This year we watched the Sunset Blvd., a Broadway Musical, from way up the balcony seats at St. James Theatre. We were seated 15 minutes before the show started to which I used in sketching the whole scene from my point of view. The lead singer/character has a powerful voice that commanded great interest from the audience. I wasn't sure what to expect from the show but I enjoyed it in the end.
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| The high cathedral ceiling. I misjudged the height so I ran out of space on my sketchbook. |
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| The choir and orchestra rehearsal. |
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| The sound and light technicians checking everything is okay. The color wash was added later at home. |
A week ago, we walked the High Line Park from W26th until we got near the Chelsea Market building. We got off the elevated walk park and visited several shops inside this very busy shopping center. Since it was cold that day, we decided a cup of coffee and some pastry would be good at the Sarabeth's Bakery. They have a glass-encased visible work floor area that I sketched while waiting for Anne to come back from viewing others shops nearby.
Last year, I made a small detailed sketch of this group of Urban Sketchers who stayed behind at The HUGH Food Court after the Show & Tell was over. I brought the same sketchbook today and used a previously prepared page with some acrylic markers on it. Nice to see a contrasting comparison of how I sketched at the same venue from a year ago.
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| That's Mary P in front of me and a few other sketchers in the background. |
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| I still remember this scene and that's Mary P on the far left side. |
Coming out of the "Art Work: Artists working at the MET" exhibit at Gallery 199, we emerged at Gallery 153 where the Greek Art: 6th-4th Century BC is located. Another artist occupy one end of a corner bench so I sat at the other end. Soon another fellow positioned himself in between us and pulled out an iPad and fired up his Procreate app. The first guy there got up and moved somewhere. I think he didn't like the company. I sketched the closest to my field of view.
It's the Thanksgiving Day holiday. A rainy one though... Just staying at home. Trying out some ideas to paint the view outside the balcony window. Mixed media.
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We had lunch at this ramen place in Chelsea last Sunday. The place is called Jun-Men Ramen Bar. Their ramen broth is so good, I want to go back there again! Anne ordered a Chicken Ramen and sake while I chose the Pork Ramen. Of course, having a need to sketch, I included my ramen bowl on the lower right corner of the sketchbook page!
On Sunday, at the Bryant Park Holiday Market, we lined up to order a traditional Raclette sandwich. There was a long line but not a problem or me. Sketch-waiting time. We lined up to pay and waited some more before they made our sandwich. They melt the half-wheel Raclette cheese under the heating element before scraping the melted cheese and spread it onto the bread. I love stinky cheese!
She dons a beautiful red bonnet hat and a heavy, bold colored, and checkered wool coat. That was the reason I sketched her from the open gap space of the head rests in front of me. As soon as we hit the end of line, I tried to get her name, first by complementing her beautiful hat and before asking for her name - Tena. It worked!
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A rainy Thursday morning commute but I don't mind the rain. We need the rain! Lots of train commuters this morning. I did not take my preferred seat at the front. Instead, I chose to stay at the back end so I can have this view. Also, it was a good thing I have a backup sketchbook in my backpack for I left the other one on top of the scanner bed at home.
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| A nice view from the back area of the car. |
I have not posted a new entry here for a while but it doesn't mean I've stopped working on my sketches and drawings. Here's the most recent one from yesterday on my way home from work. This delivery guy parked and waiting for an order in front of Chick-Fill-A across from the Grand Central Terminal building you see in the middle back area.
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| Across from the GCT. |
Last month, for a week, we walked the last 114 Km of the Camino de Santiago starting from Sarria (Lugo). Day 1 - Sarria to Portomarin was about 24 km hike. It was the longest hike I've done ever! At the end of the day,
I managed to sketch this 12th century church in Portomarin which was previously situated along the banks of Minho river. This church was rebuilt "piece by piece" on its current site back in the 1960's when the river was flooded to form a reservoir.
I love the new sketchbook my son gifted me last April. The paper is thin yet strong enough for ink and light watercolor wash. Interestingly, I used the black marker on a few pages to play with. Much to my surprise, the ink results blew me away. It looks as though the black mark was floating against the background of small boxes of lines. This is exciting and it has to be explored even further.
Once a busy depot to transport rail cars onto the barges across the Hudson River, the gantry is a rusty, decaying relic at the Riverside Park South. Amazing nevertheless. One of the many highlights to see at this beautiful riverfront park.
While Anne was busy checking out the stationery store, niconeco zakkaya, on East 10th Street, I was busy sketching a parked scooter within my field of view. I was in a bench in front of a hair salon two doors down the stationery store. The scene was busy but I kept the sketch minimally by limiting the details that come with the subject. And I think it worked fine!
The NYC Urban Sketchers met today at the High Line to sketch the Old Tree installation by Pamela Rosenkranz. Today's visit was just right for this installation will be replaced with a new one in the fall . The news says a huge Pigeon sculpture will take its place. Today's turnout was good though and everyone seem to have had a good time.
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Lower Right: Susan and Joan |
Our Summer Fridays hasn't been kind to me the last couple of weeks (supposedly off-work at 2:00 pm provided all work is done). Today, I left work later than I would like but on the way to Grand Central Terminal, I got the idea to shake off the blues by sketching something, anything. I settled on a scene at the corner of 5th Avenue and West 38th Street. Surprisingly, it worked and I felt better as I added some more shading to the sketch on the train ride home. I thought the small touch of color on the flag made it more interesting.
When I learned about the NYC USk going to the Rubin Museum of Art last weekend, I had to go, for it may very well be the last of our group outing there (a first for me) before the museum closes it doors in October and goes globally virtual only. A docent and an urban sketcher friend, Judy Garza, gave us a special private group tour which was really nice.
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| Two sketchers among the many who were gathered at this sculpture by Tsherin Sherpa. |
It's one of the most recognizable spot at the beautiful Bryant Park. I wanted to capture a little of the fountain and some scenes beyond. This was the view looking north of the park. What I would like to do next is to get some color on this using Procreate.
This sketch was done early last month when we were two weeks in into the office Summer Fridays program. I recall that was a muggy afternoon but I persevered in capturing the scene at Broadway and 40th Street. This sketch was done on a double spread B5 size MUJI notebook. I took photos of it but didn't get a satisfactory results.
Up until this evening, the Canon scanner software I've been using with my Mac was the Image Capture application, which I wasn't too happy about with the output. Enter the Canon IJ Scan Utility Lite which I discovered from an IG post by someone I follow and who does really amazing artwork. He got the same scanner like mine and now I know I will get better scan results of my artwork with this new software than if I were to photograph it. It can even stitch together two pictures into one. It's a win-win situation! Yay!
