Sketchers at Work

 We had about 25 sketchers join us at The Forum on Saturday. As you can see from my sketch, it is a roomy area for meeting, and due to the huge windows I was easily able to sketch the view outside on 125th Street. I had some very cooperative models for this sketch.

View from The Forum at Columbia University

 The NYC Urban Sketchers met at The Forum at Columbia University. Located at 125th Street and Broadway, The Forum is a unique community gathering space with an open atrium look with plenty of seating, tech tables for charging devices and is an ideal gathering spot. The space has huge windows making it easy to sketch the surrounding area. Right outside is the trestle for the #1 elevated train which I sketched here.

The Forum @ Colunbia University - Part 2

 Sunday's location at "The Forum" at Columbia University provided a lot of great views to sketch and paint. After tackling the view from under the #1 elevated train I decided to do something that wasn't so complex. One of the iconic things you see in the NY City skyline are water towers atop many of the buildings. Not all of the buildings have them, and I definitely don't understand how they work, but they are fun to see. From the same spot where I was sitting for the first sketch, I turned my chair less than 90 degrees to face some buildings and a water tower happened to be on top of one of them. Of course a city scene often has a bit of graffiiti too. This was my view directly across 125 Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan where Columbia University is located.

"Show and Tell" for the NYC Urban Sketchers usually takes place at 3:00pm. The Forum personnel told us we could relocate to another room so that we could gather and share our work without having to worry about disturbing other people that were there. I had about 40 minutes to sketch something else and headed over to the other side of the room where I had been figuring I would sketch some people inside with the outside view behind them. I saw my friend Laura had a table and sat down to sketch there. Of course we did a lot of talking instead of a lot of sketching because we hadn't seen each other in a while. I did manage to do a very quick (maybe 10-15 minute) sketch that included two of our sketchers as well as someone working on their computer. I liked the big plant, so that went in as well as a bit of the structure under the elevated train and the deli across the street. I used a brush pen to sketch directly in ink which helped it go faster and then I added some color quickly with my waterbrush. Laura couldn't believe I finished it as quickly as I did.

The Forum @ Columbia University - Part 1

 On Sunday, the NYC Urban Sketchers met at a new venue for us. "The Forum" at Columbia University is located at 125 St and Broadway. It is a public space with lots of tables and chairs that is used by the Columbia students as well as people in the neighborhood. With floor to ceiling windows looking out on the city views, it was a perfect place to be out of the cold and still feel like you were sitting outdoors. Some of the windows overlooked the corner where the #1 train was elevated above our heads. The structure of it was very complex, but fun to try to draw. I did the basic structure that I could see clearly and sort of winged the rest to make it look believable. I hope I succeeded.

Inktober Day 24

 On Sunday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at Inwood Park which is at the very upper edge of Manhattan, across the river from the Bronx and an area known as Spuyten Duyval. It is an area that I'm not familiar with at all, but the views from the park were great. Muscota Marsh meets the Spuyten Duyval Creek in this area which is near Columbia University. The big C on the cliffside stands for Columbia. The view looks toward the Henry Hudson Bridge.

When I first got to the park I stood by the street level entrance and decided to do my Inktober Day 24 sketch of the Columbia University Boathouse. This is a quick line sketch done with my Lamy pen with no shading.

Next I joined the other sketchers down below on the walkway along the creek/river. It had that great view that I mentioned above. Instead of doing a sketch I did an actual painting on some sample Hahnemuhle watercolor paper that was about 6 x 8.

In the afternoon I did a sketch of a similar view including some of my sketching friends hard at work. For this one I used my Lamy pen and watercolors. I started this one with the figure of my friend, Dana. I was amazed that she stood holding her sketchbook in the air for so long while she worked. I did the figures before working on the background. Even with fellow sketchers there is a good chance they will move out of the scene before you finish. lol It turned out to be a great location for sketching and one that we will probably return to in the future.