Sketches from my US trip

The whole family went to the East coast of the US (New York, Washington, Gettysburg and Philadelphia). We visited many art museums and I will publish some posts on these as soon as I sort through the photos.

In the meantime, here are some sketches from this trip.

My sketching kit consisted of:

• A Moleskine Large Watercolor Book - Black (5.25 x 8.25) (Reporter Notebooks)
• A watercolour travel box from Sennelier, (NEW: SENNELIER French Artists' WC Travel Set of 14 Half Pans)
• 2 Pentel brush pens loaded with water. It saves you transporting a jar and the capacity of the barrel is below the limit imposed by Customs on getting liquid through security.
• A rag,
• A selection of black and sanguine permanent felt pen (Pitt Artist Pens 8 Assorted Black)
• Pentel brush pens in blue and dark brown (Note: if you fly with these brush pens, make sure you put them in a plastic zip bag as the pressure can make them leak).

As any long haul trip for me, it started in the waiting area of Heathrow airport in London (England). Airports are a good place to sketch. People are waiting, busy checking their email, playing on their mobile phone or reading.

Heathrow airport (London) waiting area

The seal show at New York zoo

Manhattan towers viewed from the zoo

Visitors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York

Queuing at the Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York

Orchids - Metropolitan Museum of Art – New York

I did this one when we were resting after seeing a wonderful exhibition on Birds in the Art of Japan (February 2–July 28, 2013) that we caught on the last day, hosted in the Asian wing of the MET museum.

Leaving Staten Island

Hippopotamus – National Natural Science Museum (Washington)

If you have a chance to go to Washington, the gallery of the Natural Science Museum with stuffed animals is fantastic to sketch wild animals. They don’t move and you will never be that close to these big beasts – unless you go on a safari and are in big trouble.

The Union soldier uniform – Gettysburg

Gettysburg is a site of symbolic significance in American civil war and there is a large museum dedicated to the battle of Gettysburg.

Waiting at Newark Airport (New Jersey – USA)