Portomarin Church

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.

Weekend sketches

In keeping with the daily sketch practice, I did a couple last Sunday.  The first one was at the local Target parking lot and the other at the Rye Marshlands Conservancy.  Two different subjects, stretching the mind on what best approach to mark making.

A Sketch Crawl in Park Slope: Part II

At lunchtime, I made my way down 5th Avenue to join the other sketchers near the Old Stone House of Brooklyn.  The playground was full of young families enjoying the mostly cloudy day.   The sketchers were given instructions on where to meet for the 3:00 PM "show and tell" event which would be held at the other side of the Old Stone House (behind this house view I sketched).  For this sketch sheet, I initially started with a direct to watercolor sketch (Stone House roofing and some foliage) but later switched to doing line marks with the ballpoint pen, a fountain pen, and acrylic markers.  The the two young urban sketchers in the foreground provided a good anchor to finish the sketch.

A Sketch Crawl in Park Slope

My first sketch in today's sketch meet at Park Slope, Brooklyn was near the corner of President Street and 5th Avenue.  Can't miss the pink painted storefront of a bookstore, I had to sketch it on this pre-marked page.  Meanwhile, the car at the curb by me started to pull out and the rear passenger window rolled down.  The young girl in the back shouted "I like your drawing!" with a nice smile and a thumbs up!  Oh, it made my day!

Friday Evening Sketch

I made a quick stop at the Morgan Museum and Library after work and sketched the BeBimBop Jazz ensemble.  They're there every Friday evenings from 4:30PM to 6:45PM.  Lucky to have caught the tail end of their performance this evening.  After their set, I walked over to show this sketch to Joe, Ean, and Danny.  They were kind to ask permission to take a photo of it, too.

Doodles on Black Mark

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.

 

A commuter sketch

Back at sketching metro commuters to and from the city.  Both cars were crowded!  I got the car number this morning before I detrained but not the one on the return trip home.  I forgot to note it down since I couldn't see it from where I was seated. (Right image sketch)

The Gantry at Riverside Park South

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.

 

Pier 1 CAFE

It was my first time visiting the beautiful Riverside Park South riverfront, thanks to the NYC Urban Sketchers.  Lots of interesting subjects to sketch at this park but the first thing that attracted my attention was the overhead bridge support structure for the West Side Highway.  It's amazing how the riverfront has been rehabilitated for public use.  I thought the Pier 1 Cafe is a nice subject against the highway support structure in the background.

 

Lunch at Bryant Park

The Bryant Park is three blocks away from where I work so I took a lunch break there one day this week.  I saw a group having a nice break in one corner so I sketched them.  I don't think they noticed me at all and even if they did, it was just a sketch of them anyway.

A Pizza Store sketch

I started the work week without a packed lunch so it gave me a chance to go out of the office, buy some food, and eat lunch outside.  I chose to eat lunch at the converted walk space along Broadway and West 37th Street.  From where I was, I saw a Pizza place that attracted my attention as I ate my lunch.  There was a nice reflection of the street scene against the shop glass window.  I  thought it would be a good sketch practice.  It was and I finished the hatching later at home.

A Vespa Scooter

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!

After the workshop

After my workshop event at Bryant Park last weekend, Anne and I met up and decided to explore a little bit of the shops in the Lower East Side.  We visited a stationery store and a coffee shop.  I had the chance to sketch inside the Le Phin Coffee Shop and shared the finished work with the grateful owner/proprietor.  When asked if they could write their names on the page, they said "it would be an honor".  What a nice feeling to share something that brings joy!

  

The Old Tree by Pamela Rosenkranz

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.  

Lower Right: Susan and Joan

Summer Friday Blues

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.

The Rubin Museum of Art

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.  

Two sketchers among the many who were gathered at this sculpture by Tsherin Sherpa.

In another gallery on the same floor, I found this sculpture, "Durga Killing the Buffalo Demon", of Nepalese origin.  I have never sketched so many hands at one time but I just did a suggestion of hands more than actually doing all in fine details.

The last sketch I did was of Ganesha at the main floor as three urban sketcher friends were sketching the same subject.  It was a fun and productive day for me.  Unfortunately, I had to leave the show & tell portion much earlier than usual as I had other engagements to fulfill that day in the city.

The Bryant Park Fountain

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.

 

A Summer Friday Sketch

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!

The Bus Station Shed

I did a sketch of the bus station shed from a few years back when I was just exploring this technique of sketching with pre-marked pages.  Last Friday, I made another attempt at using a sheet of pre-marked sheet to capture this bus station shed in front of what was once the Lord & Taylor Department store.

The steps at NYPL

I made a sketch in front of the NYPL terrace last week using a page from a square sketchbook that I had done some pre-markings.  I like figuring out what will work with the scene overlay against the pre-marked page.  I saw a portion of the curved ceiling that might work so I started from there.  It seem like I'm getting the hang of it.

 

Back to Pre-Marked Pages

It has been a while since I did the pre-marked page sketch series so I did a couple recently.  It was just one of those things that just happen.  I saw a couple of cardboard paper at work that I marked with a narrower width marker pen used for shipping.  It works okay just for this exercise.  The location I chose was the NYPL and the nearby Bryant Park.  I like working out the scene onto my pre-marked page.  It's like figuring out a jigsaw puzzle.  Will do a little bit more for the summer season.

How Long Blues at Little Island

Left the NYC USk "show & tell" earlier than usual last Saturday to meet with Anne and spend the rest of the afternoon with her and an early dinner at Leitao, a Portuguese Cuisine Restaurant in the Village.  We then proceeded for a nice walk toward the Little Island to catch a sold out show - How Long Blues - by Twyla Tharp, T Bone Burnett and David Mansfield.  It's funny to run into a NYC Urban Sketcher regular, Meryl Greenblat, on the Little Island just before the show!  She even snapped a picture of us from across our seating area at section one.  Developed and finished the sketch later at home. 

At the Carl Schurz Park

The Urban Sketchers meetup last weekend was at the Carl Schurz Park on East 86th Street.  Got there a little bit later in the morning so I did a sketch of the bench scene and the park goers.  Eventually, in search of lunch food vendors which I never found, I saw this other scene by the river that I really liked so I sketched it on my pre-marked page.

A Comic Strip Style Sketch

On the way to work one morning, I was thinking what else that I haven't tried on my commuter sketch series.  Then this idea of doing a speed sketch from 125th Station point to Grand Central Terminal.  I drew five frames on my sheet, all different sizes, and tried to fill them with a sketch of something that I had observed.  It was a fun exercise.  Later at home, I filled the background with a dark color marker.  Doing that really sets off the fine line sketches I made.  It has become a comics like style that I like.

 

A Day at Storm King Art Center

It was our first time to visit the Storm King Art Center, an open-air museum that contains perhaps the largest collection of contemporary sculptures located in New Windsor, NY.  We were lucky to have such gorgeous weather on this day.  On the 10:30am first run of the TRAM inside the property, we saw a good portion of the sculptures along the way.  Here's a sketch of the couple on the tram with us,

I did a couple of sketches in color.  The natural beauty all around us was just amazing and any sketch won't do justice to the experience.  In the end, we just soaked it all in.   It was a great feeling.

"Mother Peace" by Mark Di Suvero.

"Three Legged Buddha, 2007" by Zhong Huan 

 

 

Music performances at Pershing Square Park

2024-06-05: Wednesday summer performances have begun at Pershing Square Park! I had to pause and watch (sketch) them this evening before deciding to take the next train home. It was a good (quick) sketch exercise for the day!

The workers in harness

Workers in harness dangle outside my office window as they make new conduit.  Not to mention the loud head-splitting sound from the drilling they make on the brick wall.  Well, they were fascinating quick sketch studies though!

 

A Workshop by Carol Fabricatore

I attended a workshop on techniques in mixing watercolor and gouache in a painting.  This was led by Carol Fabricatore and was held near the Conservancy Gardens in Central Park.  It was a beautiful day and I had fun working with colors in this workshop.

The finished painting.

The finished view after adding the gouache on top of the watercolor layer.

Adding the first layer in watercolor.

At the store parking lot

I did some grocery errands and upon returning to my car at the store parking lot, I still wanted to draw something.  Off to my right view, I saw a mother remotely opening the tail gate of her SUV and immediately unloaded her grocery cart into it.  The next car over to her left started the reverse maneuver to pull out from the spot.  Soon, she followed the same as well as the owner of the Audi car nearer my spot.  It was my clue to wrap it up for the evening.

The South Street Seaport

It was a bright, sunny, crisp, spring day at the South Street Seaport on Pier 17 to be with the Urban Sketchers last Saturday.  I volunteered to host this event so I stayed put in one spot to sketch, by the Circle Line Tours booth area, where the sketchers could easily locate me even when they came in later in the morning.  Overall, it was a fun event and a great turnout, too! 

Corner W38th and 6th Ave Scene

At lunch break last Friday, I saw the sketch interest potential at this street corner when I trained my eyes up a little bit.  The water tower on top of the building, the street post and street signs, the older buildings full of character across the street were all good elements to be captured in a sketch.  So that was what I did after work that day.  I did the ball pen sketch on site and finished the colors at home.   I like my recently purchased new markers because the green color exactly matched the color of the street sign.  I think it even make it pop for your attention.

The Busy Intersection in Norwalk, CT

I love this this part of Main Street in Norwalk, CT where it intersects the north end of Cross Street that turns into North Avenue, whenever I go to shop at Stew Leonard's store.  There's this view of the three houses that is really interesting with all the street post wires and route markers.  This intersection is always on my sketch wish list.  Today, I settled on a slightly different view due to the parking limitations but I think it came out fine.