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.