The registration for 2014 Urban Sketchers symposium in Paraty, Brazil, is open!

Register for the Symposium at: https://www.regonline.com/uskparaty2014

This year we will accommodate more sketchers than ever by providing three different passes for different types of participation.

1. Workshops Pass 
2. Sketching Pass
3. The Activities Pass

See the site for more information! 

The Video - Sketching Hands and the International Style on Park Avenue

This short video has some shots of us taking turn sketching each other's hands.  It was a warm-up for the afternoon when we went to Park Avenue to sketch the 1950's International Style Buildings.

Hands, then Park Ave from Mark Leibowitz on Vimeo.

Sketching the NY Public Library

The rain made it a perfect day to be indoors, and the library was a wonderful place to for sketching.

The day started with breakfast at the Port Authority sketching the room as I ate.

Sketching at Breakfast

If you watch people pause, even for a moment in their busy day, out come their cell phones, busy checking messages

Two Couples on a Bench Checking their Cell Phones

I loved sketching in the reading room.  People sit still and pose for you, hardly moving at all.

The Reading Room

Sketching at the New York Public Library / March 29, 2014

We had a great time today sketching at the New York Public Library. The architecture is so impressive, although I prefer to sketch people. While sitting in the quiet reading room, all I could think about was the scene from Ghostbusters. No Bill Murray to sketch, but plenty of people studying, reading and otherwise engaged with their gadgets. Perfectly distracted from noticing a nearby sketcher. ;)

Sketching for Saturday March 29, 2014 - New York Public Library

The weather is supposed to be warmer but wet this coming Saturday, 

so we'll be meeting indoors

New York Public Library

5th Ave at 42nd St

NYC's flagship library, in a Beaux Arts building next to Bryant Park, flanked by iconic stone lions

Attractions:  The Beaux Arts building is fantastic with wonderful details to sketch.  There are numerous rooms including reading rooms where people sit very still taking poses of serious concentration and deep thought, perfect for sketching.

Where:   5th Ave at 42nd St.  Subway D,B,F and M to Sixth Ave and 42nd St.  Easy walk to Fifth Ave.

When:  
1)  We meet at 10 AM when the library opens -  in the front entrance lobby.
2)  We will meet again in the entrance lobby at 11:15 AM to discuss sketching the family Read Aloud (11:30 - Noon)
3)  Lunch or break 12:30 - 1:30.
4)  1:30 - 3:00 PM Sketch in the various rooms and spaces. (see note below)
5)  Meet in the entrance lobby to share drawings, and for a group throw-down.

Price:  Free

Note:  There's an interesting Art exhibit across the street at the midtown library at 40th Street and Fifth:  Heather Dewey-Hagborg art installation "Stranger Visions" on the third floor.  She created portrait sculptures from analyses of genetic material strangers unwittingly left behind in public places. (?!?)

If you can't find us

Call or Text Mark - 973-809-9128

The Sketching Scavenger Hunt - Clue #3

The Sketching Scavenger Hunt

Clue #3

The purpose of this game is to encourage you to post your work to the NYC Urban Sketchers website (http://nyc.urbansketchers.org/).  The "Hunt" will be played out over the next four weeks.  Each week a new "Clue" will be posted and your job is to do a sketch of that clue.

You are encouraged to use your creativity to interpret each clue.  Stay within the guidelines of our Manifesto - namely your sketch should be drawn on location and should tell the story of your surroundings,  where you live and where you travel.  You can complete these drawings at anytime during the next month.

When all four clues have been posted and you have all four drawings completed you're invited to share them.   Here are your clues:

1. Something blew
2. Something true 
3. Something to chew
4. 
   

(The Sketching Scavenger Hunt is not connected to our Saturday Sketching event.)

Sketching Hands and the International Style

Wonderful weather,  enough to make you believe in Spring.

We met in the public area of the Sony building for the Sketching Hands exercise. I thought it was a fantastic warmup for the day.  I would guess that very few sketchers are completely happy with the way they draw hands.  I could probably do a Hand Sketching Party for several hours a day for the next six months and still feel the need for improvement.

We each took turns being the hand model.  Each sketch was timed for three minutes and we moved rapidly around the table with everyone trying to come up with a different creative hand pose.  The three minute duration and the rapid change from one pose to the next meant that we didn't have time to worry about the results or sweat the details.

After having lunch together we went out to Park Avenue to sketch the Seagram Building and the Lever House.  Park Avenue was filled with these wonderful huge white sculptures by Alice Aycock that evoked the feeling of a tornado in a paper-shredder.  The street art exhibition was called the "Park Avenue Paper Chase".  You can see her sculpture peeking out at the bottom of this sketch of the Lever House just beyond the parked cars.

Marie Roberts mentioned that there was a fantastic Picasso in the Four Season's Restaurant, which is in the Seagram Building.  There's been a lot of press about the painting because they want to move it and replace it with something else.  It's been in that locations since the restaurant first opened.  The problem is the huge size means there are very few venues that could show the artwork.  It was originally commissioned by Serge Diaghilev for the Ballets Russes.  I'd never seen the painting, and there's nothing like sketching a painting to help you see it.  

 After we met a man, who I guessed was the restaurant manager.  Whoever he was, he seemed proud of the painting and was quite knowledgeable, speaking about the painting's symbolism.  It's located in a spot that seems perfect for the painting.  We were left undisturbed as we sketched and admired the work.  This photo will give you a feeling for the painting's size

The Tango by Laura Santiago Monteiro

Laura is from Brazil and is going to be living in New York City for the next six months.

 

Dancing the Tango

She reached out to NYC Urban Sketchers a little while ago.  She loves drawing and sketching and joined us the night we went to Sketch the Tango.

She asked me to share these two works she created:

Diversity Plaza, Queens

As you probably know, we've been suffering through an extended winter in New York (along with many other states).  Luckily, there have been some have been some warm days that have helped keep us sane.

On a recent a Monday, when it was warm enough to draw outside, I ventured out to Jackson Heights with a friend. We worked in a pedestrian plaza that I'd been meaning to sketch.  It turned out to be a great location for people watching, especially with commuters passing through subway entrance.

Of course we took a break and grabbed some pain puri and idli at nearby Indian restaurant.

Sketching Hands and the International Style – Saturday, March 22, 2014

The weather for this coming Saturday looks promising.  Although there’s a threat of rain, if it comes early or not at all, Saturday will be the best day of the week, with temperatures in the high 50’s or low 60s

Sketching Hands

MORNING:  Sketching Hands

Every artist is challenged drawing hands.  They have a wonderful, elegant complicated structure.  We’ll use the Portrait Party technique,  taking turns being hand models.  The SONY public area is a comfortable space with an adjacent Starbucks .

·         

The SONY Atrium

          Where:  The SONY Atrium, A privately owned public space

o   the SONY Building, 550 Madison Ave, (bet 55 & 56 St)

·         When:  10 AM

·         How:  Subway -

o   4,5,6 59th St and Lexington Avenue

o   N,R train 5th Avenue

o   E,M train to 5th Ave and 53 St

·         Price:  Free

AFTERNOON – Sketching the International Style

The area of Park Avenue in the 50's introduced America to the International Style.  It’s hard to appreciate how radical and modern these building were when they were first built

The Seagram Building

·         

            Where:

1)  The Seagram Building

375 Park Ave (bet 52 & 53 St)

Architects: Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, and Philip Johnson .

Completed 1958, it stands as one of the finest examples of the functionalist aesthetic and a masterpiece of corporate modernism.  Note:  Philip Johnson was also the architect for the SONY Building (originally built for AT&T 30 years after the Seagram Building was built

2)  The Lever House

390 Park Ave (bet 53 & 54 St)

Architects: Skidmore, Owings & Merrill

Completed 1952, International Style, a seminal glass-box skyscraper  and one of the first glass International style office buildings in the United States.  It features an innovative courtyard and public space.

·         When:  Approximately 12 PM

          RAIN NOTE:  If it's raining in the afternoon we'll stay in the SONY Atrium

If you can't find us

Call Mark:  973-809-9128

The Sketching Scavenger Hunt - Clue #2

The Sketching Scavenger Hunt

Clue #2

The purpose of this game is to encourage you to post your work to the NYC Urban Sketchers website (http://nyc.urbansketchers.org/).  The "Hunt" will be played out over the next four weeks.  Each week a new "Clue" will be posted and your job is to do a sketch of that clue.

You are encouraged to use your creativity to interpret each clue.  Stay within the guidelines of our Manifesto - namely your sketch should be drawn on location and should tell the story of your surroundings,  where you live and where you travel.  You can complete these drawings at anytime during the next month.

When all four clues have been posted and you have all four drawings completed you're invited to share them.   Here are your clues:

1. Something blew
2. Something true 
3. 
   

(The Sketching Scavenger Hunt is not connected to our Saturday Sketching event.)

Mark Leibowitz

     mobile     973-809-9128 
     email:      markleibowitz810@gmail.com

Meet Fernanda

The Urban Sketcher's International Sketch Swap

I’d like everyone to meet my sketching partner from Brazil - Fernanda Vaz de Campos.  During the recent Sketch Swap with Sáo Paulo I was teamed with Fernanda.

Our email exchange started in January, so we’ve been communicating for awhile.  I am very lucky that Fernanda has very strong language skills which made our email exchange very easy and natural.  Fernanda is very active in the Sao Paulo Urban Sketching group.  Her emails revealed a person who is passionate about drawing.  She is an architect but has been thinking about going back to school to take her Master’s Degree with the intention of teaching.  We discovered that we have reverse comfort zones.  Fernanda loves to sketch buildings and finds them much easier to draw.  I am attracted to drawing people.

The theme to the Sketch Swap was "Welcome to My City". The sketch Fernanda sent to me was of MASP (Museu de Arte São Paulo) São Paulo's Art Museum The story that goes with the sketch is that the Såo Paulo USk group went to the museum to sketch, but it's such a big place that they lost each other. Fernanda ended up sitting in a Starbucks sketching the museum

Fernanda's beautiful sketch of MASP

Fernanda visited to NYC last January and stayed in a hotel in the Times Square area, so she’s familiar with some of the things we sketch locally.  We found out we had both gone to the Barcelona for the International Symposium. It turned out we both took a workshop run by Jim Richards - she found a picture of the whole group.  When I finally realized I was teamed with someone who I'd already met I found a Barcelona picture of a group of us having dinner in a Tapas restaurant.  We were sitting one seat away from each other.  What a small world it is. Pictures of us receiving each other's sketches

We got around to discussing music.  I’ve always loved Samba.  I asked Fernanda to recommend music she likes.  She had eight different YouTube recommendations.  The three I enjoyed the most were Elis Regina singing the Waters of March.  It’s a classic Samba tune and I’ve heard it many times sung in English and Portuguese.  The video looks like it was done in the sixties and has had over 5 million hits.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRqI5R6L7ow

Fernanda recently went to a Matagrosso concert and recommended this:

- Ney Matogrosso singing a song from another composer: Martinho da Vila:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n3-jyjsQuYA

The last song she recommended that was a hit for me was Chico Buaraque and Roberta Sá singing together with an acoustic guitar

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0-iovg0mq4

This has been a great experience.  I'm hoping to be able to go to the 2014 Symposium that Brazil is hosting this summer.  As a result of the Sketch Swap, seeing Fernanda in her own country will be like getting together with an old friend.  But, the larger truth is that any time I'm sketching with someone else - it's like being with an old friend.

Union Square - March 15, 2014

The day started at the Spring Studio.  For the second week in a row, I tried ignoring the model and instead drew the room and the other people.

The hand you can see on the right was Jim Welsh sketching next to me.


In the afternoon we went to the Farmer's Market at Union Square.  The view was huge crowds of people in constant motion.  I usually enjoy the challenge of trying to capture that kind of thing, but this Saturday I guess I was in the mood for slower things.  We found a guy playing violin in the sunshine that I enjoyed sketching.

Sketching the Farmer's Market - March 15, 2014

To Celebrate

the Ides of March 

let's

Welcome the first signs of Spring 

at the Union Square Farmers Market

MORNING:

The Spring Studio

The life drawing class runs from 9:30 - 12:30.  It's a popular class and the best seats are taken quickly. The class often fills to capacity.   Minerva will teach short anatomy lessons during the breaks.

• Where:  The Spring Studio, downstairs at 64 Spring Street
• How:   By Subway the #6 Spring Street stops right in front of the Studio,  or the B,D,F or M train to Broadway Lafayette is a two block walk south
• When:  9:30 - 12:30
• What:  Life Drawing from models
• Price:  $18 per person - Model Fee

AFTERNOON:

The Union Square Farmer's Market

• Where: East 17th Street and Union Square West
• How:  By Subway
• The 14th Street stop of the L, N, Q, R, N. 4, 5, 6
• When:  From 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM
• What:  The Farmer's Market, Tammany Hall, the equestrian statue of George Washington (the first public sculpture erected in NYC since the 1770 statue of King George III, also the first equestrian statue in America cast in bronze.  Also statues of Lincoln,  Lafayette, Ghandi, and the Temperance Fountain
• Price:  FREE

If you can't find us, 

Call or Text Mark 973-809-9128

Sketching the Zoo - the Video

On Saturday, March 8, 2014, New York City Urban Sketchers met at the Central Park Zoo.  This video shares some of what we saw that day:

The Central Park Zoo Sketch from Mark Leibowitz on Vimeo.

The Sketching Scavenger Hunt

               The Sketching Scavenger Hunt

The purpose of this game is to encourage you to post your work to the NYC Urban Sketchers website (http://nyc.urbansketchers.org/).  The "Hunt" will be played out over the next four weeks.  Each week a new "Clue" will be posted and your job is to do a sketch of that clue.

You are encouraged to use your creativity to interpret each clue.  Stay within the guidelines of our Manifesto - namely your sketch should be drawn on location and should tell the story of your surroundings,  where you live and where you travel.  You can complete these drawings at anytime during the next month.

When all four clues have been posted and you have all four drawings completed you're invited to share them.   Here are your clues:

1. Something blew
2. 
   

(The Sketching Scavenger Hunt is not connected to our Saturday Sketching event.)

Sketching the Central Park Zoo - March 8, 2014

SPRING STUDIO
The first day in a long time with moderate temperatures.  The day started at the Spring Street Studio.  I've been influenced by Tom Thorspecken's new book - "Urban Sketching the complete guide to techniques".  Instead of sketching the model  I tried sketching the Studio itself.  We went from short lively quick poses to slow long poses - and none of it mattered.  I kept steadily working on the picture of the room.  It was a very interesting exercise and taught me a lot.  I'm certainly going to try this again.

The Spring Studio

THE CENTRAL PARK ZOO

The Tropic Zone

Entering the Tropic Zone was like walking from NYC in March to a Tropical Rain Forest.  It was hot and steamy.  They were misting the entire room when we entered and the fog  softened the view of everything.  It flattened all the colors and reduced everything to shadows - lights and darks.  People were silhouetted in the light and it was a chance to try what I've recently learned is called a contra jour sketch

The Pheasant and the Ibis

We explored the walkways with rain forest all around us.  It's hard to notice the wildlife at first, all though it's easy to hear them.  Then after awhile you realize the room is teaming with life, they're everywhere, in the foliage, up in the trees and flying back and forth.

And, of course, nothing is standing still and posing.  So all you can do is quick impression of everything jotting down colors and hoping for the approximate posture.

The mammals were a little slower and more cooperative.  This Coati spent considerable time examining an empty bowl, maybe reminiscing about it's last meal.

We camped out and waited for feeding time at the sea lion pond.  I believe the trick to sketching seals is to capture the highlights of their wet coats.  ( Are sea lions and seals two words for the same mammal?)  Unfortunately, the sketch above does not do that at all, but when I go back to the zoo for another attempt, I'm going to spend time trying to figure out how to capture those highlights.

The zoo keepers hand-fed the seals and played games with them.  They explained that in the process they were examining how vigorous each seal was behaving, trying to spot any early signs of illness or injury.  By the time I finished sketching the zoo keeper above the seal was long gone, which is why the seal looks like a pointed rock instead of something living and excited about being fed.

This last sketch started out with seal getting fed, and ended up at a duck pond.

Getting Sketchy at the Zoo

What an amazing day sketching at the zoo! Not only did we have great weather but we got to see so many wonder animals with fabulous textures and colors.  As my first outing with the Urban Sketchers, I wasn't sure what to expect. The day far exceeded my expectations. It was great to have all that time to sketch, but also to talk about what tools and supplies we all use, and even share our sketch books with each other when we finished up. I also enjoyed seeing people's reactions to us sketching. So many curious children would peek over and ask to see. It was a great reminder that we all started out that way. 

I appreciated the welcome into the group with open arms. Mark does a great job leading! I hope to meet more of you in the near future!

Feeding time show with the Seals / Sea Lions.

We spent a good deal of time with the birds. They were flying all around us. So many wonderful colors!

Sketching the Zoo - March 8, 2014

Rembrandt's Elephant

MORNING:

The Spring Studio

The life drawing class runs from 9:30 - 12:30.  It's a popular class and the best seats are taken quickly. The class often fills to capacity.   Minerva will teach short anatomy lessons during the breaks.

• Where:  The Spring Studio, downstairs at 64 Spring Street
• How:   By Subway the #6 Spring Street stops right in front of the Studio,  or the B,D,F or M train to Broadway Lafayette is a two block walk south
• When:  9:30 - 12:30
• What:  Life Drawing from models
• Price:  $18 per person - Model Fee

Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians

AFTERNOON:

The Central Park Zoo

• Where: 64th St and 5th Ave, NYC
• How:  By Subway
• Take the N, R, or W trains to the Fifth Avenue/59th Street station in Manhattan, and walk north four blocks to 64th Street.
• Or take the Lexington Avenue #6 train to the 68th Street/Hunter College station, walk west 3 blocks to Fifth Avenue, then take a left and walk four blocks south
• When:  From 1:30 PM to 4:30 PM
• What:  Mammals, Birds, Reptiles and Amphibians
• Price:  $18 per person, entrance fee
• 
  

If you can't find us, 

Call or Text Mark 973-809-9128

A Full Day Sketching - March 1, 2014

(this is a compilation of three blog posts)

Part 1.

On Saturday, (yesterday), the NYC Urban Sketchers had a Totally Full Day planned. Literally. Mark  and I were the only ones who completed the whole day. For each venue we would gain and lose sketchers. The official day was to be from 9:30 am until 8:00 pm but when you figure in the travel time to get into and out of the city it was, for me, sixteen (16!!!) hours of here, there and everywhere sketching. It was probably the same for Mark. Phew. I was seriously concerned about keeping up but it turned out not to be an issue since it was such a fun and stimulating day.

First stop was Spring Street Studio in Soho. Three hours of figure drawing with a fantastic model that just flew by. I brought a notebook and some vine charcoal for the one and two minute poses and then, a bit self-consciously, took out iPat. This is a Very Serious Figure Drawing (7 days a week, day and night) Studio. I needn't have been concerned - no one was paying any attention to me except for one or two people who were interested in the iPad.

Since this is not considered Urban Sketching go here if you want to see some of my sketches from the morning venue.

Part 2.




After lunch we headed further downtown to Wall Street and the NYC Police Museum which is housed in temporary quarters since Hurricane Sandy did a major number on their permanent location.

Earlier, during the figure drawing, we were four urban sketchers. Mark  and I were the only constant all day. Now two different sketchers replaced those and we were still four.

Mark was fascinated with everything and sketched whatever crossed his line of sight.

Outside the four of us walked to the stock exchange and sketched until our fingertips turned blue.

We took the subway to Chelsea, losing the other two sketchers at different points along the way. No, they're not lost. Just had other plans. Mark and I were early for the next venue so we stopped for coffee and BROWNIES.




iPad; New Trent Arcadia stylus.
1,3,4 = Sketch Club
2 = Finngr Pro




Part 3

After the BROWNIE (yum) we entered a building on W20th Street between 7th and 6th Avenues, took the elevator to the Third Floor and entered a bright, noisy, Tango Party at Triangulo. There were probably nine sketchers and it was already crowded with dancers when we arrived and got more crowded as time passed.

Yikes!

The fencers from the previous week were as if standing glued to the spot when compared with these dancers.

I couldn't figure out where their arms and feet were. One second they were still, in position waiting for the music to start, then a slow pivot, and ZOOM - off they ALL went. I thought I could look at one couple, then keep drawing using the next couple to pass by and so on - a composite of body parts. I tried every single app I possessed. I took out paper! And Pen! Nothing.

I had no rhythm. Any sketching rhythm that is. My foot was oblivious to my quandary and happily tap tap tapping.

So I resorted to scribbling.

Next I tried to capture the various head positions of the couples. Sigh. I was wearing myself out. I can't count the number of times I shut off iPat, put it away, took it out again. Is this an example of Hope Springs Eternal?

Funny thing. They all had interesting faces and shoes.

And during all my angst Mark was here and there happily sketching dozens (you know I exaggerate a lot but this time it is cross-my-heart actual numbers) of zipping along tangoing couples without breaking a sweat or missing a line. I was disgusted.

Afterwards while four of us (a different configuration again but still the constants of Mark and I) were walking back uptown we stopped in an Italian place for beers (them) and a soda (me). Then Jason split off for a subway, some blocks later Denise and I both went down into Penn Station where we headed in different directions and Mark kept walking to 42nd. A long fun day, scribbles notwithstanding, and my car was just where I left it a zillion hours ago.

Fini

iPad; New Trent Arcadia stylus.
1,2,3 are composites assembled in Sketch Club of many similar drawings done while watching the tango dancers have a fine time for 3-1/2 hours.
1= Sketch Club
2= Finngr Pro and the small sketches are Sketchbook Ink I think.
3= Sketchbook Ink
4= Finngr Pro