Sketches at Nissan

I had some routine maintenance to do on my car so I took it in to Nissan Service. There are always people around to sketch, like the woman on the left who was watching the cars being serviced through the window, or the man napping while waiting.

Of cours there are always the people on their phones or watching videos on their tablets.

Sketching them sure makes the time pass easier.

Saturday - Part III

I decided to move off the risers and continue sketching from a point below. I had the option of sitting on my chair or a bench. I chose my chair thinking it would be warmer than a cold, metal bench. This time I faced the risers. Here is my sketch from there. I did eliminate about 3/4 of the people that were there, trying to find some good poses. You do see just about everything there.

One of the other sketchers took a photo of me and my friend, Pat while we were sketching. She was sketching on her iPad.

By this time, even with two pairs of fingerless gloves on, my fingers were getting too cold. I did have hand warmers with me, but was too lazy to pull them out. Then the cold started moving to the core of my body, so when the sketch was done Pat and I headed indoors. The plan was to meet inside the Marriott Marquis for drinks and a "show and tell." I had a few minutes to warm up before someone came along and said we were doing a group photo outside, so I headed out again. Here is the group...or what remained of the group and was willing to still be outside by about 4 pm.

Of course when we get together for our "show and tell" we have some time to talk and sketch each other before any sharing gets done. I sketched my friends across the table from me.

We were sitting at tables with a view of Times Square outside the floor to ceiling windows. I think in total we had about 35 people participate at some time during the day, although some didn't stay the entire time. For a freezing cold day I think that was a great turnout. I think 26 of us made it back to the Marriott Marquis for the "show and tell."

I hope you enjoyed seeing a bit of my Saturday!

Cold Spring Harbor

Last week I picked up a sketching friend who recently broke her ankle and foot. She's in a boot and can't put weight on her foot. She hasn't left the house much and was climbing the walls. I offered to pick her up and take her out sketching if she could think of a place near her that would be somewhat accessible for her. She can walk a short distance on crutches. So she suggested Cold Spring Harbor which has water, boats, cute buildings and parking. We parked on the main street and Suzala hobbled across to the other side where I had set up her chair. It worked out well except that it was one of the few hot days that we had, and we were mostly in the sun. She was so happy being outside again and sketching. The building I did that is near the water is the library with a bit of one of the buildings along the street.

People Sketching

On the way to meet the NYC Urban Sketchers at the museum I was on one line of the NYC subway. The ride on that section was short...only about 30 minutes. I did manage to sketch a few people. FYI it is much easier to sketch people on the subway rather than the Long Island Railroad. On the subway most of the time there are people sitting directly across from you (if standing passengers aren't blocking your way). On the railroad there are two center seats that face each other and the rest of the seats are in rows behind them, with high backs that you can't really see over.

After our sketching in Bowling Green Park we went to a local bar/restaurant for drinks or food if desired. While we were waiting to be served the sketchers usually sketch each other. This was a visitor from England who joined us for the day.

Here are a few of the other sketchers who were seated across from me. I only sketched a few and I think we had at least 14 people there to share their work.

Just in case you want to read my Wrap-Up for "Tracy at the Ranch" you can find it here.

tracyattheranch.blogspot.com

Things That Shine

While my Wednesday evening sketch group has been indoors for the winter/early spring we have been having a theme for our gathering. Last week it was "things that shine." We had an assortment of objects to choose from.

I also sketched, Dominic, one of the new people to join our group this winter.

Tracy is having another adventure. Check it out here:

http://tracyattheranch.blogspot.com

Welcome to Spring & The Final Part of the Urban Sketching Day

Happy First Day of Spring!!!
 In the spirit of the day I wanted to paint some outdoor flowers today. My good friend and fellow sketcher, Susan, who lives nearby is always ready to share her garden treasures with me. I called her this morning to check that something was in bloom in her garden and she told me to come on over. She works from home, so we chatted for a little while and then she went inside to work while I painted her crocuses, hellebores, and heather. Luckily it was sunny and warm enough to spend some time in the garden without freezing. Thanks, Susan!

On most occasions when the NYC Urban Sketchers gather, we meet at the end of our sketching day to share our work over drinks. I think we had about 20 people with us at the Brooklyn Museum and we headed out at about 4 to Tooker's Alley, a bar nearby. They open at 4 so we didn't worry about it being too crowded for us...and Mark always lets them know we are coming. Once everyone has a drink or whatever they order we start sharing our sketches from the day. It is always fun to see how everyone else captures the same or almost the same views. Some people do a lot of quick sketches and some people complete one longer piece. We have 2 rules when we share...you can't say anything negative about someone's sketches and you can't say anything negative about your own. The second rule is the hard one. LOL

In addition to sharing our sketches, almost everyone immediately whips out a sketchbook and starts sketching the other sketchers at the table or the other patrons where we are. It is good because the other sketchers usually don't get up and move...although they move around some talking to people to their right or left. I was able to get two sketches each with several people seated opposite me.

As you can see from the three days of posting...it was quite a busy day!

Pre-Dr. Sketchy Sketches

I guess I did this sort of backwards. We got to the Dr. Sketchy venue a little early to make sure we got good seats. Of course everyone there was an artist, and typical of most artists they made the best of their time before the model came out and sketched each other...so did I.

These people were seated closer to the bar across from me. The good thing about sketching artists is that they usually aren't going anywhere so they stay put. lol

This guy had the right idea. He had a bottle of champagne in a bucket while he was sketching.

This artist was ready with her materials, but had to check her phone one last time. lol

Dr. Sketchy's Dior

After the Turnstyle location a few of us went to another event, Dr. Sketchy, at the Flute Bar. For those of you who don't know about Dr. Sketchy here is a blurb from their website or you can click on the link above:

Dr. Sketchy's Anti-Art school is the world's premier alt.drawing movement. Artists draw glamorous underground performers in an atmosphere of boozy conviviality. Found in 2005 in a dive bar in Brooklyn, Dr. Sketchy's has now spread to over 100 cities around the world.

The theme for the afternoon was Dior. Normally there are several models in various stages of dress/undress. We had one lovely model, Chantal, who started out posing in her vintage 60's bra and panties and proceeded to put on more clothing as the poses went on. They usually begin with several 1 minute poses, moving on to 5 minute poses, then longer poses, and back to short poses again. You really have to sketch quickly for many of the poses, and use a medium that you can use easily. I used either pencil or a water-soluble pencil for the beginning poses, adding watercolors and ink for the longer poses.

Chantal had some gorgeous clothes that are original Dior's. She said later that about 90% of the time she dresses in vintage clothing.

Sketches from the Met - Part II

After lunch at the Metropolitan Museum of Art we moved to the American Wing which is filled with light and gorgeous sculptures. This was part of a fireplace mantle that originally dominated the entrance hall in the Vanderbilt Mansion on 5th Avenue. It was sculpted by Augustus Saint-Gardens. There is a matching piece on the other side of the mantle. I liked this side better. I used my watercolor pencils for this.

Next I did a free-standing sculpture. I used my watercolor pencil and started to use my ink brush, only to be told by the guard that I could use "pencils only." I had to finish the ink when we all met downstairs in the cafe. I included some of the background of the room and a few Met visitors.

Visiting Starbucks

Last week I visited Starbucks with a few sketching friends. It is always a good spot to find something/someone to sketch. 

Riverside South Park

On Saturday the NYC Urban sketchers met at Riverside South Park on W 71st along the Hudson River.  The weather was definitely iffy, so we all came prepared with umbrellas and raincoats. Luckily we spend most of the day sketching from an outdoor cafe that had huge umbrellas that overlapped each other, so we stayed dry. The park is a mixture of old and new, nature, concrete, and steel. It had some nice views to sketch. I liked seeing underneath the road above. While I was sketching this we saw dark smoke. One of the buildings on the other side of the roadway had a fire by one of the penthouse apartments. You could see the flames and a lot of smoke. The fire department arrived quickly and took care of things.

This sketch includes what is left of the 69th St Transfer Bridge which allowed the transfer of railroad cars from the rail lines to car floats which crossed the Hudson River to the Weehawken Yards in NJ. Nora is sketching on the right.

Jeff was busy with his big sketchbook.

Mark asked someone nearby to take a photo of the whole group before some of the sketchers left for the day.

After lunch we walked a ways south and came to sculptures and gardens. This part reminded me a lot of the Highline Park, except it isn't elevated.

Mark has gotten very creative and did a slideshow video of our day. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hlOAqBIOZT0#action=share

Rainy Day Sketching at the Rubin Museum

My first weekend home after the trip I joined the NYC Urban Sketchers in the city at the Rubin Museum on 17th St.

My friend, Susan and I got into the city early on Saturday before the Rubin Museum was open and met up with another sketcher, Mark at Whole Foods on 14th Street. He had snagged some great seats right by the window upstairs so we had a good view to sketch while we dried off and had some coffee.

Here is my sketch of Union Square in the rain.

We then headed over to the Rubin Museum of Art on 17th Street which was filled with wonderful treasures to sketch as well as being a gorgeous building inside. We were joined by some new local members as well as Rory from Tasmania and Tom from the UK. It is always fun to meet sketchers from other parts of the world and see NYC through their eyes!

I started with a sketch of a male lion from Nepal from the 19th century, one of a pair on the ground floor of the museum. I think most of us were attracted to sketch one of them.

There were some beautiful statues like this one of Bodhisattva from Tibet created in the 12th century with gilt copper alloy.

Janet was sketching on the ground floor...and in a lotus position too.

Lance was sketching one of the statues.

We took a break for lunch at the cafe, sampling some different foods from the east. Some of our members (as always) sketched right through lunch. I was too busy talking to our visitors.

My next sketch was of Virupaksha, the Guardian King of the West. The statue was from China from the 17-18 century from the Qing Dynasty.

Then I sketched the statue of Buddha that was in the lobby. 

Around 3:30 those of us who remained gathered to share our sketches. I tried to get a photo of everyone but some came out better than others.

Mark

Toi

Janet

Rory (from Tasmania)

Svetlana

Susan's sketches

Tom (from the UK)

Mary

And a group shot with some of our sketchers.

Many thanks to the staff of the Rubin Museum of Art for being so welcoming and allowing us to sketch all over the museum and use whatever materials we wanted. Everyone was very welcoming and gave us such positive feedback on our artwork.