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.

Lincoln Center and Beyond

The NYC Urban Sketchers met at Lincoln Center on Saturday. We lucked out with a beautiful, warm, sunny day. I started out with a sketch of the fountain in the courtyard. At times there were so many people passing by or posting in front of the fountain that you could barely see it.

After lunch I went over to the farmer's market that was on 66th St and Columbus Ave. This lady was selling maple syrup and assorted other things. I think the bags hanging had lamb's wool. I didn't get close enough to find out.

We had a good turnout and even took a group photo. A few people were missing at the end of the day.

After our "show and tell" which we held outside, a group of us went to a restaurant across the street where we all sketched each other. The waiter was very impressed when he saw what we were doing.

#30x30DirectWatercolor2018 - Day 2 The City

Today I went into the city to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers at Lincoln Center. On the way in on the train I did a painting of a rider directly in watercolor. I figured I would do one just in case I didn't get one done later. 

We met near the Lincoln Center Fountain but we all moved into the shade to sketch. It was pretty hot today and sitting in the sun would not have been good. It was early so there weren't too many people around. I sketched this one out before doing the watercolor. There were just too many tricky angles that I needed to get right.

Next I went out to Columbus Ave and sketched the people in Dante Park. This was done directly in watercolor for the challenge. The hardest part was trying to save the whites for the Columbus Ave sign.

My last sketch was done in watercolors and ink of the farmer's market and the skyscrapers behind it.

Sketchcrawl #39 - NYC

Yesterday was the World Wide Sketchcrawl #39. My friend, Susan, and I went into NYC to meet with the NYC Urban Sketchers who had organized a sketching day for us. We met at Bethesda Fountain in Central Park. This was my biggest sketch of the day and is about 5 x 8.

Because everyone was enjoying the location so much, we stayed in that area for a few hours instead of moving as originally planned. There were people singing in the Bethesda Pavillion so we had entertainment too. There was also music down by the fountain which made it really nice.

I did a sketch of the railing of the staircase that came down to where the fountain is located.

This sketch and most of the others below were done directly in ink (yeah!).

By the time I finished this sketch above some of us headed off to lunch. Everyone sketched at the table before the food arrived. I sketched Richard who was at the other end of the table.

After lunch we headed over to the Lincoln Center area. On the way we passed a street market and a few of us topped to sketch there. I loved this colorful truck. The waffles they were cooking smelled so good.

Next we met the afternoon group in front of Lincoln Center. Many of them were sitting on the edge of the dancing fountain. I decided on sketching the sketchers with the fountain view behind them instead of doing Lincoln Center itself. I sketched it in pen and before I could add color a security guard came to warn them that in a few minutes the fountains were scheduled to shoot really high, and they would get wet if they were anywhere near them. He was so right. The whole area around the fountain got drenched. I added the color from memory.

As much as it is spring, the temperatures were pretty cold yesterday and most of us were too cold to continue sketching outside. We found a cafe inside that wasn't open yet and it had tables and big glass windows facing the Lincoln Center plaza. I sketched Mia while she was sketching.

I sketched a few of the other sketchers too.

I took a few photos of some of the sketchers either sketching or sharing tips on materials.

Here's my friend, Susan hard at work.

Here are Melanie and another sketcher.

Mia was showing the sketcher from India all the wonderful pens and inks she had with her.

Finally we shared our sketchbooks and work. This is just a small sample of the work done yesterday. Through the course of the day we probably had about 28 people participate in the NYC Sketchcrawl. One woman lives in India, and a couple that took part were from Minnesota.

I hope you enjoyed sharing our day!