Thank you so much for joining me today and for your patience as I worked through a few glitches. The originally scheduled live session hit a snag when I couldn’t flip my camera to show my desk, and it took a little while to get back on. I imagine Substack might be overwhelmed with live streams, which could explain the hiccup. Thankfully, everything worked out, and though my hand was a touch shakier, I still enjoyed sketching the Brooklyn morning street scene, shared above. In fact, I love how the loose, imprecise lines give it more character.
During the live, Patricia asked why I chose this particular scene, and there are a few reasons. I’ve always been drawn to this corner—its cracked, uneven sidewalk has so much texture and history. Not the best spot for skateboarding, as we discovered when my boys were younger! I also love how a puddle forms in the same spot after every rainstorm, letting me capture reflections of street signs and passersby. I enjoy returning to the same location at different times of day and in different conditions, and this is a corner I’ve revisited a few times over the years. In fact, there’s a drawing of this exact spot in Draw Your Adventures.
I tried to get the reflected letters right in my sketch, but
kindly pointed out that I’d flipped them the wrong way! I’d forgotten that after flipping my sketchbook around mid-drawing, I’d then flipped the letters incorrectly. I’ve since used Photoshop to correct the version below, but in my sketchbook, it’ll remain slightly off—forever part of the story.
In case you would like to try to draw the same scene, below is the reference image that I used. I love converting New York photographs into black and white, as they become more timeless that way. I really love the photograph, which reminds me of one of my earlier posts:
No. 32: A Photograph or a Drawing?
I have about 65,000 photos in my camera roll, and there would be at least 10,000 more if I weren’t constantly deleting them just to keep the number down. I take pictures of everything, both to document my…
I’ve been working on another post to share more of my recent drawings and hope to post it soon.
Also, a quick reminder: our next Draw Your World meetup is this Friday! We’ll be doing timed, loose portrait sketches of fellow subscribers—a great way to practice observation and continuous-line drawing. The invitation was shared in the subscriber chat. Hope to see some of you there!
Thank you
, , , , , and many others for tuning into my live video! Join me for my next live video in the app.
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