Scavenger Hunt from Life #143: Dec 29 - Jan 06

[Vivien]

Ai - Golden Pavilion is amazing, and so is the view from the top. Great sketching of the store with your group! And your new Sketchbook looks very useful.
Joan - Lovely Gas Pump painting
Ned - Fascinating Pin-hole camera view! Wicked looking fishing lure! Is it for river and lake fishing or sea?
Jo - I like the broken rock and handy scissors
Fletch - Thanks for your comment on the dog toys.

 

[Joan T]

Fletch, to get the deep reddish color on the building I used a lot more pigment than water...and did more than one layer. Thanks for the comment on the cookie. I'm glad to hear that my digital sketch looks like my other work.

Ned, thank you. I like that alizarin crimson. I'll have to check what brand it is. It comes out nice and rich. Glad you resisted the sweet since I ate it as soon as I sketched it. lol Love the lure...nice coloring. I'm glad you are into not harming the fish and releasing most of them.

Jo, thanks. I like those serious scissors. A few that I have barely cut paper. The good ones I have to keep hidden away so that you-know-who won't abscond with them. lol I like the idea of a "cash station." Fill-er-up!

Ai, I like old gas pumps too. They have character to them. You made the Dior store look better than in real life. I like that a lot. I can't imagine making an appointment just to get into the store.

I've been missing going into the city lately. With the trip to Atlanta and then Christmas I haven't gone if for weeks. Also, our NYC Urban Sketchers was on hiatus thru the holiday. There was nothing scheduled this weekend, but I know I will miss the outing next weekend so I was determined to go in today. I wanted to sketch in Grand Central. Today was really cold and windy, but I knew I only had to walk a short distance at the train station from my car. Once I got into the city I would be inside the rest of the time.

First I sketched a few passengers on the Long Island Railroad this morning.
12 - single (person) - watercolors and pencil

13 - something soft (coat) - watercolors and pencil

14 - something I wanted to draw, but hadn't yet (Grand Central decorated for Christmas) - watercolors and ink (This went past being just a sketch. I worked on it for 2 1/2 hours.) Ai and I sketched there together once when she was in the NY area.

15 - time (2 clocks) - watercolors and ink

 

[Jo Castillo]

Ai, oh what a find of the Dior building to sketch. Big and I bet expensive. Nice sketch. Thanks for the info on the sketchbook. These are the scissors. You keep your hands out when cutting a big box or carpet as they say. Pretty cool, a gift from Joanna. https://www.amazon.com/C-JET-TOOL-I...&hvlocphy=&hvtargid=pla-4583589121555280&th=1

Fletch, thanks. The scissors are tough.

Hi Vivien, thanks.

Joan, you are amazing for your sketching. Traveling all over to the city, etc. Thank you for taking us along. The sketches are so good and tell stories. Grand Central is so fascinating and you make it look beautiful. The snack bar and folks are wonderful

Hope to sketch tomorrow.

 

[NedL]

Ai -- nice two page painting. I like how the building is on one side and then it's place is on the other. The right side could be a nice sketch on it's own but to have the building needs both. I don't like crowds very much, especially in a store... even just being in a store makes me want to get out under the sky... I'm a horrible shopper because all I'm thinking about is how soon I can leave. I can't even imagine pre-booking to go into one! I usually leave those pinhole cameras out for 6 months... from solstice to solstice. Sometimes a whole year.

Hi Vivien -- that one is for surf fishing in the sea. It looks like a Pacific sardine...

Joan -- wow I'm with Jo, Grand Central is great and the lunch place/people are excellent. Like the open feeling of them. Long Island railroad sketches are really good.

Hi Jo! Hi Robin, and lurkers....

#8 something outside at the beach ( ink, ink wash, palette paper palette ) Sort of quick. Big surf for that beach this afternoon.

 

[AiArts]

Joan: Thanks.... Oh boy you got quite a wonderful storm of sketches. I think they all are fabulous, esp. people on train. The Grand Central is top notch. Now I miss being there sketching and having super soup at the Grand Central with you. The time item is excellent too.

Ned: Thanks.... I don't like crowd place either. Though I like windows browsing... just my interest in how they design things (not for buying aspect). I love more thing organics these days... including your sketch of majestic rock and ocean. Welldone.

Viv, Jo, Fletch, and other lurkers : Thanks.

 

[Joan T]

Jo, thanks. I enjoyed the day in the city. I get tired of the same views out here. People and interiors are a fun challenge.

Ned, thanks. The sketches from Grand Central were fun to do. I just tucked myself into a corner where I would be out of the way of the crowds of people that were milling around. Nobody bothered me that way. In fact a friend was looking for me while I was sketching the top scene and he never found me. It turns out he was sketching about 4 track entrances ahead of me, doing the same view.

Ai, sketching yesterday brought back good memories of our day of sketching there. There were still holiday crowds around so it was really crowded. I tucked myself into a corner each time so I wouldn't get stepped on. Sometimes there were so many people I couldn't see the architecture. lol

 

[jmfletch]

Ai - Thanks for the info on the sketchbook. All my bound sketchbooks are portrait bound. Not sure why other than I mostly work in pencil doing still life’s or objects. But seeing you use that format for a tall painting one day and a panorama the next makes that format seem more practical. With portrait bound all you can really do is make it bigger.l

Joan - Great train travelers sketches. Love both Grand Central and Penn Station. Went to school upstate NY for 3 years and took the train out of Grand Central. In college I worked for a while in Penn Station testing coffee. One time I went down to get ice from box car in commercial level and there were the Beatles being taken out the truck entrance. News showed a limo coming out the front mobbed by fans but they went out the truck entrance in a van.

Ned - Nice work with the washes. That paper palette is getting a work out.

Jo, Viv, Robin, Joe, and lurkers

Keep sketching
Fletch

 

[Joan T]

Fletch, great story about Grand Central and the Beatles. I'm sure there are lots of stories if only those walls could talk.

You still have a little time for this hunt, but I just posted the next one here.

 

[jmfletch]

Dang this hunt went fast!
#5 gift. A carved Santa given to us by a friend, the carver. Drawn directly in pen. Image is about 4x2 in. Tried to capture te carving marks with lines.

Keep sketching
Fletch

 

[Jo Castillo]

Ned, I don't like shopping either. Now that Gene doesn't drive I have to get groceries. Yuck! He always liked that chore. Love your outside at the beach. The waves look rougher than your usual sketches. Nice work with a hint of color.

Ai, Joan, Vivien and others... thanks.

Fletch, awww, cute Santa. You captured the lines well. You are getting the hang of direct ink! Thanks for the Hunt! Didn't have much time to sketch. It will be cold this week so won't be going out much.

I sketched here at the computer on the bottom of the page with the rock and scissors with the Micron 03. #5 something soft - a stuffed moose about a foot tall. He is a warm rusty brown with black horns and shirt You can barely see his eyes and nostrils for the big fuzzy nose. Wondering where I got it as the shirt is Utah?? We haven't been there since the fire. Maybe Gene got it at Walmart out of a big box of stuffed toys. Don't see many items here in Texas from Utah. Hmmm.

 

[NedL]

Fletch -- it did go fast. Thanks for the hunt and for the challenge. I like the carved Santa done in ink.

Jo -- The texture on that moose is just great! I think the Utah Utes mascot is a weird looking bird of some kind... strange that we won't see them again at Cal now that there is no Pac-12.

 

[Joan T]

Ned, I forgot to comment on your last sketch of the rugged rocks out in the water. Nice to see the power of the ocean in a sketch.

Fletch, cute sketch of the carved Santa ornament! Nice gift. Thanks for hosting. Wish I had more time to sketch for this hunt...but I still have time today since this hunt isn't really over. I've been taking an online collage class which is taking a lot of my time. We are making the collage papers so I not only watch the videos, but then make my own set of papers.

Jo, I always love when you sketch your fuzzy friends. They always look like I would want to squeeze them if they were here IRL.

 

[AiArts]

Fletch: Thanks for hosting this Hunt. Wonderful Santa sketch.

Jo: Thanks.... what a group of beautiful lines in the fluffy moose toy

All: See ya in the next Hunt.

 

[jmfletch]

Jo - Love the Moose.

Jo, Ned, Joan and Ai - Thanks for kind supportive words that have helped me move out of my comfort zone and draw direct in ink. Now to keep practicing.

Fletch