New York City!

All the years I dreamed about going to New York City and last week actually being there- I had to pinch myself. I don't know if it's my love for Art Deco architecture, Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, movies like Miracle on 34th Street or Breakfast at Tiffany's, or books like James and the Giant Peach that brought on my fascination with this place, but it seemed like this almost mythical city until I was actually standing there in the middle of it all.

And then it still seemed unreal. My hotel was sandwiched in between the Chrysler Building and Grand Central Station (!!) and I wasted no time the second I got there throwing my bags in my room and running as fast as I could across the street and through the doors of the iconic Grand Central. And then I couldn't move for about ten minutes... it's called grand for a reason. I've seen it in movies and famous photographs a million times, but to stand there in person... WOW.

I came back through the next evening after a day of illustrator intensive workshops and sat on the steps with a little sketchbook and started doing some gesture drawings of the characters walking in and out. I love to people watch- and there is one of the best places for it. A big sign was posted that said sitting on the stairs was strictly prohibited- I sat anyway, and figured I would draw what I could until somebody told me I had to move... which turned out to be about ten minutes later. Still, I got these:





A side note: the guy in this last one I had to sketch out of the corner of my eye. He seemed like the type of dude who might pummel me if he caught me trying to draw him.

I was very busy with the conference but made time on Sunday night to go back to Grand Central. It wasn't nearly as busy as it had been on Friday evening, and no police officer came and told me to move so I stayed for over an hour and got this down:

I could've spent an entire day there and done a dozen drawings, and there were a hundred more places and people I saw during my short stay that I would have loved to have captured in my sketchbook... there just wasn't enough time. I really did love it there, and I'm glad I had at least enough time to bring a little piece of it home with me in these drawings.