First Robotics - Sketch 2

 After the band concert that I posted the sketch of the other day, I remained right where I had been sitting in the morning. I had a clearer view now because they had removed the row of seats in front of me, so there was nothing blocking my view. This time I was able to see and sketch one of the robots in the center.

We didn't stay for the entire competition on Friday because my friend, Suzala, had to get home to work with her art students that had lessons scheduled starting around 3:30. It had been a fun day of sketching.

Meanwhile I did some sketching for the Creative Spark Scavenger Hunt that was going on.

Here is a bit of my breakfast.

And a sketch of a vehicle.

First Robotics - Lunch Concert

 At around noon the First Robotics Competition took a break. I was in a luck seat because they took away the row of chairs that were in front of me and I then had a front row seat to a concert at lunchtime. There were about 9 musicians from Long Beach High School who performed. I didn't know how long they would play so I started with the first musician that was on my left. After I finished enough of that one musician I moved to the next in line. I guess they played for about 30 minutes, but I was only able to sketch three of them before they left. They were actually very good. I'm glad I didn't try to do the whole group because I wouldn't have had enough info to complete the sketch. When the group was leaving a man came over and told me that his son was one of the musicians I had sketched and asked if he could take a photo. I said yes, but told him the sketch wasn't finished yet and if he wanted I would email a copy to him. I did later when I got home.

First Robotics Competition - Sketch 1

Last Friday I joined my friend, Suzala, at the First Robotics Competition that was being held over two days at Hofstra University. Suzala and I sketched there a few years ago and thought it was fun. I still haven't figured out how the competition is scored, but that doesn't affect my enjoyment of sketching it. I was able to sneak into a seating area that I believe was supposed to be for judges, but nobody stopped me and I had a 2nd row seat to what was going on. Most of the teams were from local schools with a few teams from foreign countries. Each team dressed in attire that was somehow connected to their team name. The two people on the left were in cowboy hats, but I don't know what their team name was. I like the uniforms on the referees. The competition moves quickly and teams are on and off the floor fast, so this sketch has bits of assorted activity that was going on. 

First Robotics

My friend, Suzala and her husband, Rick are big into First Robotics. They even wrangled me to help review the projects of the younger kids a few weeks ago. Yesterday and today is the First Robotics Long Island Competition at Hofstra University. I went yesterday to sketch the competition. There were about 50 teams from all over including Istanbul and Switzerland. Suzala and her husband had started the team in their school district and their daughter is the first student that will have been in the program through her entire elementary and high school career. Yay, Spike!!!

Each team builds a robot for the competition which involves the robot picking up the orange balls and putting them into the holes in the rocket shaped displays or the lower flat display. I didn't sketch the robots yesterday but they look sort of like something built from an erector set and a motor...not the cute little people robots. They also have to avoid the other robots that may be trying to knock their ball out of their "arms." They get points for other things too and form alliances with other teams on the field at the same time. There is a lot of computer data analysis to form helpful alliances with the other teams, and Spike (Suzala's daughter) does a lot of the data collecting and analysis. We were seated up in the stands not ground level and it is hard to see some of the details on the floor equipment. I was happy with my sketch and even got one of the team members with his team "Let's Go Pobots" sign. It was a lot of fun sketching this.

First Robotics - Part 2

After lunch I decided I needed to get down on the track floor and check out a view closer. Visitors were allowed down on the floor but they needed to wear goggles in order to enter. I walked around the area where they were competing but I had already sketched that so I kept walking. Each team had a "pit" area where they had all their equipment and supplies to work on their robots before competing. Some teams competed several times as the teams narrowed down. I found a spot all the way in the back where team 3760 was making adjustments to their robot. I didn't have my chair with me so I ended up sitting on the edge of the track to do the sketch...not a very comfortable spot but it had a good view.

When I got back up to the stands I did a few more sketches of the people waiting. The guy with the dreadlocks was in charge of the group in yellow.

There were only a few sketchers left when we headed out to a restaurant to have a snack and share our sketches. Robotics is tiring!

First Robotics at the Armory - Part I

This past Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers met at The Armory Track and Field Center in Upper Manhattan to sketch at the First Robotics Competition. New York City hosts 51 Robotics teams from the NY area, Turkey, the UK, Brazil, and China. Winning teams advanced from this competition to the global competition.

We selected seats in the upper stands because that made it possible to see over the heads of the people standing on the floor watching. The competition took place in the center of the tracks. The problem was it was very hard to narrow your focus when you are seeing the entire event at once...but we had comfortable seats.
 The idea was for the teams to use the robot they created to lift up the yellow cubes and place them on the platforms on the ends of the balance in the center of the sketch. Whichever team had the most cubes on their platform won the round. I used artistic license to eliminate about 75% of the people who were in my range of sight. This sketch probably took me close to 1 1/2 hours to do.

Then I sketched some of the people watching the competition and waiting for their team to appear.

At this point some of us took a break and headed out to get lunch. More tomorrow...