Drawing The City As It Returns

NYC is back, mostly

The prospect of spending a few hours to live-draw in the streets of NYC is exciting for me. I decide on a neighborhood and just go there, iPad in backpack. Some neighborhoods have more places to sit, which, if I am going to broadcast while I live draw (see below), is necessary in order to hold the phone over my hand as I draw on my iPad. I wander until I see something interesting to draw, and a place to sit.

I decided to draw Times Square again because I hadn’t done so in a while. I wanted to take note of any changes. I walked north from the west 30’s and entered the iconic crossroads of 42nd Street and Broadway. Unlike last year, Times Square was very busy and seemingly back to normal. Except for the masks on people’s faces, and two other things that I ended up drawing: various stageing areas for Covid testing, and more evidence of NYPD police in the area.

In the drawing above drawing, I noticed the couple to the left kept hugging and kissing. Pigeons were everywhere. Just before I began drawing, there was a man at the red table in the foreground appearing to pour things into cups as if conducting “experiments” for his enjoyment (you can see him in the video link below). I was going to draw him, but he gathered all his plastic bags and cups and departed before I could capture him.

The policemen were standing against a wall of a building, talking, looking at their phones and enjoying some coffee. No doughnuts were in evidence. I decided not to draw any of their surroundings because my focus was on the men and didn’t want to detract from them.

Drawing in Times Square takes a certain amount of awareness, I have to be constantly on alert to what’s going on around me, because you never know what’s going to happen. My peripheral vision is engaged, my hearing atune to any unusual behavior. At one point during my drawing, a large number of fire trucks loudly came into the area; it was so loud and there were so many, I was reminded of 9/11. I try to find a spot that will make me somewhat unoticeable. One thing I love about live-drawing in the city is that no one bothers me. My…