Alcohol Ink Landscape on Yupo

I don't know how I missed posting this earlier. When I was getting ready to teach the alcohol ink class I tried painting on yupo with the alcohol inks. In case you don't know...yupo is a synthetic paper which is sort of like painting on plastic. I've painted on it before with watercolors, but they puddle much more than the alcohol inks and dry much slower. I liked using the inks on the yupo and hope to do more of these. This is 5 x 7.

People Sketches to End the Day

As I mentioned in yesterday's post, due to the huge crowds for the Chinese New Year Festival, we couldn't find a Chinese restaurant that could seat all of us (15 people) for lunch. Most of the restaurants in NYC's Chinatown are tiny and they turn over the tables fast. After checking with a few larger places and not getting anything we headed off to Empenada Mama on Allen Street, a short walk from Chinatown. They were really accommodating and put together enough tables for us to sit as a group. Aside from a few higher tables we had the entire place. I've never eaten empanadas before and the food was really good. We all enjoyed being out of the cold, so much so that after lunch we stayed. We kept ordering drinks and at the end of the day left a really big tip so the waitress was quite happy. Being urban sketchers we always draw until lunch arrives and we had many faces to sketch. Here are the ones that I completed. You can see that the sketchers are usually looking down at their sketchbooks. lol

I did one final sketch for the day on the Long Island Railroad heading home. It was a long day of sketching.

Happy Year of the Rooster

Last Saturday the NYC Urban Sketchers celebrated the Lunar New Year by sketching in Chinatown. A Firecracker Festival and Cultural Festival was taking place and it was super crowded. It was also very cold, so I dressed in layers, had toe warmers in my boots and hand warmers that I didn't use. (There was no way to get them to stay in my fingerless gloves.) I brought along my stool to sit on but with the crowds except for the very first sketch, it stayed in my backpack.

I started with a sketch of some of the buildings along Forsyth and Grand Streets by the park. I found a spot to sit and was comfortable sketching. Some of the Chinese sketchers later asked me how I knew Chinese writing. I told them I had no idea what the letters spelled. lol I just copied the shapes.

We could hear that the festival was starting in the park, so we came up with a location to meet in a few hours and split up. There was no way we could possibly stay together. Here are a few photos I took. 

A baby in traditional Chinese clothing.

Stuffed roosters for sale.

The Chinese dragon danced up and down the street by some of the restaurants.

I wanted to do a sketch of the table where they were selling poppers, big long tubes that would explode into paper confetti. This is what the spot looked like. What I was sketching was beyond most of these people.

 I would have a glimpse of the table for a few seconds and then a hundred people would walk through in my view. lol That and being knocked into repeatedly didn't make sketching easy. But I got my sketch done.

The last sketch I did before we went to lunch was of a store on the corner selling all kinds of trinkets for the celebration. I tucked myself between a big street garbage can and a phone booth to sketch. At least people weren't knocking into me for this sketch.

When we finally stopped for lunch all the restaurants were so crowded we couldn't find a Chinese restaurant that could accommodate 15 people. 

Ink Sketches

Here are a few ink sketches done recently....by the water...

...and two while I was having breakfast in Penn Station. 

Still Life with Fruit

With the winter weather our Wednesday evening sketch group has been meeting indoors at a local library. They have been very accommodating and give us a room to work in. Last week people brought in fruit to sketch...and a few other accessories.

Well, today is Day 3 of the February challenge and I still haven't started. I have some catching up to do if I'm going to take part. lol

Boatyard

Over the years we've lived out here, I've sketched scenes at this boatyard in West Sayville so many times. There is almost always a big boat being spruced up or repaired. Sometimes if I'm lucky, there are workmen on scaffolding or ladders to include in the painting.

Artists at Work

Sometimes when I go to the South Bay Art Association's Portrait Group I finish before the 2 hr session is over. In that case I usually do another sketch of the model. This time I did a sketch of the group. They were all so pleased to have been included in the sketch. 

It is strange to have the challenge over. I am thinking of doing one for February...am I crazy??? Doodlewash has one. Here is their list. I don't have to do the entire list.