Four Seasons Park

Four Seasons Park, Shorewood, IL. Graphite, watercolor and color pencil on A5 Hahnemuhle watercolor sketchbook

 For those who don’t know, the geography of Midwest of the United States is quite flat. So you can imagine how exciting it is to have an aerial view to sketch. This is the Four Seasons Park in my neighborhood. It’s Saturday and the weather is beautiful. I walked to the top of the mound to see the area, toddler soccer games were happening, kids yelling in the playground, teens swearing missed shots in the basketball courts and moms under the kiosk ready for picnics. The neighborhood is alive and thriving and from above, I can see the autumn colors are awake. I wish I could slide down the mound, but I’ll let the kids do that rolling themselves down the grass and sliding down when the snow comes.

Library of Congress

Pen&ink and Sepia watercolor on HP watercolor paper 10 in x 7 in 

 It was our last day in Washington DC. First we visited the Library of Congress. This drawing doesn’t make it any justice. The building is very beautiful, it’s necessary to walk all around the different levels to truly appreciate its beauty. I chose this view because I spotted someone with a huge camera and lens, it  looked like a photographer who knew what it was doing, or at least it looked like someone who takes it s shots seriously, ha! Regardless, as soon as this person left the spot I stood there. It was one of the best spots I saw in the building. There are other spectacular areas like the actual round library under the huge dome and the Jefferson Library. 

I found this mosaic work on the ceiling of the ground floor related to art.

There were multiple screens where people can approach and ask questions to volunteers via live streaming, how cool!

Although the ground floor is not shown in the sketch, I liked that I could see the golden letters that reads the name of the place, the stain glass ceiling, the arches and painted ceiling of the second floor, the stairway and the bronze statues framing the access to the second floor. 

I completely went crazy with the line work, I loved it, so relaxing for a rainy evening. I did it first with a red pencil very loosely to get the perspective right followed by fountain pen.

The light was diffused, I had to put a thought about how to paint the light. At the end, since the drawing had so much detail, I went monochromatic to simplify the paint. I loved the time doing it, a great memory of a fantastic place. 

Question, can you spot the frase “Library of Congress” and the only person in the paint?