Happy hour

I was finally able to work out the complexities of posting from Mexico so with any luck I should be posting daily from now on. I had to start with a bar drawing, a bar where every hour is happy. I have never been anywhere like this and look forward to showing you more. It is paradise.

Sunday

Great title eh? It's late and I'm off to Mexico early in the morning so I'm getting this one up now. I'm told that there is WiFi where we are staying so I should be able to keep up the daily posts. look for palm trees in Monday or something Mexican at least. Happy Sunday.

Radio Days

What do you make of this one then?

Chin up

It's Friday.

Sidewalk

This is a drawing from 2005 and I had to post it because of it's subjects. This couple came in almost everyday for happy hour, he would drink the "cheeky" house red and she the white. Seldom a word would pass between them.

Sidewalk

about an hour after I started yesterdays drawing the place starts to fill up with people catching that last bit of happy hour on their way home from work. At 8pm they usually have some live music in the back but since that marks the end of the two for one action it's my cue to leave. Ten years ago that would have meant heading to Vazac's if I still had enough cash left.

Sidewalk

The thing about the Sidewalk bar is that it's very dark, the restaurant section is on the corner of the building and has lots of light but the bar always felt like you were hiding from the world, which was very appropriate for me at that time. The happy hour was the main attraction since I was really broke during those days. Brooklyn larger was $4 and being able to get two for the price of one was all the encouragement I needed. It was a very odd phase of my life being without direction or ambition, what a difference a decade makes.

Sidewalk

This place is as much a part of my personal history as any bar, I spent way too much time here from 1992-99, it has a really great happy hour which extends from 2pm to 7pm 7 days a week which is almost all of them. It's open 24 hours a day which doesn't hurt except for when it does. located on 6th street and avenue A, just a short walk from Vazac's. Tomorrow I'll take you inside, if you check in between 2-7pm it will indeed be happy hour.

Kinsale Beer Pump

What can I say, I came, I drank, I sketched. You'll be seeing more of the Kinsale Tavern in the next couple of weeks, assuming that you return of course.

Dude

Sometimes the nude is a dude.

As Promised

Made it to the Society last night and here she be.

Federal Plaza

This is not Federal Plaza but it is the drawing I made when I was sat outside waiting for my citizenship interview. A break from all these bar drawings of late, I'm planning to attended sketch night at the tonight which should mean a nude for tomorrow, we'll see.

Vazac's

After the guy from yesterday's drawing left, this chap came in. He was here for some basketball game on TV and outstayed me, as far as I know he's still there. This concludes Vazac's for a while as I turn my attentions to another haunt.

St Patrick's Day

This guy is wearing green, one of my favored solo drinkers. He had the most remarkable beard and came in for a beer and a shot at about 2pm and then left. Self medication.

Vazac's

Here we are again with a little more of a crowd, I prefer solitary drinkers in these drawings but I think that's because I get nervous at capturing a crowd, too much going on.

Dude

This guy missed his stop. I've often speculated about the people I've drawn who were so asleep that they probably missed there stops but this one I got to witness first hand. When the announcer called out "Chambers St" he shot bolt upright then scrambled for the door cursing about 42st under his breath. Oh how we laughed.

Vasac's

I was back there yesterday and it was empty when i first sat down so I concentrated on these beer pumps, I got some sketches of people as they turned up which I'll be posting in due course but I also wanted to bring your attention to a new site created by Senor R that is devoted to beer pumps alone. have a LOOK.

Vazac's

so here I am inside Vazac's, I got drinking shots of tequila with these two guys at 3 in the afternoon. It was a bad idea but an occupational hazard (my wife didn't buy that one either).I have another drawing from in here but I'll be doing more, it's hard to do this joint justice in a couple of sketches. I will, however be laying off the tequila.

Vazac's

This is a really great bar on 7th and avenue B in the East village, it has one of those horse shoe bars inside and has been used as a location in many a movie and TV show, yet it retains it's authenticity. It is, in fact something of a dive bar but a dive bar in the best possible sense of the term. I love this one, I used to live one block away about 10 years ago. I've been doing some drawings inside this bar so look out for those coming to a computer screen near you.

Nevada Smith's

If you are English or if you follow the beautiful game and you live in New York you will be very familiar with this place. I've dragged myself here at some ungodly hours to see England play live via satellite, but then so has Sting.

Commuters

I haven't been much of a commuter lately, due to the recession my part time day job has become an almost no time day job so I have been taking later trains when going into the city. What I've come to notice on the odd days I do the commute will surprise no one but it struck me again anyway. On the way to work or on the way home, people are either asleep or miserable. Take these two for example, he's out and she looks like .... well you know. The things we do to survive in New York, running to stand still.

Old Town Bar

This was Friday late afternoon waiting for Angie to finish work. I was sat there with a pint not knowing if I had the energy to draw when John the bar tender said "what, no sketchbook today?" I was shamed into drawing and here is the result, Thanks John. It's getting to the point when I just can't sit and enjoy a quiet pint anymore.

Bigger Dude

I like the way this drawing rolled of the pencil with relative ease, they more often don't. I find that this is usually the case if I'm coming back from sketch night or have been drawing a lot that day and I'm not putting any pressure on myself to get a result. Any road up, sketch of the day.

Lil Dude

Sleeping under his Yankee hat in his push chair on the subway oblivious to the fact that when he grows up he'll not be able to afford a ticket to the new Yankee stadium. When I moved here in 1989 the HIGHEST price ticket at Yankee stadium was $12. I don't know what they will be going for now but I'm pretty sure $12 aint getting you in although it might get you a hot dog. The high price of mediocrity these days, boy I think I'd better go back to bed and not get up until I'm feeling a little more positive.

Here She Be

As promised. I had a great time at the Society last night with my former MA colleges BRI and MONIKA.It was about as quiet a night as I've seen on a Thursday which made it all the more enjoyable with plenty of elbow room to draw and at the bar, my kind of night. Oh and by the way, I had my application for citizenship approved yesterday so I'll be sworn in as a fully fledged American very soon. I think I get cake.

Business As Usual

I was in the city yesterday so this is my offering from the subway, My intention is to go to the Society for Sketch Night this evening. That means a nude for tomorrow, don't miss it.

Pencil Study

last year I posted a head study HERE .This is part of the same job that I have been painting up for some time, I'll be posting the job in a couple of stages of finish in the next few days. I had a lot of fun with this one and I'll tell you more about it later.

And Then She Was Gone

That's the problem with drawing on public transportation, you just never know how long you're going t get.

Real Ale Pumps

I did this drawing down at the George which is my parents local pub. These are real ale pumps the tender real English beer served at room temperature. I miss it already. We are having another snow day today, just as well we made it back from Woodstock yesterday we might have gotten stranded in the land of the grey ponytail.

Woodstock

This is the house we are staying in for the weekend, it was to cold outside to do much more than this, Angie had lit a fire inside and I just couldn't take the chill. It's a rapid fire sketch of the day, if it warms up I'll try for something else or maybe I should sketch the fire place.