Urban Sketches

A Visit to Chicago

Chicago is such a beautiful city. The bridges, waterways, and trains against a historic backdrop make it all very enchanting. A quick rundown of the sketches I managed while we were doing our whirlwind tour there: 

– I drew the watercolor sketch of DuSable Bridge from the Ghiradelli Cafe,

while waiting for my sister and her boyfriend to drop off the rental car. I started at sunset, but by the time I got to blocking in the colors it was already twilight/night. That’s what I get for being slow.

– The sketches from The Field Museum were from the mammals section. I was so impressed by the artistic taxidermy. Their poses were very dynamic (not captured in these sketches, hah.)

– The Goddess and The Baker is a cafe where we had a much appreciated breakfast after flying a red eye from Seattle. I loved the view of the ‘L’ / trains as they zipped across the skyline.

– The gesture drawings of passengers on the train are on the Blue Line from Chicago to the airport. There was one passenger I captured (top left with the mustache) who completely embarrassed himself the whole ride by fulfilling the whole loud American tourist stereotype. I felt so sorry for the poor British couple he was bothering. (At one point he said that he watched ‘Braveheart’ as a way to talk about Europe, yikes. My husband also noted that what that guy was drinking out of his Mountain Dew bottle didn’t look like Mountain Dew.)