short opportunity to sketch them. I did this group from my mobile studio.

I walked up on the boardwalk and sat on one of the benches to do these sketches...and then I joined the walkers for a little walking exercise.

Maritime Museum Grounds

 On Wednesday evening the Patchogue Sketch Club and some artists from Paint the Great South Bay met on the grounds of the Long Island Maritime Museum. It is a great place to sketch because the marsh views are always a little different. It was a hot night so I sat in the shade of one of the buildings which gave me a different foreground than I have when I usually sketch there. I sketched the boardwalk and pilings and the marsh first leaving the sky empty. I wanted to paint that when the sun was starting to set. There were some muted sunset colors and a bit of orange where the ball of the sun was as I finished this.

Bulldozer at the Beach

After a rainy night on Saturday yesterday turned out to be a nice day. It was partly sunny with temperatures in the high 50s. I told a ride down to Robert Moses State Park. Usually when I go there I do a sketch of the Fire Island Lighthouse. It was a bit windy so I ended up sitting in my car facing a dune by the boardwalk with this cute yellow bulldozer sitting there...a perfect model.

When I finished I took a walk along the boardwalk to the lighthouse and back. As I was heading for the parking lot I heard this noise that sounded like a truck backing up. It was the bulldozer which was digging a trench right along the edge of the boardwalk. It was already sort of deep and not too wide but the driver kept scooping out sand and piling it up off to the side. The only problem was that the bulldozer was parallel to the side of the boardwalk and also parallel to the narrow trench. Everyone was watching because now the bulldozer was tilted about 45 degrees toward the boardwalk and it looked like it was going to tip over into the trench and onto the railing of the boardwalk. The driver kept trying to back up and get out of the trench but his back wheels were stuck. Another guy came over to see if he could help but all he had was a shovel. I watched for a while but finally went back to my car and ate my lunch. I couldn't see what was happening but about 10 minutes later the bulldozer drove into view so I guess he was able to extract it.

People and the Lighthouse

I have been doing a Craftsy class with James Richards called "Sketching the Energy of Places." He gives several lessons on incorporating figures into sketches and doing crowds of people too. Following his advice I did this sketch along the boardwalk going to the Fire Island Lighthouse last weekend. It was a nice day so the boardwalk was packed. I was happy with the way this came out. It was the first time I was in a location that I could do a crowd of people since I started the class.

Tiger Lily's

Yesterday I went to Port Jefferson to sketch. Soon it will be too crowded there to park and sketch. It gets really busy in nice weather, especially when the ferry from Connecticut arrives or departs.
This is the Tiger Lily Cafe. It is the perfect spot to sit and text. lol
This was done in my Stillman & Birn journal and is about 4 x 6.

Here is the April 2 page for my "fake journal."

You can visit the actual journal if you click on the link on the right under my other blogs.