New York: Niagara Falls

This series of posts is a throwback to early July. I travelled to New York State with my family, but posting all those sketches got lost in the run-up to the Urban Sketchers Symposium in Amsterdam. So here they are, a little bit late.

A single sketch on my flight over to Buffalo, New York. This woman, I had to sketch her. She wore white pants. I’m in awe of anyone that can wear white pants and keep them clean.

Sketches from Niagara Falls. These next two sketches are the kind of no-pressure sketches I love to make just for the challenge of sketching where it’s hard to sketch. And because it helps me remember the experience more vividly.
Under the Falls, in a yellow raincoat, sketching from the last point at which my sketchbook wasn’t getting totally soaked.

I had a blast, but for a feel of the power of those falls, here’s a video.

And this sketch is from the Maid-of-the-Mist. If you’ve ever been on it, you know a) The ride is short b) You can’t help just gawking most of the time c) You can’t sketch most of the time because buckets of water are coming down on you.
So this is all I got.  That rainbow it was real.

Also in the not-beautiful-sketches category is the sort of sketch-noting I do while watching a demo or walking through a museum. It’s really notes to myself, it helps me remember bits my eyes can see and my ears can hear but that video or photos won’t capture. This is a closeup of a very small sketch made at the Corning Museum of Glass while watching a fascinating demo. I recorded colors and facts that struck me.

And then we drove to Ithaca, New York. But that’s my next post.