New Orleans Style Urban Sketching

I was lucky enough to go on vacation last week to New Orleans with a friend. I have never been there so my expectations were what I had seen on TV and the movies. I was happily surprised at the amount of urban sketching opportunities there were each day. Every time I turned around, there seemed to be something that would make a great entry in my travel journal.

We stayed at an AirBnB that was located on top of an Indian Restaurant called "Silk Road". It had a cute little courtyard in the back available to the guests. It was covered with a grape arbor to give it shade and had a small fountain on the side with water coming out of a lion's mouth.

At times, it was too swampy to sit back there, but I am so glad that we had an extra space to hang out in outdoors.

Speaking of outdoors, New Orleans has got to be the hottest place I have ever walked around! It may have the same temperature as Virginia, but it feels so much hotter with the humidity.

I walked between 15,000-22,000 steps a day. I loved walking around NOLA because there are so many things to see. I would spy he courtyards tucked between the houses to see the hidden treasures people had.

A stop to New Orleans would not be complete with trying some beignets. I, shamelessly, indulged in more than one beignet on more than one occasion. I tried the beignets at Cafe du Monde and the Cafe Beignet and definitely liked the beignets at Cafe Beignet better. Here is my sketch of the Cafe Beignet we frequented.

We took 2 tours while down there. One was a haunted ghost tour where a guide gives a walking tour of haunted buildings in New Orleans and tells stories. We also took a bus tour that drove 3 hours around the city and pretty much gave me the lay of the land. One of our stops was City Park which we did a quick drive through. I did a sketch of a bridge there. I also did a sketch of the very haunted Andrew Jackson Hotel later. To read about the Andrew Jackson Hotel, click here.

I hope that you have enjoyed my urban sketches of New Orleans. I could have done so many more if I had time. Maybe I will take another trip soon and I can sketch the places I did not get to this time around.

I will be posting more about my experience going to New Orleans in the future.

Thanks for reading!