Sketch Grand Army Plaza

On August 25, 2019 the NYC Urban Sketchers group met at the Grand Army Plaza in Brooklyn, NY.  I sketched two views of the Bailey Fountain and one of the beautiful Arch.

A ballpoint pen sketch of the fountain.

Two things affecting the sketch - the hot sun and the drawing paper (NOT the watercolor paper type).  It was a warm sunny day, the watercolor almost dried up as soon as it touched the paper.

The beautiful Bailey fountain.

The Grand Army Plaza Arch.

Observational sketches for the week

My little sketchbook comes in handy at times when I have nothing else to do but sketch what is before me.  Most of my free time now is during my commute and doing gesture drawing keeps me occupied.  It helps to improve my figure sketching even when time is short.

Weekend Sketching in the city

The NYC USk group met by the Central Park entrance on 103 Street Central Park West before heading down to a little known waterfall gem.  It was a nice waterfall except that the water smelled afoul the morning I sketched there.  I also did a view of the stone bridge facing East and a few vignettes of what it was like on that hot and humid day.

Observational sketches

Doing a daily dose of observational sketching keeps me focused even for a short time.  I try to squeeze-in a sketch or two on my way to work in the city.  Sometimes, a few sketches would turn out nice but mostly it was just that - a practice sketch. 

The Ryoma Quartet

Outside of the USA, this young group of Japanese artists playing some traditional Japanese musical instruments have a good following.  I was invited to see their live show at Joe's Pub in NYC earlier this month and did we ever enjoyed their performances!  Great jazz music tunes.  I sketched the group as I listened to their rendition of some familiar music.  I love that theme song from Cinema Paradiso movie!  At the end of the show, I was led to meet them by our hostess, Madonna, who made sure I got to show them my sketch.  They were kind enough to sign it next to their person on the sketch but in the end, I gifted it back to them.  We bought a CD where they autographed the cover and we had our group picture taken.  That was a fun night.

Sketching some Horses

Two horses with the face netting protection are in for the summer at a nearby land trust pasture.  The flies/bugs are nasty and having a face netting keeps them away from Ben and Lucas.  However, that same face netting can cause irritation of the skin so it has to be taken off periodically.  It's fun and challenging to observe and sketch the horses because they are always on the move.

Commuter Sketch

Well, I made the mistake of "copy and paste" action and without previewing the entry.  It turned out that the last blog entry text was from the trip to Cold Spring, NY instead of the commuter sketch.  :-(

After visiting Cold Spring,NY along the Hudson River on this beautiful Sunday, we stopped by the Black Cow coffee company in Pleasantville, NY on the way home. It was a nice place to hang out. There were groups of ladies doing knitting at this one long table. Another group set up a mahjong table. I saw this man doing some work at the far corner and decided to sketch him.