Inktober Day 2 & 3

While I was in Bryant Park on Saturday I did my Day 2 Inktober sketch with my Lamy Safari pen and Platinum Carbon Ink. That is such a great park for sketching...so many good views. 

The sketch below was done down by the bay in Sayville. I used a black Uniball Signo gel pen for this sketch. It skipped a bit which ended up working well for all those bare branches and the beach grasses.

NYC Usk Hunt in NYC

The NYC Urban Sketchers had our weekend event today and it was a little different. Our organizer, Mark, gave us a list of 25 things to find on the streets of NYC using Googlemaps Streetview. As a New Yorker it was easy for me to find some of the things, but I would imagine that someone from another state or country would have a little more difficulty.  My first sketch was a firehouse with a fire  truck included.

Then I was off to find an ethnic restaurant so I headed to Chinatown.

Another item to find was a $1 pizza place. None of them had a good view, so I ended up doing a 99 cent pizza place instead.

Last I went looking for a food cart. This is my husband's favorite food cart in the city. Usually in the evening there are lines down the block...and often limo drivers pull up and order something too.

In case you are wondering what else was on the hunt list, here it is. Maybe I'll try doing a few more during the week.

THE MANHATTAN V-SKETCH HUNT

1) Find and draw a sculpture of a bull.

2) Find and draw a boat or ship docked in the waters of NYC.

3) Find and draw something art deco.

4) Find and draw a NYC Taxi.

5) Find and draw a doorman

6) Find and draw an ethnic restaurant.

7) Find and draw a bridge

8) Find and draw a view of another state visible from NYC

9) Find and draw a scene that shows the streets being repaired.

10) Find and draw a fire house, include a firetruck if you can.

11) Find and draw an American Flag on a NYC building

12) Find and draw a street vendor

13) Find and draw a famous place

14) Find and draw a steakhouse

15) Find and draw someone wearing religious clothing

16) Find and draw a store that sells CBD products.

17) Find and draw Hamilton’s Custom House

18) Find and draw a statue of George Washington

19) Find and draw an art school

20) Find and draw a famous bar in NYC that is at least 150 years old

21) Find and draw a carousel (Manhattan only)

22) Find and draw the burial place of a US President

23) Find and draw a statue of a real woman (i.e. a statue of Michelle Obama would be acceptable, a statue of Justice is not acceptable since it’s not a real person)

24) Find and draw a $1 Pizza store.

25 Find and draw a police horse.-

Back to the 1920s

The NYC Urban Sketchers "met" to sketch today. The plan for the morning was to time travel again but back to NYC in the 1920s. We could use images from anywhere we wanted but there was a link to a collection of 1920s images. It saved time that way. We were told to select two images and combine them into one sketch or painting. Here is the sketch I did.

Here are the Google images I combined.

In the afternoon the assignment was to go back to the 1920s again but to add something from today to be a bridge from the past to the present. Here is my sketch.

I ended up using two photos from the past.

And a photo of a current NYC taxi.

It was an interesting, fun way to be creative.

Going to the Dogs

Yesterday the NYC Urban Sketchers went to a location that was new to me, the Museum of the Dog near Park Avenue. Apparently it was located in Manhattan about 30 years ago but moved to Missouri. It relocated back to NYC about 2 years ago. It is in a beautiful building. There is fine are in the form of paintings, sculptures, porcelain objects and interpretive displays. The museum apparently has a 1,700-piece collection as well as a 4,000 volume library and a wonderful gift shop.

I usually check out the whole area before I pick something to sketch but when I arrived at the 3rd floor I was attracted to this pair of Harlequin Great Danes made out of glazed ceramics by the Hispania Factory from 1960. The looked so real!

There were quite a few bulldog statues and a Yorki Doodle Dandy statue of a Smoky, a Yorkshire terrier that was with the soldiers in WWII. He is in a helmet. He was credited with saving the lives of a group of soldiers. A book was written about him.

Around 12:30 there was a live presentation that was part of their Meet the Breed program. A beautiful Gordon Setter named Winston was there. His owner/breeder discussed the breed while Winston visited with his audience. I tried sketching him but he didn't stay still for long. I caught him from the back and was able to do a bit of his head. I also sketched a little girl that was very interested in playing with Winston. Later I sketched one of the statues in the cases.

Quite a few of the other sketchers were focused on the bulldogs in the display cases, so I used them as models for my last sketch. Other sketchers, like Julie, Laura and Emily are usually very cooperative and don't move around much. Our day of "Going to the Dogs" was fun.

Train Rider

Yesterday I went into the city to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers. Our location itself will be another post, but like usual I did sketch on the train going into the city. This man was sitting across the aisle from where I was seated and since he slept almost the entire trip he made a good model for a direct in ink sketch.

Inktober Day 27 - Around Tudor City Part 2

My Day 27 Inktober Sketch or sketches were done on the Long Island Railroad going into the city. Usually I don't sketch on the LIRR in ink because the vibration of the train is too jerky, but I figured for Inktober I would give it a go. These two people were sitting in the same row but came on the train at different stops and didn't know each other.

#inktober

#inktober2019

Once the Halloween Doggie Parade was over (see yesterday's post), we met in the park and had lunch and talked a bit. Then I went out of the park and back on the street. We were a bit elevated on Tudor City Lane which gave us a great view of the Chrysler Building. I could only fit a small part of it on my paper.

I finished the above sketch and had about 30 minutes before we were meeting for our "show and tell." I ended up doing a quick watercolor sketch of the view out of one side of the park. Using just a few pencil lines for placement I did most of the sketch directly in watercolors. I finished just in time.

Bryant Park Carousel

After the workshop with Katie in Bryant Park was over, a few of us had lunch in the park and then continued sketching. I wanted to do a larger version of the carousel so my friend Mia and I went to the other side of the park to get a closer view. I tried not to add a lot of detail but I couldn't help myself. I wanted to sketch at least on child on an animal and it morphed into many animals. lol

Tiny Sketches: Big Impact

On Sunday the NYC Urban Sketchers had another of their 10 x 10 workshops, this time with Katie Woodward. Katie is a set designer, but recently has been doing very tiny sketches...some as small as postage stamps. She did several demonstrations beginning with a sketch of the front of the NY Public Library. If you would like to see some of Katie's work here is a link to her blog.

She gave us a few hints as to how she scales down her view to fit on her small surfaces as she did a demo sketch. Then we got to practice sketching the view. I was using paper that was about  3 x 5 inches. Katie says that as long as you focus on getting the elements that make your object recognizable, your sketch will be believable. Here we needed the columns and the arches which are a big part of the front of the library. (Sorry these are so light, but we were working in pencil and stopped at that point.)  

The group then moved into Bryant Park where we were going to sketch the back of the library.

Everyone wanted to know how she make the detail so small. Katie says that the secret is to use "visual noise," lots of dots, dashes and squiggles to give the illusion of more specific shapes. She did a demo of the carousel in the park with the trees and the building behind it. She did it as about a 2 x 3 vertical. She simplified a lot of the detail and then used a lot of visual noise, making the strongest contrast and the most detail around the center of interest in the sketch.

She asked us to sketch a section of the back of the library which has recognizable windows and lots of umbrellas. I liked the section where there were two layers of umbrellas and tables as well as the windows and a statue. I used a piece of watercolor paper that was about 3 x 5 inches.

 

I finished early so I also did a sketch of the carousel with the trees and building behind it. This one is 2 x 5 1/4 inches.

Bryant Park Part 1

The weather forecast was for sunny and hot in the city, so as soon as we got to Bryant Park, Suzala and I found the shadiest spot that had a good view of the Bryant Park Fountain. We pulled over a table and a few chairs and set up to sketch. Other NYC Urban Sketchers joined us and we ended up with a big crowd of sketchers under the shady trees. Typical of urban sketching something often happens to change your view. All of a sudden the water in the fountain stopped! Who expected that? It turned out that they were cleaning out the water at the base of the fountain. It took them about 20 minutes and then the water was turned back on.

Here I am working on my sketch surrounded by just a few of the other sketchers.

Since it was a comfortable, shady spot I just turned a little and did a sketch of the Bryant Park Cafe which was right across from us. Both of these sketches were done on 5 x 7 loose papers.

Federal Hall and the LIRR

Our second location on Saturday was Federal Hall and the Stock Exchange. It was a very crowded area. Luckily I found a spot to tuck myself on the steps of Federal Hall where I was out of the way of the people and could see the statue of George Washington. There were people coming up the stairs all afternoon long, but I ignored all of them except this woman.

I did start another small sketch but I need to finish it before I post it.

This sketch was actually done on the Long Island Railroad in the morning on my way to the city. This group of people was sitting opposite me in seats facing each other. First they all ate breakfast and then the woman with the partly alizarin crimson hair started braiding the hair of one of the other people who I am hoping is just crouching between the seats and not sitting on the floor. lol

Unsuspecting Subjects

When I was in the city on Saturday the NYC St. Patrick's Day Parade was also going on. I didn't see too many people dressed in green on the trip in but there were some on the way home. These ladies were sitting diagonally across from me on the train and I had lots of time to do the sketch. They obviously had gone in for the parade and looked exhausted.

These people were on the train in the morning but I didn't bother using color since they were sketched on flimsy paper, not watercolor paper.

Downstairs in the newer section of the Morgan Library and Museum I sat for a while on the couch. Another sketcher was sketching across from me so I did a quick ink sketch of her before we left to go have a drink and share our sketches.

All of these people sketches are a good warm-up to the "1 Week 100 People" Challenge which I will be participating in again.

Information about the challenge can be found HERE.

Maybe you would like to participate too.

Armor at the Met

Today the NYC Urban Sketchers met at the Metropolitan Museum of Art to sketch in the Arms & Armor section. This is such a fun place to sketch with so many sketching possibilities. I started with one of the samurai warriors. The museum's policy about materials isn't really enforced in all areas and I have always been able to use any kind of medium in this section...probably because almost everything is behind glass. I used my Lamy pen, a Zebra Fine Line Brush Pen and a few assorted watercolor pencils.

After lunch I headed back to sketch another suit of armor. This one had a lot of detail to it. I liked the hearts by the elbows and knees. I also did a separate helmet since I had a little time left before our "show and tell."

Holiday Party View

Today was the NYC Urban Sketcher's Holiday Party. For the second year it was held in the party room at the residence of one of our members. Raylie lives in Jersey City in a building right along the Hudson River. The party room is on the 8th floor overlooking this beautiful view.

Oscar Wilde Restaurant

Most of the time when the NYC Urban Sketchers meet we end the sketching day around 3:00 and have a "show and tell." Sometimes we meet outdoors but more often than not we head to a local watering hole for a drink and maybe a bit of food. We have gone to some interesting places...some dives, some rather expensive places, some dark places not too conducive to showing your work, and then there was the Oscar Wilde Restaurant. It boasts that it has New York City's longest bar at 118.5 feet, featuring Carrara marble and gold draft taps across the length of the restaurant. Their whiskey bar is a repurposed 1819  player piano, and home to over 300 varieties of whiskey. There is gold and glitz everywhere!!! If you would like to see some photos here is a link.

We had about 14/15 people meet there at the end of the day. Immediately everyone took out their sketchbooks because they had to capture something of our ornate surroundings. I did a sketch of the bar area that was facing me as well as a few of my sketching friends. It was really difficult to focus on a small area because the place is just so overwhelming.

Sketchers love to share and are usually so willing to let each other try pens, inks, papers, etc, so I always come away with something I want to buy. lol Rob Sketcherman and his wife joined us for drinks and he let people try the program he uses on the iPad Pro. He was just so generous and willing to share what he does and how he does it. It was a real pleasure meeting him. If you are interested in seeing some of his work here is a link to his blog.

High Line Sketches

I got to the High Line area earlier than our meeting time but Mark, our organizer was already down at street level sketching. It had stopped drizzling but was blustery and a bit cold. I was wearing several layers but decided I needed a hat too. Luckily there was a street vendor with a cart selling hats and scarves...perfect. I sat down and did a small sketch of the view down the street. The small sketches are probably about 2 x 2 1/2 inches long.

A few other sketchers arrived including a visitor from Maine and we headed up to the High Line, a raised greenway build on a former rail spur to the NY Central Railroad.  We were in luck because there were lots of fall colors on the trees and bushes...but it was very windy! I thought ahead and brought clips to hold my sketchbook pages down so they didn't keep blowing. This sketch was done in just watercolors.

We had another urban sketching visitor, Rob Sketcherman and his wife who were here from Hong Kong. Rob is a well-known digital artist who works on an iPad Pro using Procreate. He was in NYC because he had done a presentation at the Apple Conference that took place this past week. He is a digital sketching master and has taught at several of the Urban Sketching Symposiums. Here he is at work. 

Before we moved off to lunch I had enough time to do another quick small sketch.

More about our day tomorrow.

#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.