A Trip to the Met - Part 1

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to sketch. There was an exhibit that was ending soon called "The Last Knight." This exhibit is reported to be the most ambition North American loan exhibition of European arms and armor. Much of the work has never been on view outside Europe and includes some of Emperor Maximilian I's own armor, including a suit of armor that he wore at the age of 12. There were also tapestries, sculptures, glass, toys, and manuscripts.

I got attracted by this armor as I came into the first room. When I read the information about it it said that it was the first combat armor worn by Maximilian I. I set my stool out of the way of traffic and started sketching. My original plan was to do sketches of several of the suits of armor on the same page, but I was nearly done with the first one and this young girl came along. She seemed so intent standing there that I couldn't resist sketching her near the display and the next thing I knew the sketch had grown to include a man looking at a relief of a coat of arms. This probably took me nearly 1 1/2 hours. I did it with watercolor pencils. The museum prefers that you use dry media, but the guards often overlook that especially in galleries where the objects are behind glass. I did take out my water brush and use that and the guard didn't say anything. 

I did a sketch traveling in on the Long Island Railroad in the morning. If I leave from my home station the ride takes about 1 hr 20 min and if I am lucky there is usually someone sitting across the aisle from me that I can sketch.