The Lady in the Harbor

The NYC Urban Sketchers have been holding Saturday Zoom gatherings with a theme. This week it was to sketch our hometown, NYC. For the morning we were asked to select places that we loved best.  One of the places I love but still haven't really had the opportunity to sketch is The Statue of Liberty. I've included her in sketches as part of the background out in the harbor. I looked for a reference where she was in the foreground, and in this case the background is Ellis Island.

I visited the Statue of Liberty many times, especially with my students when I was teaching. I don't miss the days of having to accompany the students as they climbed inside the statue. In those days I didn't do urban sketching so it was a treat to do this sketch. Maybe some day in the future I'll actually go to Liberty Island just for the purpose of sketching.

Lefty Lucy with a Big Hat

Last night I joined Lefty Lucy on Zoom. Typical of me I missed the first few minutes, so I'm not sure what the theme was but she looked to be wearing a bathing suit, a wrap, and a big sunhat that kept disappearing into the dark background. She was wearing a lovely curly, blonde wig.

Here are the three 10 minute poses.

This was the final pose which lasted 20 minutes.

Lefty Lucy at the Diner

Last evening I was able to arrange my schedule so that I could participate in Lefty Lucy's Costumed in Quarantine Zoom event. This week we joined her at the diner. She wore a diner waitress's outfit, had a coffee pot, a mug, a giant ice cream cone, etc. It was a fun night of poses.

Here are some 5 minute poses.

And a few 10 minute poses.

And a final 20 minute pose.

Virtual Vegas

Yesterday the NYC Urban Sketchers did a virtual trip to Las Vegas. We met up on Zoom and then went off to sketch. Jerry and I have been to Vegas a few times, but it has probably been close to 20 years since we were there. I know that the last time we were there we saw Siegfried and Roy's show, so it was before the attack which was in 2002. There are a lot of iconic scenes of Vegas but I knew I wanted to sketch a wedding chapel. Jerry kept telling me that we should renew our vows at one of the chapels with an Elvis impersonator, but I said no. Anyway, the plan was to sketch outside in Vegas in the morning and then do indoor scenes in the afternoon. I wasn't sure how busy my afternoon would be so I did two sketches in the morning...which turned out to be wise since I never got around to doing the afternoon session. It was good to see the other sketchers on Zoom. I missed seeing them the last time. These are not urban sketchs since they were done virtually.

Tiny Dancer

On Wednesday night the Patchogue Sketch Club had a Zoom sketch meeting. We started with everyone sharing some of the work they have been doing recently. Our theme for the night was statues. At first I was going to do a sketch of Venus de Milo but then I saw images of the Tiny Dancer by Degas and inspiration struck. I've sketched the statue before...quickly at the Muse d' Orsay, but I worked in a bit more detail this time from a photo image.

Selfie

Although I didn't join the NYC Urban Sketchers at their Zoom event today, I wanted to take part in it anyway. The morning event was "Back to School" and the members did sketches of something related to their time in school. I couldn't get excited about doing any of the buildings I went to school in, but I searched my photo albums and found an image of myself at school. This was from my Grade 1 elementary class photo. It was a photo of the entire class and the nun but I left everyone else out. With my limited sketching time one person was all I could handle. lol

Map Making

The NYC Urban Sketchers met on Zoom on Sunday. Our sketching was not urban sketching. In the morning we did a map of something or some place that was familiar to us. I got started but didn't come close to finishing by lunchtime. I was working on a map of some memories of places and things on Long Island from childhood to now. I finished the rest of it today.

For the afternoon we did maps that were more personal (although I sort of did that in the morning too). This one was my pandemic survival map showing more of a timeline of my days.