45th World Wide SketchCrawl

The 45th World Wide SketchCrawl took place on Oct 18th, two Saturdays ago.

My friend and I went in on the NYC Subway so I had time to do a few people in pencil before the train got too crowded and we couldn't see across to the seats on the other side.

The NYC Urban Sketchers met at the new section of the High Line Park in Manhattan which now goes up to 34 St. For those who do not know about the High Line it is a park that has been built above ground on a former rail line. The newest section overlooks among other things, the rail yards where most of the trains come into Penn Station and Grand Central. There are views across the Hudson River to NJ and of course the skyline.

Through the course of the day we probably had close to 20 sketchers join for all or part of the day.

Here are some of the sketchers and the tourists enjoying the cloudy morning, sitting on the "bleachers."

My first sketch was of all the converging train lines in the rail yard. There were a few cranes thrown in for good measure. Rumor has it that eventually the rail yard will become a park, but I think it just adds to the city look and I hope it stays.

I began sketching the view across to NJ and a helicopter came in for a landing at the heliport. I started sketching it and of course it didn't stay close enough for me to get many details, but I figured at some point it would take off again and I could add a bit more. I must have waited nearly an hour before I was able to add anything. Jim and Pat managed to sneak into the sketch too.

Then I sketched some of the people on the bleachers...some busy sketching and some just enjoying the views or taking photos.

After lunch we returned to the High Line and I did another view. This time I put Denise into the sketch.

At the end of the day we went to a "dive" of a bar and shared our work.

It was a fun day and a good location for sketching. My thanks to Susan for organizing the day, finding a place for lunch, and a great "local" bar with a lot of character. I should have sketched that too.

Sketching at the Highline in NYC

I'll go a bit out of sequence and post something from this weekend and then catch up with other paintings I did since I've been home from Ireland.

On Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers were planning to sketch at the Highline in NYC.

This is a beautiful park build above ground on an old New York Central elevated spur. But on Friday we had really heavy rain and they were forecasting that it would continue on Saturday morning. It didn't sound like a good day for sketching.

When I got up on Saturday I went out for my normal 7 am walk and realized it would probably be a nice day to go into the city to join the group.
I didn't want to fight traffic so I drove to Queens and took the subway.

Of course I sketched someone on the subway.

I met up with the group and sketched a few scenes directly in watercolors.

This I did from slightly above the restaurant where we were hanging out in the shade.

They were filming something in that same area. I don't know what they were filming but both characters had faces that were painted white with black designs.

Then I did a few sketches of buildings in the area.

Here are a few photos for those of you who have never seen the Highline.

I'm also including some photos of my fellow sketchers at work.

The park goes under some buildings.

Kids always like watching...sometimes a bit too close 

and Denise was very patient (she teaches art).

I finished the day with a sketch on the subway going back to Queens.