NYC Urban Sketchers Blog

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Astoria Park

One of the coolest yet lesser known bridges of NYC, The Triboro/RFK Bridge, from the entrance to Astoria Park.

It's neighbor, The Hell Gate Bridge.

Views from The Triboro as I rode across on my bike heading for Washington Heights.

Into the Woods and Down the Dell

...to find a castle, a pair of lovers true, and paths to the west.

We began at Belvedere Castle.

Then to the Delacorte Theatre vicinity, where we were treated to jazz.

The trio found a healthy audience to appreciate their performance.

Whilst Romeo and Juliet continued their romance, oblivious to all other life around them.

Under the willow tree were some rocks to perch on.

Sketchers found the grass just as comfortable. (Julie at left. Richard, at right, didn't actually look this stiff. I just drew him that way. Sorry!)

One has to make trees whilst in Central Park. And lampposts.

Some toddlers harassed a sweet dog.

And Mr. Belvedere surveyed us all from his stony perch.

For lunch, we went to Carmine's.

And after lunch, we sketched The Saint Urban on Central Park West.

And some photos I took along the way.

Saturday, October 19, 2013

We had a great time sketching today in Central Park and had a fair number of our local NYC Urban Sketchers as well as some visitors join us. A group of high school art students and their teacher from Tennessee met up with us at Belvedere Castle and a sketcher from Perth, Australia who just happened

to be in the park joined us.

Here is my first sketch of the Belvedere Castle. I sat on one of the lower observation levels to sketch.

Julie was sketching right near me.

I moved up to the next level and painted the view looking down into the park.

Carol had painted a similar view on a double page spread.

Next we all headed down below the castle and were sketching the view looking up.

There were people sketching everywhere on the lawn.

As if it wasn't enough to do the castle once, I did it a second time...but this time the whole thing.

I sketched Parker who was sketching someone in the group.

And people sitting on the rocks near him.

We spent a little time sharing our work before we went to lunch.

After lunch some of us went back and sketched along the perimeter of the park.

Mark and Mia were busy.

I sketched St. Urban, an apartment building along Central Park West.

The whole thing was too much detail for me to attempt so I only did a part of it.

I did a section of the Dwight School right across the street from where we were sitting.

Mia did a great loose painting of St. Urban.

Before we got Susan's car from the parking garage we stopped at Starbuck's...and had to sketch.

Wednesday, October 16, 2013

From Castles to Collections USk and World Wide Sketch Crawl: October 19, 2013

World Wide SketchCrawl #41

and New York City Urban Sketchers

From Castles to Collections:

- Our Sketch starts at 10 AM at the observation deck of Belvedere Castle. Built as a Victorian folly in 1869, the castle caps Vista Rock, the park's second-highest natural elevation. Since 1919, the castle has also been the location of the official Central Park weather station.