Starbucks and Cinco de Mayo

The Patchogue Sketch Club was meeting, but the forecast was once again for rain so we moved to an indoor location. I brought along some fruit to use for sketching and Mark and Teresa sketched it too.  

For the sketch above I used a sketchbook I had bought in Venice. It is leather and had paper that I was told was watercolor paper. It is a bit textured and absorbs the watercolor as well as the ink. Some of it shows on the back side of the paper. I don't think it has a lot of sizing like our paper here usually does. 

Jerry and I celebrate Cinco de Mayo with tacos from The Fat Boy Burrito Company in Patchogue. Luckily I decided to do take-out and called ahead. There was a line outside. The food is very good!

Patchogue Starbucks

Last week the Patchogue Sketch Club met at Starbucks. The theme was paper airplanes, which I had absolutely no interest in doing. Luckily there is always a view to sketch at Starbucks, even if most of them all look the same. This one has a drive-thru so I was able to catch a barrister with headphones by the window. 

Sketch Club at Starbucks

Rain changed the plans for the Patchogue Sketch Club recently. Instead of sketching outside we had to find an indoor location and ended up in Starbucks in Patchogue. We had a theme of "Trinkets." Apparently trinkets covers something small that is inexpensive. I brought along a mermaid ornament, a tiny rubber duck, a ladybug pin that I've has since childhood, and a small magnet from Santa Fe. 

I was there before the other sketchers arrived, so I sketched a man at one of the other tables. He seemed so deep into whatever was on his computer screen.

Starbucks

 After painting and sketching at Hicks Nurseries we needed a pick-me-up and headed over to Starbucks in Plainview. For some reason there were barely any customers. Luckily there were several baristas behind the counter, so we had people to sketch while we had our coffee.

Starbucks and Blueberries

While we were having our wet/dreary weather I ventured out to have coffee at Starbucks. It is far from my favorite place for coffee, but it was indoors. They recently finished renovating this particular Starbucks in Patchogue to make it a "drive thru." I'm not impressed with the results as a sketcher. Instead of having some tables and a few comfy chairs, all that was replaced with a few high stool tables in a row and then behind that against the wall with windows one row of small tables. The customers sitting at those tables were all to my side so there was no view of them. I had to hope for someone to sit at the high stool table, but as soon as her order this lady was ready and out of there. It is not condusive to having people in various positions hanging out for a while. The people that were there a while were sitting to my right and left and unless I wanted to face them directly I had no view of them for a sketch. I guess I won't be rushing back there. 

While sketching for the hunt on creativespark.art the item to sketch was berries. 

I used Procreate for this sketch.

Usk Sketchmas Days 10 & 13

I wasn't able to do the prompt for Usk's Sketchmas day 10 when it came up. The prompt was for a "sketcher" and I knew I wasn't going to be anywhere with another sketcher until tonight. My sketch group met at the new Starbucks in Patchogue and our theme was kitchen tools. I did a few of those but my main focus was on Marianne who was sketching across the table from me. 

The prompt for day 13 was a "beautiful shoe." This sketch was actually done a few days ago when I was at Macy's in the Lake Grove Mall. I couldn't find a spot to sit close to sketch these so I stood by them in the shoe department, did a pencil sketch, and then sat a distance away from them to add the color. They were great but not something I would ever wear without killing myself. lol

Starbucks

I haven't sketched in a Starbucks in quite a while. In fact I don't think I've done a Starbucks sketch since January of 2019. We had a few days of really cold weather recently, but on Monday I really wanted to get out of the house for a little while. It was even too cold to sit in my mobile studio to do a sketch unless I kept the engine running. I knew a coffee shop would be my best bet for a location. I tucked myself in the corner of the Patchogue Starbucks. I started this sketch from the front with the baskets and worked my way back. The people kept changing but I made whoever was there fit into what I already had. I was probably sitting there nursing my coffee for about an hour and a half.

Starbucks

Yesterday was a chilly, rainy, raw day and after a few errands I wanted to go sketch somewhere local. It was raining and I needed to use the windshield wipers so sketching from the car wasn't a good prospect. I ended up at a Starbucks in Bohemia, but one that I hadn't been to before. I was hoping it would looks a bit different inside...and it did...sort of. They were set up for Christmas with a tree and decorated gift boxes beneath it. I think it is a bit too early for a tree, but I sketched the view and included it anyway. The lady behind the counter was thrilled to see that I included her in the sketch.

Starbucks

The Patchogue Sketch Club had plans to paint outside last Wednesday, but Mother Nature had other ideas. Due to the rain we headed inside the Starbucks in Blue Point.

Keeping Warm at Starbucks

When I got up this morning it was about 7 degrees and with the wind chill factor it was about -11 degrees. It would have been nice to stay home and not go out into the cold at all but I had a PT appointment that I didn't want to miss. So I bundled up and headed out. I figured that while I was out I would stop at Starbucks to sketch...as long as I could get a parking spot right by the door...and I did.  It was nice and warm inside. Luckily I sketched this man quickly because even though he looked like he would be there for a while, he was gone before I got to paint him.

Starbucks Stop

We have had two days of damp, chilly weather. Yesterday I had a meeting in the morning and I couldn't come up with a place to sit in the car and sketch through the raindrops. So I made a stop at Starbucks in Patchogue. It is easy to park there and there are always people who hang around for a bit who make great models.

Starbucks

We had rain the other day and I wanted to get out and sketch somewhere, so I headed to a local Starbucks. The nice thing about coffee places is nobody cares how long you linger. 

Sketching Again - Starbucks

Here in NY we are having a heat wave. It has been in the low to mid 90s for the past few days...not conducive to sitting outside and sketching. I had a meeting this morning and was planning to go to the pool and sit in the shade to keep cool in the afternoon, but I wanted to sketch something. There is a Starbucks nearby in Patchogue near where my meeting took place where it is possible to back into a space and sit in your car with a view of the store. There is no parking in front of it so you can get a good view. I kept the car running and the AC on while I sketched and painted this because it was just too hot. It was nice to be able to use my Lamy pen again.

Starbucks

Rainy days are always good for sketching in Starbucks. This on was inside a Barnes & Noble.

One Week 100 People Challenge 2018 - Starbucks & Snow Painting

It snowed most of yesterday afternoon and then lightly in the evening. I think we had about 3 or 4 inches of very wet snow. We really lucked out because the ti-state area to the north and the west of us really got hit hard not just with the snow but the power outages that the snow caused. Here there are piles of snow from the plowing, but the roads and walkways are all clear. It helped that it was warm enough for a lot of the snow to melt. That helped clear the trees so there would be fewer downed branches and wires. That's what causes the most problems.

Today I went out ready to sketch and paint. I took along my Strathmore toned grey sketchbook and my gouache and did a painting down by the park. I was sitting in my car.

Then I drove over to the local Starbucks in Patchogue. I got a good table by the window facing the counter. I was there for a little over an hour sketching the customers I could see.  Here is the final page of sketches...and I reached 100!!!

Barnes & Noble's Starbucks

We had a damp, mostly dreary day so I wanted to sketch something indoors. I was rather tired of being in the same places so I went to the Smith Haven Mall in Lake Grove. Right outside is a Barnes & Noble with a Starbucks inside. Most Starbucks look pretty much alike but I like that the showcase was visible here.

The funny thing was that I was using my water brush which was still filled from last Saturday with a mix of water and rubbing alcohol so it wouldn't freeze. I hadn't used the water brush on Saturday...just my jar of water. For this sketch the water/alcohol mix made the watercolor pigments behave a bit strangely... they separated a lot on the palette and the paper. I'll have to remember that in the future and not mix them. My friend put vodka in her water to keep it from freezing. lol

After I finished this I went into the mall and there in the center was Santa all set up already. That was my first Santa sighting of the season, but I didn't sketch him. They use the same setup and outfit each year. I'll have to find a new location to sketch Santa.

On Line

I think it would be rare to go into Starbucks and find no line. That's where the Patchogue Sketch Club met on Wednesday evening. We were scheduled to sketch outdoors but we had on and off showers and rain most of the day, so two of us made an "executive decision" to sketch indoors. You can see where we went. lol The Starbucks location in Patchogue has a big table where we can congregate and you can either do the counter and the people waiting or the people at the tables and the comfy chairs.

I love the poses on the people but they don't like to stay still. Sometimes I combine part of the body of one person with another person. But these people (especially the lady in the green dress and the man in the checked shirt) had such distinctive waiting poses I sketched them completely. I did sketch in pencil rather than ink because they were moving so much that I needed to adjust the sketch of each person several times. It got easier when I got to the background. lol

Starbucks View

Last Wednesday they were forecasting showers so our sketch group met at Starbucks in Patchogue...of course the weather was fine. lol We sat inside and since we usually sketch there in the winter and it is dark outside, I was drawn to the view out the window of this man and his son.

In and Out at Starbucks

This was sketched from my car in Port Jeff. I saw the woman sitting on the curb outside and loved that I could see the people inside too. I guess she was using the Starbucks wi-fi signal. 

30 in 30 Challenge - Day 2 - Max I (SOLD)

Today I painted a King Charles spaniel that belongs to a friend's friend. Tema's dog, Max is so cute! I used one of Rhea's photos that she took when visiting them in California. In addition to regular watercolors I used watercolor pencils and touches of white ink for his whiskers. Because I am working small (5x7) using masking or painting around the whiskers just wouldn't work.

I still have a few sketches from 2016 that weren't posted yet. This was done at Starbucks week when I met with sketching friends recently.