Sketching New Orleans: My Urban Sketching Trip
Why New Orleans of all places? This vibrant city had been on my sketching list for a while. It has a historic architecture, interesting museums, and lovely parks, making it a visually rich city to draw. During my trip, I spent my days exploring and checking off my list of places (I had too many!) while filling pages of my sketchbook.
I started in the iconic French Quarter. My first stop was in Jackson Square and St. Louis Cathedral.
It was a beautiful early morning. I sketched while people were walking around with their coffees, jogging, walking their dogs, and there was even a musician playing some music.
One of my favorite sketches from this trip was LaLaurie’s Mansion. I tried to capture the essence of this building and tried my best not to get fixed in the little details!
On my second day, I visited the Louis Armstrong Park first thing in the morning and managed to make two sketches that I’m pretty happy about. The first one is a beautiful bridge I found in the park, and the other one is about the Louis Armstrong sculpture. You can find a time-lapse video of the bridge sketch on my Instagram or TikTok.
I made around 20 sketches during the trip, but one of the experiences I will never forget is the St. Louis I Cemetery tour I took on my last day. To make it more special and scrap-booky, I glued the tour bracelet to complement my drawings from the first page I did of the cemetery.
Behind the scenes
If you’re wondering what materials I used on this trip, here’s a list of the ones I used the most:
Hahnemühle Watercolor Book A5 size (Landscape orientation)
Lamy Safari Fountain Pen
Sailor Fude De Mannen Fountain Pen
Pentel Graph Gear 500 Pencil
Daniel Smith & Winsor and Newton Professional Watercolors in a custom palette box
If you’re prepping for sketching outdoors on a trip, you don’t need to pack your whole equipment. You need to carry a small bag with the essentials, and that is usually one pen, one pencil, an eraser, and a color medium.
An unforgettable trip
Sketching New Orleans reminded me of my passion for illustration and travel. The city has an energy that feels vibrant but also worn with history - from the iron balconies around the French Quarter to the colorful houses in Marigny and Bywater.
Each drawing from this trip captures a small but beautiful moment with only myself, and I wish to share it with you now. Through my sketchbook, I translated what I lived with colors and loose lines that you can now take a piece to your home.
Soon you can explore the available prints through the shop linked below.
