Sunday's location at "The Forum" at Columbia University provided a lot of great views to sketch and paint. After tackling the view from under the #1 elevated train I decided to do something that wasn't so complex. One of the iconic things you see in the NY City skyline are water towers atop many of the buildings. Not all of the buildings have them, and I definitely don't understand how they work, but they are fun to see. From the same spot where I was sitting for the first sketch, I turned my chair less than 90 degrees to face some buildings and a water tower happened to be on top of one of them. Of course a city scene often has a bit of graffiiti too. This was my view directly across 125 Street in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan where Columbia University is located.
"Show and Tell" for the NYC Urban Sketchers usually takes place at 3:00pm. The Forum personnel told us we could relocate to another room so that we could gather and share our work without having to worry about disturbing other people that were there. I had about 40 minutes to sketch something else and headed over to the other side of the room where I had been figuring I would sketch some people inside with the outside view behind them. I saw my friend Laura had a table and sat down to sketch there. Of course we did a lot of talking instead of a lot of sketching because we hadn't seen each other in a while. I did manage to do a very quick (maybe 10-15 minute) sketch that included two of our sketchers as well as someone working on their computer. I liked the big plant, so that went in as well as a bit of the structure under the elevated train and the deli across the street. I used a brush pen to sketch directly in ink which helped it go faster and then I added some color quickly with my waterbrush. Laura couldn't believe I finished it as quickly as I did.
