Lincoln Center and Inktober Day 16

 Yesterday I forgot to post!!! That's because I went to see my sister, Michelle who lives in New Jersey and her daughter and husband that were visiting from Oklahoma. I hadn't seen them in about 5 years. I left here early and got back late. Sorry about that. 

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers were meeting in the area around Lincoln Center. Our first stop was the Holy Trinity Lutheran Church on the corner of Central Park West and W 65th Street. I always find churches and buildings like this difficult to sketch. We got there a little late so I had only about 30 minutes to do this sketch. I decided to let it be my Day 16 Inktober sketch and not worry about color.

Then we moved on to Lincoln Center itself. Aside from the fountain I don't find much there to be too exciting in the plaza. But there are a lot of people that sit at the edge of the fountain and they are always fun to sketch or paint. I did this directly in watercolor. I purposely did the fountain with the trees behind it to make the water stand out more. 

After a nice lunch and time chatting with some of the other sketchers I had time for one more sketch. I sat across the street in Dante Park and sketched the people in front of me and the view back toward Lincoln Center. It gave me a fun composition to work with.

When you are sketching outdoors you never know what will happen. When we got to the plaza I set myself up on my painting chair facing the fountain and Mark set himself up on his stool about 1/4 of the way around the plaza. A short while later a security guard came over to each of us and told us that we could sit on the stairs, or the structures that looked sort of like flat rocks, but we "couldn't use our own furniture." Later I found out that he went around to each of the sketchers that had their own "furniture." We've never had someone stop us from using stools or painting chairs before.

Women's March 2018

Today was the Women's March 2018. It is hard to believe that it is already a year since the last one and it seems things have gone steadily downhill. I knew I had to be part of the march again. I tried to get together with friends but nobody from out where I live was interesting in going into the city, since there was a local march. One of my sketching friends, Julie was getting together with a group of friends and invite me to join them.

I took the 8:40 train from Ronkonkoma along with many other protesters. I did a sketch of a few women that were sitting near me on the train.

I was meeting Julie and her friends at the Aroma Expresso Bar on 72nd St. I was early so I stood outside and sketched some of the protesters that were getting ready to march. Shortly thereafter I was joined by another friend of ours who planned to sketch. Here are the sketches I did outside the coffee shop.

Finally we were all together and started to head to the march. 72nd St was filled with people, wall to wall, so the police were moving the crowd up to 75th St. We made a left and the next thing I knew I had lost everyone except one of of Julie's friends. It is hard enough to keep people you recognize in your site, but it is nearly impossible when you don't know the people. I texted Julie a few times but in the process I lost the one person that was with me. lol Finally I decided to just go it alone. The crowd was intense and not moving since the march hadn't actually started down Central Park West. I scooted out of the barricades and found a spot to lean against a building and started sketching the crowd...this is the result.

By the time I finished this sketch I needed a restroom and something to eat. I walked away from the crowd and took care of both. Then I headed back up to Central Park West. I walked with the crowd for quite a while and then went off to the side and did another final sketch of the crowd.

In case you want to see more, here are a few photos. People were very clever coming up with signs for the march.

41st World Wide SketchCrawl in NYC

Today was the 41st World Wide SketchCrawl. I met up with the NYC Urban Sketchers starting at Belvedere Castle in Central Park. We had a fair turnout of locals as well as a group of high school art students who were in NYC with their teacher for a field trip and an Aussie from Perth who happened to be in the park sketching right near us.

This is Belvedere Castle which sits on one of the highest hills in Central Park.

And my sketch of it.

Julie was sketching right near me.

Next I moved a little higher and met up with some of the other sketchers.

Here is Carol with her sketch of the view down from the observation deck.

Here is my sketch looking down and the actual view I painted.

Here's a closer look at my sketch.

Our next location was down on the lawn looking up at the castle.

I also sketched Parker sketching people in the group.

The rocks made a handy seat.

People were sitting on the rocks near him.

Here are photos of the group while they were working.

Before we went to lunch we shared some of our work and information.

After a delicious lunch at Carmine's on Broadway, Susan, Mark, Mia, and I 

returned to the perimeter of the park to continue sketching.

Here are Mark and Mia at work.

We all sketched St. Urban an apartment building at 285 Central Park West.

I did just the top of the building.

I also did part of the Dwight School that was across from us.

Here is Mia with her sketch of the building.

On the way back to the parking garage Susan and I stopped for coffee at Starbucks.

Of course we sketched! I had the back of a model seated by the window.

Our sketchcrawl lasted about 12 hours including travel. It was a long day!