Dark Mood

I woke up to a phone alert message yesterday.  It says the PCR lab test results are now available.  It was almost four o'clock in the morning.  I looked for the email with a link to view the results and to my relief, the PCR test came back negative.  Then I saw another email subject that read "Lewis had surgery".  I read the first three sentences Cathy wrote and then it hit me with sadness and disbelief that a wonderful man, Lewis Gutterman, passed due to complications from surgery.  It felt awful and I couldn't help rewinding the memory of him:  when I first met Lewis and Cathy at a Brooklyn Greenpoint sketch outing and the last time I saw of him at the Muscoot Farms sketch outing.   All day yesterday, lots of tribute to Lewis lit up our FB group page.  All common theme - that he will be sorely missed.  On my return commute, I did a quick commuter sketch that I later finished at home.  It was somber and dark.  A reflection of the kind of feeling we all felt now that Lewis is gone.  

Weekend sketches

This past Sunday, I had quite a busy day in the city that started with the NYC Urban Sketchers group going to the flagship Blick Super Store grand opening in SOHO.  We were invited to see the store grand opening and got treats of free food and sandwich, a watercolor set, a drawing board and some other goodies won at a Spin-A-Wheel event.  Sure, I bought some Caran D'Ache Luminance pencils and a 4.7" X 4.7" sketchbook before leaving the store.

This sketch was done at the meeting place, Albert Capsouto Park, before everyone walked together toward the Blick store at Broadway and Canal St.

Since Anne and I had a 2:00 PM show to catch at the Joyce Theater, I left the group early once I made my art supplies purchase.  Before the show started, I sketched the scene before me.  I was curious about the patrons coming in at the lower right section so I attempted to put them on my ink sketch done in fountain pen and brush pen.  I added some more shading once I got home.

A Full Circle

The pivot to my drawing hobby began in 2015 when I had to sketch the altar of the El Escorial Palace Basilica out of necessity.  See my first blog entry.  On this most recent visit, with my son and daughter (their first trip to Spain), I had to take them on a day trip to this beautiful Real Monasterio de San Lorenzo de El Escorial.

It was more or less a couple of hours by train travel to get there from where we were staying at outside of Madrid.  It was a warm day but a great time to walk from the El Escorial station to the Palace.  Good that we rented the digital self-guided tour on a tablet for we learned a lot more of the history of this magnificent place.  The self-guided tour was broken down to each section of the palace.  When it was time to see the basilica, I parked myself at the same pew I recall from 6 years ago and told my children I needed at least 10 minutes for myself to sketch the altar.  Well, maybe it was 15 minutes.  

As was before, no pictures allowed inside the basilica, but some others still get admonished for breaking the rule.  Here's a quick sketch comparison of the BEFORE (2015) and AFTER (2022) sketches.  Where I used a pencil in 2015, I now use a ballpoint pen and not minding the errors made in the process.  In the 2022 version, I included a figure for scale.  That was Aaron on the lower left looking up the ceiling.  I'm very happy to circle back to this sketch and see the progress I've made on my sketch journey.  All the more special was the time my children and I spent inside and outside of this magnificent place. 

Early Lunch at H Mart Food Court

It has been a while since I last ordered my favorite Korean vegetable soft tofu soup dish, Yachea Soon-Doo-Boo, at the food court in H Mart Scarsdale, NY.  While waiting for my order#90 to be called, I made a little sketch of some other diners.  Added watercolor wash at home.