Sketching in the Tropics

No, I did not fly to the tropics -- instead, Tina and I went to the Volunteer Park Conservatory this past Sunday for some warm sketching on a chilly day.  We discovered that while 80 degrees sounds great in theory when it's 40-something outside, it's actually a bit too hot for comfortable sketching.  Especially when it's also humid inside those big greenhouses.

The place was beautifully decked out in holiday decor.

They even had a train!  

My favorite room is the one with all the cacti and succulents.  The plant below does not normally grow with bright red Christmas ornaments on its tips.

I opted to artistically remove the ornaments in my sketch.

Instead of my usual ink with water-soluble colored pencils, I did everything in ink with watercolor paints.  I found it a lot easier to get exactly the right color that I wanted, and was happy with the results.

After about an hour, I got acclimated to the heat, which is good, since we spent a good two hours sketching.

Plants are hard -- I tried to focus in on one small section, but even those were complex.

After doing those two drawings above in the palm/tropical rooms, I returned to the cactus room, which I liked best.  Again, I chose to ignore the Christmas decorations.

This was a most enjoyable afternoon.  The conservatory was relatively uncrowded, the subject matter was fantastic, and we even had a harpist playing holiday music for a while.  A great place to go in the off-season, and an excellent sketch outing location.