Mini Philly Sketch Crawl

Accompanying the previous post, the same weekend I went to Longwood Gardens I also took myself on a little sketchcrawl of Philadelphia. As we had listened to the Hamilton cast album on the way to and from the Gardens the day before, I had our founding fathers on the brain and decided to start with Independence Hall! They get points from me for friendliest security guards. I was in the process of parking myself outside the gate (since 9/11 instead of being able to walk around it freely, if you want to get close to the building you have to pass through security on the other side.) when a guard asked "Are you an artist?" and when I confirmed his suspicions he said "That's great! I'm glad your here!" This is a nice change of pace, since most of the time if a guard is going to say something it's usually "you can't sit here" or "sketching isn't allowed" or "dry media only!"

Next up, I walked over to Logan Circle. This has been one of my favorite places in Philly for a long time, since I started making the trip in as a high schooler to take young artist workshops (thanks, Mom and Dad!) at Moore College of Art, located next to the Franklin Institute. The Swann Fountain is beautiful and easily my favorite thing to sketch in the city. This time I did it with the top of the Franklin Institute in the background.

Last, I put myself on a median on the parkway (it was safe, I promise! Super wide. Pedestrians are meant to be there. It's fine. Everything is fine.) and sketched the view of the art museum VERY TINY in the distance. I frequently work small, but this is a little 3"x4" painting. Hoping to do the same view from photos, a little larger soon. Stay tuned!