Elephants Again!

The weekend after my Posca workshop the NYC Urban Sketchers scheduled sketching the Elephant Migration that I had sketched the week before. I really didn't want to sketch them again,  but my friend, Susan wanted to go. She convinced me to go into the city with her...but my plan was to sketch the surrounding area, not the elephants. We got there really early because I knew how crowded it was the week before. Well, once I saw them all in a line with out a huge crowd, I had to do one sketch...right? It ended up being a parade of elephants across a double page spread in one of my smaller sketchbooks. Sketching all the elephants and the area around them took a lot of time.

OK, I was done with the elephants! Looking around I was attracted to the yellow signs around Serafina, a popular restaruant which was constantly busy.

Around 3:00 we gathered together for our "show and tell." There were about 40 sketchers, so it took quite a while to go through everyone. One of our sketchers sold one of her elephant sketches to a tourist. 

Some of the sketch groups do a "throw down" where each person selects one sketch to put down on the ground to be viewed. We walk around our circle of sketchers and show our work. I like our way of doing it better. People can show multiple sketches if they want, you know who the sketch belongs to, and the sketcher can tell a bit about what they did and the materials they used. Here I am showing my elephants.

Below is a photo of the group of elephants that were my models for the day.

Elephants, Elephants, Elephants

 When I finished the Posca workshop (see the post below) I had lunch with a few of the sketchers. Then I wanted to go sketch the Elephant Migration in the Meatpacking District. Even though the NYC Urban Sketchers planned to sketch this the following weekend, I wanted to sketch it while I was in the neighborhood.

This is an impressive installation of 100 life-sized elephants that is aiming to raise money and awareness for the animals. The elephants are scattered throughout the Meatpacking District mostly along Ninth Avenue around 14th Street. Each of the elephants is unique and is an exact replica of a real elephant now freely roaming on plantations in parts of Southern India. A group of 200 artisans spent years making the sculptures in India where they have shown that humans and animals can live harmoniously in the same space. The elephants are made of lantana, an invasive weed that is taking over forests and displacing wildlife. 

I got there about 3:00 and it was so crowded. I tucked myself against a planter and a sign so I wouldn't get trampled. There were so many people surrounding the sculptures that I could barely see them. I sketched a few and then headed off to Penn Station for the trip home.

Goodbye 2023...Hello 2024

 My apologies...I the draft of this post was never sent yesterday so here it is a little late.

2023 was a fun year! Here are a few special happenings for me in 2023.

I once again participated in some challenges hosted by different artists that I follow or that were new to me. 

Birgit Koopson had a 30 Day Gel Printing Challenge. I had a gel plate but hadn't used it much so I followed Birgit's prompts and demos...and even a few of her full-length videos. Here are a few of the pages I did. I hope to be doing more in 2014.

Mark Holmes and Liz Steel challenged artists all over the world to join their "One Week 100 People" Challenge. Of course I couldn't resist. I try to do this challenge every year.

Another challenge was the 30x30 Direct Watercolor Challenge...no pencil lines first!

Then there were the things I was able to return to like sketching at the Museum of Natural History. 

I hadn't been there since 2015!

I took part in some fun events locally.

For the South Bay Art Association"s Plein Air Paintout I painted along Main Street in Bellport among other locations. My painting won 1st prize at our ehibition at Bellport Day in July.

I took part in the Long Island Maritime Museum's "Art From the Wreckage" auction and sale. The paintings were done on shingles that had come off the boathouse in one of our storms. They had a similar sale a few years ago and raised quite a bit of money for the museum.

So far two of my pieces sold.

One of the best things I did this this year was I traveled out of the country with Jerry and returned to Venice. I sketched every day. It wasn't an easy trip to take with his handicap but we did it!

This year I challenged myself to work on my iPad with Procreate. Again I watched a lot of videos and have had some success. It takes a lot of time to make the tools work the way you want. I will continue working with Procreate in 2024.

I hope you year held some special memories. My thanks to all of you for your support and encouragement in 2023. It makes what I do extra special. I appreciate your visiting my blog and leaving your comments.

Wishing you a wonderful, joyful, happy and healthy 2024!

 

The Museum of Natural History

When the NYC Urban Sketchers announced out location was going to be the Museum of Natural History in Manhattan I was so excited! I hadn't been there since 2015!!! Here is my post from that visit. I think it is funny that I returned to two of the same locations in the museum on Saturday.

My friend, Susan and I were first on line outside the museum waiting for it to open. I knew it would be crowded so as soon as we were allowed inside I raced upstairs. Not only was it a Saturday but it was the beginning of President's Week and all the kids have the week off from school. I love the dinosaur room, especially T-Rex but it is very difficult to fit a tyrannosaurus in a sketchbook. I think I missed the last few bones on his tail.lol I found a corner in a raised area where I had a wall behind me and a railing on my left...a good place to sit and sketch where people wouldn't be tripping over me or knocking into me. This sketch took me about 1 1/2 hrs. One of the security guards kept coming over to see how I was doing and loved the sketch. My friend, Ana came into the room and joined me, sitting nearby so we were able to talk and watch each other's property if we needed to get up. A lot of people stopped by to comment on what we were doing and it was fun talking to them.

The sketchers were meeting at noon for lunch but I decided to just keep sketching. It is nice to socialize but breaking for lunch down in the cafeteria takes away too much time from sketching. I knew I could socialize later in the day. Instead of taking a lunch break Ana and I went down to the Hall of Ocean Life to sketch.  This is where the blue whale is displayed. The blue whale model is 94 feet long and very impressive. The setting for it is perfect! Of course the room was very crowded but Ana and I found an out-of-the-way spot to sit. I know that there are many areas of the museum where the lighting isn't really good for sketching so I brought along a light to help me see. I attached it to my sketchbook.

Here I am using my light to help me see what I was sketching. My thanks to Ana for taking this photo.

Here is the sketch I did of the blue whale.

My third sketch was a repeat too. In the area that has African animals there is a display in the center with wonderful African elephant models. I sketched a few of them. This room was also very dim, so my light came in handy again.

At 3:00 the sketchers gathered in the cafeteria downstairs for our "show and tell." I always enjoy seeing what everyone selected to sketch, how they approached their sketch, and what materials they used. Sharing ideas with other artists is so inspiring.

 

San Diego Zoo

For my afternoon sketching with the NYC Urban Sketchers yesterday I headed over to the San Diego Zoo. It is a place I visited many times when I would go out and visit my sister and her family. We had a lot of good times there. I did the sketches in small frames but I overlapped them this time. People said they looked like animal cards.

First I watched the Elephant Cam. They were walking around quite a bit so I froze the screen when I got a fairly good pose. Next I moved to the Baboon Cam. They were easier to sketch because they were in a pose that really didn't change much...I guess grooming does that for you.

The Koala Cam moved around to different views, so I froze this view of the koala. They always curl up in the branches and usually face the opposite direction. lol The penguins were pretty active but I was able t focus on one at a time and sketched them in pencil first.

Here is how I composed the page for the entire day.

And last, but not least here is a photo I took at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum recently that I used for my Mother's Day Card. I hope all of you who in any way are responsible for the mothering or guidance of the children of the world had a wonderful Mother's Day!

Museum of Natural History

Last Sunday the NYC Urban Sketchers visited the American Museum of Natural History. I haven't been there since I was teaching and we would take the kids on trips. It was very crowded and we started in a room the Hall of African Mammals. It had huge, life-sized elephants and dioramas with other animals. Unfortunately the room was very dim and it was difficult to see the elephants well.

I sketched one of the elephants and two of the sketchers working.

One diorama had several African animals and a background like a savannah.

After lunch the group plan was to go up and sketch in the Mammals and their Extinct Relatives Hall...think wooly mammoths. I opted to sketch in the dinosaur room instead which is usually super crowded. Even with people standing in front of me a lot of the time I was able to see a great deal of the dinosaur over their heads since it is so tall. I found a spot in a corner and started painting the tyrannosaurus directly in watercolors. My sketchbook was 9 x 12 and when I got to the spiral spine I opened it the rest of the way and continued. It was hard balancing 24 inches of sketchbook in my lap. lol He looks small here but take my word for it...he was BIG.

Here is a photo of my sketch and pretty much my view.

I had a little time left before we were scheduled to meet downstairs, so I pulled out my iPad and sketched the skull of the tyrannosaurus. I'm slowly figuring out how to shade what I sketch on the iPad.