Workshop "From Sketches to Stories"

The NYC Urban Sketchers offers some workshops each year. Shawne Cooper, a friend of mine was offering what sounded like an interesting workshop called "From Sketches to Stories." It involved not only sketching but writing too. I decided to join in. The original location was supposed to be the Elizabeth Street Garden, but rain was forecast for the day, so a decision was made to hold the workshop at Pier 57, a very welcoming indoor location looking out at Little Island.

Shawne showed a variety of her sketchbook pages where she used writing to correspond with her sketch. We were given a page of photos of planting arrangements (pots, urns, etc) from Elizabeth Street Garden. Using tempera sticks we blocked in a solid shape for the item we chose. Once it was dry our assignment was to fill the solid area with our reaction to the change in location. This we did with marker on the shape we had created. Here is mine.

The next assignment was to look at Little Island and come up with a few things that it reminded us of. The structure of the park reminds me of tall champagne glasses. Our goal was to write about some memory that this reminded us of and write about that. Of course we did a sketch of Little Island and what it reminded us of and then we wrote about that memory. I combined the Little Island design with a champagne glass, a champagne bottle, and a bit of the ocean.

When we were finished each sketcher shared her/his page with the group. It was really interesting to hear the stories that were created by each person.

In case you have never seen Little Island, this is what it looks like in real life.

We did one more very quick activity and then took a few photos.

The group at work inside Pier 57

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor - Day 25

Day 25 of the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge was done up in Port Jeff at one of the businesses by the waterfront.

Last week the NYC Urban Sketchers sketched at the Elizabeth Street Garden. My last sketch there was only partway finished and had no color added. I used a photo to finish the sketch and added color.

Here is the sketch before I worked on it more.

30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge - Day 18

 Today I joined the NYC Urban Sketchers at a wonderful location. Elizabeth Street Garden is a 1-acre community sculpture garden in the Nolita neighborhood of Manhattan. It is located on Elizabeth Street between Prince and Spring Streets. It is a busy place with a lot of people stopping and enjoying the delights of the garden. There was yoga going on, people enjoying the flowers and the sunshine, people having coffee or lunch, and a collection of urban sketchers enjoying the views. We found out that the city is planning to have the location developed and turned into a 7 story mixed-usage building. The friends of the garden have filed a lawsuit against NYC to stop the destruction of this treasured green space. Hopefully they will succeed!

Here is my Day 18 painting for the 30 x 30 Direct Watercolor Challenge. This is 5 x 7.

I continued sketching in another area in the park.

My third sketch was done on a small balcony and includes two members of our group. It is unfinished, but I plan to finish the left side and add color. I hope to repost it when I finish it.