Happy Halloween and Inktober Day 27

Happy Halloween

The NYC Urban Sketchers Zoom group met on Saturday to do Halloween related scenes. A website was provided with links to assorted Halloween references. I found one of an abandoned building and put it in a setting with a spooky sky with a big moon. Then I added a few bats to liven it up a bit. Since this was not done from life it isn't an urban sketch.

I hope your Halloween was fun! 

Here is another Inktober sketch done with a twig and Chinese ink. For those of you who are wondering what kind of twig I'm using, it is just a regular twig that I've let dry out and then sharpened with a razor.  This was done from the dock in West Sayville.

I do have one special twig that was given to me by Kiah Kiean Chng when I took his workshop at the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Chicago. He provided a twig for each of us. He uses a soft twig from Malaysia. I posted a photo below of a few of my twigs. The one he provided is in the middle.

Inktober Day 21 and Beach Sketches

 For my Inktober Day 21 I headed over to sketch the Fire Island Lighthouse at Robert Moses State Park. It was a beautiful, sunny, warm day....and about 79 degrees. This view was from the parking lot and done with Chinese ink and a twig.

Somehow I don't think these beach scenes ever got posted.

Inktober Day 15

 While the twig and Chinese ink were still in my sketch bag I found myself down along Brown's River in Sayville for my Inktober Day 15 sketch. The twig seems to work best for soft types of foliage.

Inktober Day 14 - Smith Point Bridge

 I headed over to Smith Point Beach in Shirley and sketched the grasses and shrubs along the bayside looking toward the Smith Point Bridge. I am still playing with my twig and Chinese ink.

Inktober Day 10 & 11

 I have a hibiscus plant out on my porch patio that bloomed again this week after several weeks of no flowers. It looked so pretty in pink, but I sketched it using sepia acrylic inks instead. This is my Inktober Day 10 sketch.

Back a few years ago when I went to the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Chicago I took a workshop with Kiah Kiean Chng from Malaysia on painting with Chinese ink and a twig. Of course I don't have KK's magic twig that gives him such wonderful sketches, but I was fairly happy with this one that I did down the street nearby. Of course I probably haven't tried this method in over a year, and the twig needs to be scraped down to a better point, but it was fun to do it again for my Day 11 Inktober sketch.

Inktober Day 31 - Brookhaven View & Thoughts

Today is the final day of Inktober 2017. My last sketch was done with my twig and Chinese ink on the property where my plein air group was invited to paint in Brookhaven today. This is my first time trying to do moving water with this method...and it worked.

Was Inktober worth doing? I say yes, and here are my reasons.

#1 - It gave me the opportunity to look at and think about values a bit more than usual. Concentrating on values will help me with my watercolor paintings too.

#2 - I practiced the twig and Chinese ink technique a lot. I think I counted about a dozen days when I used this technique. Without this challenge I'm sure I would have maybe done one twig sketch in the month...if that. Doing it so often helped me tweak the technique a little to make it work better for me. I added more ink to my container than KK recommended for us, and found out the ink wasn't quite waterproof. That gave me the option to use a water brush with it too and take advantage of the fact that it might bleed.

#3 - Sometimes it is worth forcing yourself to do something even when it would be much easier to just sit on the couch and relax. 

Will I do it again? Most definitely!

#inktober #inktober2017

I would also like to wish everyone a Happy Halloween!!! I am hoping we get some trick-or-treaters today so I am not left with two bags of candy! So far we have not had anyone....this does not bode well. lol

Inktober Day 19 - East Islip Marina

Today's Inktober sketch was done at the East Islip Marina. This piece of equipment has been sitting in the same place for several years. At one point they were redoing that end of the marina but it has been finished for a long time. I used my twig, Chinese ink, and a stencil brush. 

#inktober #inktober2017

When I finished the sketch I decided to add some watercolors to see what it would look like. Some of the ink ran which surprised me since I thought it was permanent...which it was in most of the sketch.

The color changes the look of it a lot, doesn't it?

Inktober Day 17 - Huge Tree & Green-Wood Cemetery Part III

My plein air painting group went to Frank Melville Memorial Park in Setauket this morning. I've sketched and painted there many times. Sometimes it is hard to find something to inspire you when you have been there before. I think in the entire landscape there was one tree that had changed color and the red barn that usually entices me was wrapped in orange fencing because they are repairing it. So a friend and I walked around a bit on one of the paths I hadn't been on before. We found this huge tree with a strange bamboo grove behind it. It wasn't something I would paint but I thought it made a good Inktober subject. I used my twig, Chinese ink, and a stencil brush for this one.

#inktober #inktober2017

My last sketch from Green-Wood Cemetery was done from up on a hill looking back at the main entrance to the cemetery. I believe that the highest spot in Brooklyn is in Green-Wood Cemetery. Up at the top of that tall spire in the entrance is this huge nest and it is the home to the Brooklyn parrots. Parrots you ask...yes. There is a large colony of parrots that make their home in the entrance to Green-Wood Cemetery. Apparently back in the 1960s the parrots escaped from a shipment which arrived at Kennedy Airport which was coming from South America. The escapees found their way to Brooklyn. They have been there ever since. It is fun to watch them flying in and out of the openings in the entryway. I wish they came down a little closer so you could really see them.

Inktober - Day 10 - The Harbor, Bob's, and a Ferry Ride

Today was our last day in Damariscotta for this trip. We planned on leaving around 10am but I went down by the harbor to do an Inktober sketch in the morning. This was done with a twig and Chinese ink. I think the extra practice with the twig is starting to pay off. #inktober #inktober2017

Our last stop in Maine was for lunch in Kittery. Bob's Clam Hut is our favorite restaurant...and it is deadly. We always eat too much, but the food is so good. When we finished eating I had some time to do a sketch before we got back in the car to head back to the ferry in New London, CT.

Of course I found someone to sketch on the ferry ride. This man was sitting with a woman that I assume was his wife, but they got up and moved before I got to sketch her.

Inktober - Day 6 - Ocean Point and Pumpkinfest

I decided to head down to Boothbay this morning and drove out to Ocean Point. It was drizzling by the time I got there so I had to sketch from my mobile studio. This was done with a twig and Chinese ink. #inktober #inktober2017

This weekend Damariscotta is having their annual Pumpkinfest. I've been here for this event in the past and it is a lot of fun. This morning I went out for my walk and the huge pumpkins were all on their bases waiting for the artists to decorate them. Just a few of them had started to work but one woman had and I stopped to talk to her. This afternoon I stopped in town to see her progress and sat and sketched her at work. The rain had washed some of her design off before it dried so she had to redo part of it. Her pumpkin has a haunted house on top made out of popsicle sticks and the pumpkin has white skeletons with a black design around them. The artist is Crystal McLain and she has done this for the past 5 or 6 years.

Inktober - Day 7

This sketch was done at the Bayard Cutting Arboretum. I have followed the work of Ch'ng Kiah Kiean from Malaysia who sketches with a twig and Chinese ink. I tried sketching with a twig before with very limited results, so I want to try a few during the Inktober challenge. This is the first one I did this month using a semi-sharpened twig and black ink. I am fairly happy with the results so I will be doing more of these.
#inktober #inktober2016