Sunday, May 31, 2020

Newcastle Upon Tyne

#VirtualSketch is still traveling the world. I don't get to do all the cities but I do try to look for a minute or two using Google Maps Street View to see if something catches my attention. When I roamed around Newcastle upon Tyne in England none of the outdoor buildings or landscapes called to me. I followed one of the links into Ginger Market and saw this man at the counter in his red jacket. I knew I had to sketch him.


Saturday, May 30, 2020

Tiny Dancer

On Wednesday night the Patchogue Sketch Club had a Zoom sketch meeting. We started with everyone sharing some of the work they have been doing recently. Our theme for the night was statues. At first I was going to do a sketch of Venus de Milo but then I saw images of the Tiny Dancer by Degas and inspiration struck. I've sketched the statue before...quickly at the Muse d' Orsay, but I worked in a bit more detail this time from a photo image.


Friday, May 29, 2020

Socially Distancing at Lunch

The other day I had enough time to head down near the water for a while. I was hoping to sketch some people and found this trio of men sitting in the parking lot at the Sayville Marina sharing their lunch. What a perfect view!


Thursday, May 28, 2020

Frieda Kahlo Museum



Hola! #VirtualSketch took a trip to Mexico City the other day. I roamed around and found the Frieda Kahlo Museum. It looks as colorful as her artwork.


Wednesday, May 27, 2020

Lefty Lucy's Celestial Poses

Last night I had time to join the Zoom meeting figure drawing event by Lefty Lucy in Quarantine. Her costume was "Celestial" themed. Dressed in a pretty black wig and sexy gown she did a number of 1, 2, 5, 10 and finally a 20 minute pose. I am posting some of the sketches. I was a bit rusty with the quick ones since I missed the last two Tuesday nights.





Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Stonington, CT

#VirtualSketch visited Stonington, CT recently. It is a place I've wanted to visit but yet to get to. This gave me an easy way to do that. The building I sketched is actually an antique store. I always love buildings with awning...and striped made it even more special.


Monday, May 25, 2020

Cinque Terre

On one of our visits to Italy we traveled up to the Cinque Terre. It was such a pretty place with several towns perched on cliffs and rocks overlooking the water. I can remember waling all the way out along the  cliff and sitting and sketching the view back toward the town. We also met the guidebook author, Rick Steves when we were there. He was very gracious and loved my sketch. This is one of my travel sketches for the NYC Urban Sketchers theme for this past week. This was done from one of my photos.


Sunday, May 24, 2020

Red Rocks

Quite a while back my husband and I drove cross-country on our way to visit my sister in California. One of the places we drove through was New Mexico. We stopped in Sante Fe and then took a side trip to Georgia O'Keefe's home and studio in Abiquiu. While driving along we passed Abiquiu Lake and some areas of beautiful red rocks like I sketched her. I used a reference photo that I took at that time. It is a beautiful part of our country and well worth visiting.


Saturday, May 23, 2020

Selfie

Although I didn't join the NYC Urban Sketchers at their Zoom event today, I wanted to take part in it anyway. The morning event was "Back to School" and the members did sketches of something related to their time in school. I couldn't get excited about doing any of the buildings I went to school in, but I searched my photo albums and found an image of myself at school. This was from my Grade 1 elementary class photo. It was a photo of the entire class and the nun but I left everyone else out. With my limited sketching time one person was all I could handle. lol


Friday, May 22, 2020

Lille, France

One of the locations #VirtualSketch visited this week was Lille, France. I did some wandering and came across some people doing exactly what I wish I could be doing. #NUS


Thursday, May 21, 2020

Italian Wine Store

Today for the NYC Urban Sketchers theme of "Let's Go Traveling" I returned to a favorite place...Venice. When I think of wine stores here in NY I picture a shop with aisles of bottles on display. Wandering around Venice this last trip I found several wine stores where people brought their own bottles and filled them from big casks rather than just picking up a new bottle. They also had big, half gallon and gallon bottles for sale. I thought it was an interesting way to buy wine.


Wednesday, May 20, 2020

La Jolla

For a theme this week the NYC Urban Sketchers is "Let's Go Traveling." Since we can't do it in real life we are traveling to places we loved, plan to travel to, or wish we could travel to. I have many memories of vacations in southern CA visiting my sister and her family. We spent a lot of time in La Jolla. I once told my sister that if she found me an apartment there I would move out there. This was found using Google Street Maps.


Tuesday, May 19, 2020

Bruges, Belgium

I've been doing a lot of the #VirtualSketch sketches in a Canson sketchbook that is not very watercolor friendly. The pages sort of take color but not as well as watercolor paper. Anyway I used it for this sketch of a location along the street in Bruges, Belgium. When it was done it was one of those sketches that I wish I had used better paper for.


Monday, May 18, 2020

Inside and Outside

These sketches were done for the WetCanvas Scavenger Hunt. Taking care of Jerry right now doesn't leave a lot of time to sketch...and it has to be inside or outside our apartment...or virtual. These were done on location.

Sketched on the patio with a Stabilo pen which only bleeds when it wants to.

  
Ink brush sketch of part of the living room.

Graphite sketch looking down the hallway to the bedroom.

Sunday, May 17, 2020

Poznan, Poland

#VirtualSketch visited Poznan, Poland the other day. I found an interesting doorway to sketch there. Done with ink that is water-soluble depending on the paper.


Saturday, May 16, 2020

Pat's Steaks

The NYC Urban Sketchers did a virtual tour of Philadelphia today. I knew I wouldn't have the time to join them all day, but I did manage to squeeze in one sketch...food related of course! There is a rivalry between Pat's Steaks and Geno's over who has the best Philly cheesesteaks. I was hoping to sketch both of them, but my day was too busy.


Friday, May 15, 2020

Azalea Garden

This week the NYC Urban Sketcher's theme is trees and flowers in bloom. Since I'm probably not getting out of the house in the near future due to taking care of my husband, I watched the NY Botanical Garden's video of their Azalea Garden to find an image to sketch. It isn't as good as being there in person, but it will have to do for now.


Thursday, May 14, 2020

A Stop in Scotland

Last week the NYC Urban Sketches posted a theme for the week which was something medieval. I didn't really want to do armor so I looked around for some ruins. These are of St Anthony's Chapel in Edinburg, Scotland. #NUS (not an urban sketch)


Wednesday, May 13, 2020

Healthy

Last night I knew I needed to sit and relax with a sketch after my long day with Jerry. Some of the produce I bought the other day came in quite handy.


Tuesday, May 12, 2020

Beach Scenes

On Sunday (which now seems like eons ago) I headed over to Robert Moses State Park to sketch. It was a sunny day but very windy, so there weren't too many people around. I sat in my mobile studio looking at the dunes and painting while several groups came to enjoy the actual beach. I like that most walkways down to the beach have their own unique fences so they usually look different.


Then I drove down to the other end of the parking lot which faced a fence. The Fire Island Lighthouse was visible in the distance. This time I sketched on my iPad with my ArtRage program. If I stop using it for too long I forget what I'm doing.


An update on my hubby. He came home from the rehab facility today. Unfortunately he had a fall about a week and a half ago and pulled the muscle in his good leg. Right now he is in a lot of pain and can't stand or put any pressure on the leg. That made for a very challenging day for me and my sister-in-law. (Thank heaven for her help.) It also felt like the day lasted about a week. Hopefully with bed rest his muscle will heal. He had been doing so well before that. I am looking forward to seeing that again.


Monday, May 11, 2020

Matsumoto

A few days ago #VirtualSketch went to Masumoto, Japan. I found Nawate Street which had a lot of fun shops, many of which had too many Japanese characters in their signs. And then I saw the kimonos outside and knew I had to stop.


Sunday, May 10, 2020

San Diego Zoo

For my afternoon sketching with the NYC Urban Sketchers yesterday I headed over to the San Diego Zoo. It is a place I visited many times when I would go out and visit my sister and her family. We had a lot of good times there. I did the sketches in small frames but I overlapped them this time. People said they looked like animal cards.

First I watched the Elephant Cam. They were walking around quite a bit so I froze the screen when I got a fairly good pose. Next I moved to the Baboon Cam. They were easier to sketch because they were in a pose that really didn't change much...I guess grooming does that for you.


The Koala Cam moved around to different views, so I froze this view of the koala. They always curl up in the branches and usually face the opposite direction. lol The penguins were pretty active but I was able t focus on one at a time and sketched them in pencil first.


Here is how I composed the page for the entire day.


And last, but not least here is a photo I took at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum recently that I used for my Mother's Day Card. I hope all of you who in any way are responsible for the mothering or guidance of the children of the world had a wonderful Mother's Day!


Saturday, May 9, 2020

Monterey Bay Aquarium

The NYC Urban Sketchers did a web cam virtual sketching event today. We went to the zoo! The plan was we could use any link for a site with live animals...or even sketch from photos. We were provided with some links to use including the Monterey Bay Aquarium, the San Diego Zoo, the Cincinnati Zoo, and a Safari adventure. In the morning I headed to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which is probably my favorite aquarium of all time. 

I was there once and remember how impressive the exhibits on jellyfish were. They always grossed me out at the beach, but when you see them floating in the tanks there they are just mesmerizing and beautiful. So the first sketch was done while watching the Jelly Cam. I have to be honest and say that I did pause the action a few times to capture what I was seeing. They float by awfully fast...


The Coral Reef Cam switched back and forth between a few camera views but I liked this one of the lacy coral the best. These pointy-nosed yellow and black fish were everywhere.


When I was there in reality many years ago I remember standing in front of this kelp forest exhibit and being amazed by how incredibly huge they were. They were taller than most trees and thick and moved like they were dancing. So the Kelp Forest Cam was a must!


In the afternoon I followed another link to a zoo...sketches to be seen tomorrow!

Friday, May 8, 2020

Fruit Still Life

The other night the Patchogue Sketch Club had a Zoom meeting. We talked a lot and shared some of the artwork we had done recently. But seeing that it was "sketch night" some of us sketched while we were chatting. I gathered some of the fruit that was around the kitchen and this was the result.


Thursday, May 7, 2020

Spanish Village Art Center

One of the locations that #VirtualSketch went to yesterday was Balboa Park in San Diego, California. My sister and her family took me there several times when I visited them in the past and I remember the Spanish Village Art Center well. It was fun to sketch there. Too bad I couldn't visit the studios now.


Wednesday, May 6, 2020

Lefty Lucy as the Bride of Frankenstein

Last night Lefty Lucy was costumed in quarantine as the Bride of Frankenstein. I had a hard time at the beginning figuring out what her headpieces was but after a few poses she came closer and I could see it a little more clearly. As always she does a series of 1, 2, 5, 10, and then a 20 minute pose.







Tuesday, May 5, 2020

The Bouquet Sketches

A while back a friend of mine sent me a beautiful arrangement of flowers. I didn't want to paint the whole thing so I pulled out a few of the different kinds of flowers to do a sketch.


The bouquet lasted a long time but  finally I had to get rid of some of them that were past their prime. I pulled out the few that looked the best and put them in a small jar. They lasted a few more days but then started to lose their petals. I pulled out my art supplies to do one last sketch.


Monday, May 4, 2020

Map Making

The NYC Urban Sketchers met on Zoom on Sunday. Our sketching was not urban sketching. In the morning we did a map of something or some place that was familiar to us. I got started but didn't come close to finishing by lunchtime. I was working on a map of some memories of places and things on Long Island from childhood to now. I finished the rest of it today.


For the afternoon we did maps that were more personal (although I sort of did that in the morning too). This one was my pandemic survival map showing more of a timeline of my days.



Sunday, May 3, 2020

Some Virtual Travel

The #VirtualSketch group posts a new location (and sometimes more than one) every day. I enjoy doing it but sometimes I just don't have the time to find a spot that is different enough and that I like enough to sketch. Here are two new ones that I've done, one of Clermont-sur-Berwinne in Belgium and Buenos Aires, Argentina.



Saturday, May 2, 2020

Beach Path

Today was one of those days that just screamed beach. It was sunny and warm, but a bit too breezy to actually sit on the beach. I went over to Robert Moses State Park and sat and sketched. I socially distanced myself inside my mobile studio. The parking lot was crowded but there was plenty of room for people to spread out. 


Yesterday I was in Patchogue buying a few things that I needed before Jerry comes home. While I was there I went down to Sandpit Marina and did a continuous line sketch of the little lighthouse and some people. I haven't done a continuous line in a long time, but it was fun to do.


Friday, May 1, 2020

Tulip Dance

At the beginning of the week I went to the Bayard Cutting Arboretum. Their tulips were in bloom and looked so nice! I sat by the manor house and did this sketch of the tulips that were in the bed there. 


Here are a few of the photos I took while I was wandering around.