The Model at Fifth Avenue Crossing

Funny story this morning.  I saw iPhone video shoot of a tall, young model strutting a light flowing gown dress at the corner of West 37th Street and Fifth Avenue.  This routine was repeated several times as soon as the southbound traffic on Fifth came to a stop.  Never mind that I was running late to work, I had to sketch as she does the modeling walk.  Then I decided to show it to them while they were re-grouping.  I asked for her name and she replied "Marina".  As I started walking away, I heard one of the guys asked if I can hold my drawing with her in the background while he took a video of my sketch and her, too.  The other guy said they love it, it almost feel like it was a painting.  Who knew?  Hours later, I realized the missed opportunity of asking for their instagram account or social media post.  Oh well...I was already running late to work anyway.

Waiting at the Eye MD office

My post eye check-up/follow-up visit was due today.  They gave my eyes three different kinds of eye-drop meds before I could be seen by the doctor.  As I sat in the waiting room for the medicine to take effect, this other client was busy with the phone entertainment.  I had to sketch her.  

Sketching the Six Overlooks

This past Sunday we walked the 3.7 miles long Mario Cuomo Bridge span from Tarrytown Landing to Rockland before heading north to South Nyack.  There was a Street Fair going on that day, unbeknown to us, which we enjoyed seeing anyway.  Nice to see the crowd coming back to doing normal activities and injecting life into this vibrant river town.  We nourished ourselves with good food knowing we would need it for the reverse trek on the bridge. 

On the way back, I asked for a 10 minute sketch break at the Fish & Ships Overlook.  Finished it at 4:30 pm before walking to the next overlook.

I sketched at the Palisades Overlook for about 10 minutes as well.  This one finished at 4:52pm.

Next, at Painter's Point Overlook, I was negotiating for more time than the 5 minutes she would give me to sketch.  We were getting closer to the cable-stayed main span.  It was 5:08 pm I wrote on this sketch.

Some 15 minutes later, we were at the River Crossing Overlook.  The cables toward the main part of the bridge was just amazing to see.

Then we arrived at the Half Moon Overlook a short time later where I finished sketching the curve of the bridge and the deep view of the river below.  It was about 5:38 pm.  We were getting close to the destination!

We finally reached the Tides of Tarrytown Overlook and I sketched there for about 8 minutes.  Our walking adventure was coming to a close.  It was about 5:51 pm.

We read that the entire span walk is about 80 minutes.  Well,  I had fun doing these quick-sketch-stops at certain intervals.  Our legs and hips were kinda sore from the walking but it was nice to do it on a beautiful fall weekend weather like it was that day.  Note that I added some line shading to the sketches and defined the lines some more when we got home.

Sutton Place Parks

The Urban Sketchers destination was at the Sutton Place Parks along the East River starting at the 55th Street.  Apparently, there are five small parks that are in that neighborhood.  The plan was to move up the the parks after a short time.  Three of us sketchers arrived late so decided to skip the first and walk one block north to the next park.  

I sketched this view looking south on this beautiful but iffy cold/warm day.  The locals enjoying the sun by the park benches attracted me to this scene.  A toddler girl exclaiming "Pigeon! Pigeon!"  as she chased after it while the guiding mother was right behind her.  Soon, a father and daughter arrived and stayed long enough to be added to this scene.  His name is Abdul and daughter, Kayla.

After lunch, I decided to sketch the 59th Street Bridge/Queensboro Bridge.  Three Urban Sketchers were seen having a fun conversation.  Then a couple came into view and took some selfies just enough to be captured into my sketch.   For the Show & Tell portion of our sketch day, I volunteered to go first since I had to be home early for another commitment.

  

Commuter Sketches on Cars 9608 and 9412

It's my Thursday commute sketch and meditation.  Morning and evening sketch.  The dark background makes the figure pop a little bit so I'm now adding it onto my sketch.

Commuter Sketches on Cars 9157, 9128 and 9416

It's now a habit somewhat to sketch a commuter on the train.  Here are some from the last couple of days.  I think I was able to get a good likeness of her than the two other gentlemen.  Also, adding a dark background appears to help the subject stand out more prominently forward.

A Live Jazz Performance

There's a Free Friday access to get into the Morgan Library and Museum from 5:00 to 7:00 PM.  In the last two times I visited, I just showed up the door.  They have free tickets available for the asking, I didn't even have to sign up ahead of time.  The last time I was there, I was in such a hurry to view the Rick Barton exhibit, some few minutes to sketch the Jazz Trio, before catching my train home at the Grand Central Terminal. 

This time however, I just focused on the jazz guitarist's performance.  I caught the tail end of the first set and had to wait 30 minutes for the second one.  Since I barely got some sketch done on the first set, I used that as the framework for what I saw on the second set.  A little messy and confusing but I like the results.