St. Patrick's Day Parade

I went to the St. Paddy's Day parade last Wednesday in midtown to do some drawing. It's been awhile since I've been to the parade, but it hasn't really changed, except that it was warm for once! My favorite people to draw are the bagpipers because of their plaid kilts and knee socks and, oh yeah, their bagpipes!





The leaders of the pipe bands always have a swagger in their step.


But there are plenty of marchers that are just wearing suits and sashes, grandees from County Clare and County Wicklow, like this fellow,


as well as Ancient Hibernians, and their ladies. If the ones I drew don't look very happy, it's easy to understand. I was at the end of the parade route and by the end of the day, they'd walked a far piece and I'm sure were pretty footsore. Soldier on, Ladies of the AOH!

Paradegoers are fun to draw as well. Everyone was wearing green, even the dogs!


In addition to our little canine fashion plate there, we had lots of tweeds, Aran sweaters, and football (by which I mean soccer) jerseys.

Paris Redux

Sorry for the long hiatus, I'm not sure what happened! I think I was art-hibernating for the last month or so. But the spring weather has awakened my art blog impulses again!

My class is planning a trip to Paris in the summer, so I've been looking back through my sketchbooks at my last trip in 2006. I thought I would share a few drawings I made there.

The Louvre was definitely a highlight of the trip. I love the Metropolitan Museum of Art here in New York, but the Louvre is like the Met on steriods. It's probably three or four times the size—like art-heaven! It can be intimidating, though, I won't lie. But I did calm down enough to make a few drawings in the European sculpture section. These lovely ladies were gracing tombs, and they seem to take the opposite approach to presenting themselves to posterity. The first was all piety, raising her eyes heavenward in humble supplication, dressed in rich looking clothes, but with an austere design sense. The other lay on one elbow, with an open book, smiling like the cat that ate the canary. I had to draw her because she seemed so modern.




I can't wait to see the Louvre and these two ladies again!

Help for Haiti


Urban Sketchers put together a beautiful poster calling for donations to the Red Cross and Doctors Without Borders for Haiti (above). Please be sure to visit their site and spread the word. The poster is available for download to print and post to remind people to donate.

Also, Studio 1482 will send you a signed 13"x 19" limited edition print from one of their amazing artists for every $50 donation to CARE. Visit their site for more info.

Ye Olde Information Age

Back before computers and the interweb, the printing press was the cutting edge technology that circulated information to the knowledge-hungry people. So here's to those creaky old cast-iron giants! I've been on a kick lately drawing big, dirty machinery, so these fit right in (though I made them more Deco than dirty). I'm particularly intrigued by all the gears and wheels and inner workings, which is why these are details.



The Smithy

Lately, I've gotten more interested in drawing machinery, metal, tools and workshops. Sadly, I don't get to see too many workshops in New York, but I took advantage of a recent trip to Mystic to visit the blacksmith's shop. Not only is it nice and warm inside, but they have more tools than you can shake a stick at! Plus, how often do I get to see a forge? Not often enough! I have more drawings of the printer and the shipyard, which I will probably post at some point, but I think this was my favorite drawing of the trip.


And since it seems appropriate to put him here, here's a page from my sketchbook with the blacksmith who was nice enough to let me sit in the shop for hours.

Berlin iPhone Portraits

I recently got back from Berlin, and while I have great memories of fun at bars and cafés, and being out with friends, a lot of my time was spent companionably sitting around the kitchen table with Julia and our roommate Konstantin. So on the way home from Berlin, while the plane shook in the turbulent air, I distracted myself by playing with the Brushes app on my iphone.
Here's Julia; silk scarf, hair poof, freckles and all:



Konstantin was harder, since I don't know his face as well and I didn't have the original in front of me. I have promised a more faithful portrait the next time I have the chance.

A shout out to my friend Julia, who keeps a beautiful blog of her iDrawings, which were my inspiration. Also, here's a fantastic slideshow of David Hockney's iphone drawings narrated by Lawrence Weschler of the New York Review of Books, as well as a video of a New Yorker cover done by Jorge Colombo with the app.

Liberty Bell Reportage

The Liberty Bell is a symbol of independence, liberty and justice. It was rung on July 8th, 1776 to summon the citizens of Philadelphia to hear the reading of the Declaration of Independence. It was also rung at the beginning of the First Continental Congress, and at the Battle of Lexington and Concord in 1775. I've been meaning to get to Philadelphia to see the bell, which hangs in front of Independence Hall. Fortunately, a full scale replica hangs at the Magic Kingdom at Disney World, in Liberty Square. Below is my panoramic drawing, as well as some stamps.

(click on the drawing to see it larger)


Time for Sake

While my very favorite drinks are caffeinated (the title of my blog is "Time for Tea" for a reason), I have been known to indulge in stronger stuff. I recently had an opportunity to taste some sake, although I opted for plum wine, or umeshu instead. Technically, to the Japanese, I was still drinking "sake" which refers to alcoholic drinks in general (it must be true, I read it on Wikipedia!). Plum wine is made from green unripe plums, or ume. The one I tried came in a bottle that looked like so:
Those are little ume floating at the bottom. The particular type I tried was called Kairakuen, and the lady was nice enough to write down the name for me in kanji.

She poured me a tiny little glass, and even gave me an ume, which I ate last. The little green plum was so strong—sour and filled with alcohol! It was quite a zinger!

In fact, even though the glass was only a few ounces, I was completely tipsy as I did these wine labels. Maybe that even helped? They feature ume (of course), as well as plum flowers, and the kanji that the helpful Sake lady drew for me.



The uber-minimalist one with the plums:


And here are a couple with the same design elements in different proportions. They're not exactly labels yet, I kind of like them just to describe a mood.

New Mexico Hiatus

I'll be away for a few weeks while for a vacation in New Mexico and Arizona, so I won't be able to post until mid September, earliest. See you then!

Day Five

You may notice that there's no "day four," but it's not a mistake. We had an unexpected museum day, which doesn't really fit in with the theme I've got going here. But we were back on Friday!




I probably won't be able to post from Florida, so this may be it for a few weeks. I'll try and make up for it when I get back!