NYC Urban Sketchers Blog

It has been a busy September, with the start of school (I'm a university professor), along with a flurry of exhibits and illustrative work. Between the cracks in the occasional half hour or fifteen minutes given or even just prior to hitting the hay, I'll sneak a sketch in. Below are a few recent sketches.

Drawn after lunch at the Rockaway Beach Club in Rockaway, NYC. Nothing is ever simple, corrugated tin siding, license plates and potted palms sit, intermixed with people drinking, moving and gesticulating.  Watercolor added later. Favorite bit...the licenses.

I teach students how to draw. When they begin, I don't hector their efforts too greatly, but allow them to make their attempts in earnest before receiving critique. In the entire room, everyone was busy behind their drawing boards--not visible--yet, a break in the staccato interplay of boards and easel legs yielded one moment to zero in on. 

This is a drawing done before bed time of my beagle mix, Whiskey. As she was pushing a feather up and down I figured I'd have an opportunity to switch up and use pencil to get this sketch. Initially I thought I might make a watercolor of this, but has I worked, using the pencil almost as a weak pen line, I went with the compulsion to build the values up by hatching them. I like this one, it provides a good sense of my sleepy puppy and was a good break from my pen brush which I typically use to make sketches.