Tourist In Your Town - Middleton Place & Fort Sumter

We spent this past Sunday playing tourist with our Tourist In Your Town passes. These are a great way to see local tourist spots on the cheap. $50 gets you a family pass for 4 and lets you into more things than you will be able to visit in a month. This year we made it to the Gibbes Art museum, Middleton Place, Fort Sumter and Drayton Hall. The catch is that the weather can suck this time of year, so this past weekend we were trudging around in the wind, rain and cold. Luckily our family is pretty fun and we can usually have a good time no matter what - as long as nobody gets hungry...

Looking back from the ferry headed to Fort Sumter

Carol attempting to keep Char warm on the cold ferry ride

On the trails at Middleton Place

The Mill at Middleton Place (on top of AG writing in her sketchbook)

My Homegirls

Some glimpses of the mundanity of home life.

AG vs. Wii

Char vs. Breakfast

Breach Inlet, Sullivan's Island

A bright, sunny day on Sullivan's - this view is from the little parking area off of Middle Street on Sullivan's right before you go over the bridge across Breach Inlet to Isle of Palms.

Revisiting old locations

I am starting to find myself revisiting some locations that I have drawn previously - spots that I kinda goofed on one thing or another. This sketch is of a dock on the the Charleston Harbor as viewed from the Pickett Bridge Recreation Area in Mount Pleasant. Across the harbor is James Island. If you could pan to the left you would see Fort Sumter. Look here for my previous sketch from last November.

Moultrie Street, Downtown Charleston

Taken on a rare day where there is a threat of snow in Charleston - hard to believe considering it was in the 70's only a few short weeks ago at Christmas. It's a few years since the last time we saw any snow - and that was just a few flurries. Moultrie Street runs right along the south side of Hampton Park.

Drum Island

A watercolor view of Drum Island taken from across the Cooper River in Mount Pleasant.

Air Traffic Control Tower, Charleston International Airport

This view is of the air traffic control tower at the Charleston International Airport. This was from Sunday also - cold, raining and otherwise dreary.

I-26, Remount Road Overpass

Took this view this past Sunday - it was a cold, rainy day. The SCDOT is currently widening and adding a westbound ramp at this spot, so traffic is a little snarled during the week for now.

New Paper

Got my youngest to stand still for a short moment while I was trying out a new sketchbook I made with Arches 90lb hot-press paper. I never really realized what a difference decent paper makes as far as watercolor goes. I was just getting the cheapest pad I could find, but better paper sure is alot easier to work with.

Our Trude, Magnolia Cemetery

Memorial statue and gravesite at Manolia Cemetery overlooking the marsh.

Port Side Cranes, Charlotte Street, Charleston

This is a view of a container crane located off of Charlotte Street downtown. They are used to load and unload containers and are really quite huge. You can see them really well from the Ravenel bridge, which in this case is off in the distance. They had a sign posted that prohibited taking photographs so I had to draw in a frenzy - I was paranoid and expecting the port patrol to come up at any moment, break my pen and step on my watercolor tray and then cart me off to a holding cell. No such excitement this day though...

Cigar Factory, Charleston

A view of the sales center for the Old Cigar Factory in upper downtown Charleston. the factory has been a number of things in its past, including a cigar factory. More recently it has housed offices and a culinary school. It is currently being revamped to be used for office suites and condos.

Middle Street, Mount Pleasant, SC

A view looking down McCormick Street at Middle Street. Alhambra Playground is to the left where the cars are parked.

North Charleston Riverfront Park

I was a little bummed that I wasn't going to be able to take part in the 21st Worldwide SketchCrawl due to other obligations this past Saturday, so on Friday I went to the North Charleston Riverfront Park and spent a couple of hours drawing. This park is an underrated spot in North Charleston at the old Shipyard location - The City of North Charleston and the private businesses involved should really be applauded for the steps that they are taking to revitalize this area.

Check the SketchCrawl website to see the results of what happens when talented artists and illustrators from all over the world get together and observe and draw for a day.

Warehouses that back up to the Cooper River

The Don Holt Bridge with a view of the paper mill beyond


US Naval Reserve across the Cooper River and a view of I-526 and the beginning rise of the Don Holt Bridge


the freight ship "Westward Venture" with the Don Holt Bridge in the background

Sullivan's Island Lighthouse

Kind of an un-lighthousey looking lighthouse - this one shows up in some of my sketches now and then from afar. Spent this past week driving out to Sullivan's Island since I hadn't really been out there in awhile and it's not all too far from the office where I work. Check here for information if you're interested.

Sullivan's Island Bridge

I was headed back to work and was caught by the drawbridge going from Sullivan's Island into Mount Pleasant. Had to sketch fast before the bridge turned...

Sullivan's Island Fire and Rescue Training Facility

A cloudy, windy day for drawing. This is a fire training house for the Sullivan's Island Fire Department on Ion Avenue at Station 20-1/2 Street. It's a bizarrely configured structure that (I can only assume) is rigged up with gas piping so you can simulate a fire in order to train rescue squads. Couldn't find a good vantage point and I was really closer to it than I wanted to be so it's a little hard to tell what is going on from the sketch.

Sunny Day at Remley's Point

Finally back at work after 2 weeks off for Christmas Vacation. It was a warm, sunny day in the 70's - a nice day for sketching. Found a spot in the shade and caught a container ship passing by - didn't have time to do much since it was moving by so fast. The other view is across the Wando River (alson from Remley's Point in Mount Pleasant) toward the industrial area at the end of Milford Street in Charleston. The little area of brown trees on the right is the tip of Daniel Island.

Happy New Year!

I've been wanting to get out and draw some but just haven't had much time to do anything. New Year's Day was a nice lazy day and I pulled out my sketchbook and played around a little. Happy 2009 to all!