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.)

Urban Sketches

SoCal sketches

This year, we spent Christmas with my husband’s family in SoCal. The first 2 sketches are from the Santa Barbara Zoo. My favorite aspect of the SB Zoo were the creative names given to each of the animals by the donors/keepers. (”Bling” is a great penguin name.)

The third sketch is the facade of the Mission Courtyard in the Gardens of the World in Thousand Oaks. I love the Spanish architecture and the creeping vines framed by the olive trees.

Sketches

NYC Gesture drawings

NYC is a people watcher’s paradise! I took this for granted when I used to visit the city as a kid. I found that sitting at a cafe with a window that faces a crosswalk is the best: you get a little more time observing AND new “models” stream in every few minutes with the crosswalk light changing.

The bottom page was watching siblings doodle in their own notebooks while sitting on the window ledge above the chairs in the waiting area outside our airport gate. It was fun watching them sit somewhere people wouldn’t normally sit; but that’s what’s fun about kids. They see things differently than adults.