Travel Adventures
So, in my life, I've traveled quite a bit. Not as much as my grandparents, but still quite a bit. Travel is one of those values that my family really tried to instill in everyone. Travel is also an amazing opportunity for an urban sketcher like myself. Since I've really immersed myself in the urban sketcher lifestyle, I've been on two major trips and various small trips. The major trips were to a resort in Mexico and a cruise to the Panama Canal. And wow, both were amazing trips with sights I've never seen before and plenty of sketching opportunities!
Mexico was a more laid back relaxing vacation, although I did spend a whole day in Xcaret, I mostly sketched poolside or beachside. It was a great experience nonetheless! My favorite part of the trip (from a sketching standpoint) was finally getting an opportunity to draw the typical airplane sketches including one of the airplane connected to the walkway, and the sketch from your plane seat! (By typical, I mean that if you follow other urban sketchers blogs) I think the perspective that you capture in the plane seat sketch is awesome! It's not something that you can really capture well with a photo because of how tight most planes are. I can't wait for my next airplane trip for this reason!
My latest major trip was to the Panama Canal where I got to spend time cruising the Caribbean and visiting various South American countries! This trip gave me a different type of sketching opportunity because there was a lot more travel involved. I didn’t always have time to sit down and sketch so that was one of the more unfortunate parts of the trip. Nevertheless, I explored every part of that ship with my sketchbook, and still didn’t sketch everything that I could have sketched. The ornateness of the ship was one of the more challenging aspects from this trip. The ship was grand to say the least, with towering columns, shiny chandeliers, and marvelous woodwork everywhere. I guess I’ll have to go back to really try to capture the beauty again.
During the past 1.5 years, I’ve done quite a bit of short distance traveling throughout the state of New York. Between New York City, Rochester, Albany, and all the towns between, I’ve taken my sketchbook along for the trips. My favorite drawing of every trip is the sketch from my mode of transportation during said trip. (Do you see a pattern developing here between the Mexico trip and this?) By this I mean; car, train, or bus. The perspective is a unique one that is hard to capture in a photo, and make it look interesting at the same time! If you’re going to stare at the back of someone’s chair for 4 hours, might as well draw it, right?
