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.

Fantastic Gardens

 

On  another of our drizzly days I was looking for a place where I could park and see something that felt like spring. According to the sign that was hanging over the flowers, Fantastic Gardens in Patchogue has a Sunday market inside and outside some of the greenhouses. I will have to check it out, but for now I was happy with the assortment of flowers on the tables.