Inktober Week 3

Week three of the Inktober challenge.

Inktober Week 2

Week 2 of the Inktober challenge. Busy week; it was hard to fit it in and I missed one day.

Water Street Pipes

A pair of pipes in front of a building on Water Street in DUMBO. I don't know what these pipes are for; pumping something in or pumping something out? They reminded me of a pair of drunk buddies, staggering home.

Concrete Scraper

This machine is apparently a concrete floor scraper. For when you need to scrape a concrete floor. Outside the Empire Stores development in DUMBO.

DUMBO Vespa

Vespa in DUMBO. I always see this bike parked at the same spot on Water St., and it always has a parking ticket.

Chocolate machine

Machine on display at Jacques Torres Chocolate in DUMBO. It is a panning machine, which is used to coat nuts, fruit, etc. I guess you put the chocolate in the big vat, which spins, and the nuts or whatever are shot in through that tube.

Jane's Carousel

Jane's Carousel in Brooklyn Bridge Park. The carousel was originally built in 1922 by the Philadelphia Tobaggan Company for an amusement park in Youngstown, Ohio. The horses were carved by John Zalar and Frank Carretta. In the 1980s, it was purchased and restored by David and Jane Wallentas, real estate moguls of DUMBO. In 2011, it finally re-opened in a new glass pavilion by the East River.

Farragut Substation

The Con Edison Farragut Substation, in DUMBO.

DUMBO Water Tower

Water tower in DUMBO. I like water towers, and kept wanting to draw them, but you're always viewing them from far below. I kept seeing this one, close to and on level with the Manhattan Bridge, from the subway. So I walked up the north path of the bridge, which is a narrow bike lane where I wasn't supposed to be. But it put me right in front of the structure.

Water towers are one of the signature traits of the New York skyline. They're everywhere, and though they look like relics, they're actually in use. In the 1880s, New York City mandated that buildings taller than six stories be equipped with a water tank. The tanks use gravity to supply water pressure to the floors below, and they are often constructed of wood rather than steel due to cost, superior insulation, and less maintenance.

There are two remaining companies that construct all of NYC's water towers, Rosenwach Tank Company and Isseks Brothers, both founded in the 18902 and still family owned. This one was built by Rosenwach; you can tell by the rosette on top that is shaped like a double-R.

TV Van

TV van in DUMBO. I have no idea who or what they were broadcasting.

Honda C70

This was parked in the same spot by the archway under the Manhattan Bridge in DUMBO for over a week. Yesterday it was gone. Hopefully its rightful owner took it! I liked the way the warm yellow of the bike popped against the cold stone of the bridge.

DUMBO Archway

Archway under the Manhattan Bridge, on Pearl St. on the Brooklyn side.

Tuck-It-Away

Huge storage facility in DUMBO, Brooklyn. Actually, it's probably technically in Vinegar Hill, but I drew it sitting in DUMBO.

I work down in DUMBO fairly often, and I've seen this building countless times over the years and thought about drawing it. This often happens; a building or scene will strike me and stick in my head, but it may be months or even years before I actually get around to drawing it.

In the case of this building, I had always thought that that big diagonal chute was part of the storage building. But when I sat to draw it, I realized it was attached to a separate structure, behind the storage building. What I didn't realize, though, even after drawing it, was the nature of the smokestack. I had assumed it was on top of the storage building, but when I looked at the site on Google Maps to pinpoint the location, I discovered that it is in fact a third structure, also behind Tuck-It-Away, and even more enormous than I'd thought. The single perspective from which I'd been viewing these structures all this time had been completely misleading.

 

Manhattan Bridge

The Manhattan Bridge doesn't get much attention in the popular imagination. The Brooklyn Bridge is a world-famous icon of New York City. The Queensboro Bridge gets its moment every time they make a new Spider-Man adaptation, as they re-create the scene from Amazing Spider-Man #121 when the Green Goblin tosses Peter Parker's girlfriend off the bridge (In that original comic book, though, she dies!). Even the Verrazano Bridge to Staten Island gets its moment in the spotlight once a year at the start of the New York Marathon. But no one pays much attention to the Manhattan Bridge.

I love the Manhattan Bridge, though. I spend a lot of time near it in DUMBO. I like its dull blue steel color. I love the complexity of its structure and engineering coupled with the intricacy of its Beaux-Arts architecture, and overlaid with a haphazard, utilitarian spider-web of pipes and electrical cables and other infrastructural gack. It's not so pleasant to walk or bike across, because every five minutes the subway thunders by mere feet from you. On the other hand, unlike the beloved Brooklyn Bridge, it's not completely clogged with tourists, and the view is just as good, if not better.

Here's a bunch of sketches of aspects of the bridge that I've done over the past couple of months.

On the walkway, by the Brooklyn-side arch

Arch and suspension, Brooklyn side.

Giant cable anchor

Under the bridge at Sands St.

 Top of the anchorage at Water St. and Adams St.

Balustrades at Manhattan Bridge Brooklyn Plaza. According to architects Saratoga Associates, it is "a bold, graphic space that serves as a convenient resting spot for pedestrians." Also, a homeless guy in a red shirt lives there.

"Manual Dry Standpipe INL Manifold Brooklyn Bound Roadway. Fire Dept. Use Only"