Monday, August 3, 2009

Lake Street Bridge

Built: 1916
John Ericcson, engineer
Thomas Pihlfeldt, engineer
Alexander Vonbabo, engineer

I'm very fond of the bridges that also accommodate the el. I didn't want to draw too much attention to it, but I was lucky to have it go past when I was taking reference photos. This drawing is a good reminder of why I seldom choose a format larger than 4 inches. It's too easy to get caught in the tiny gradations of cross-hatched tone. One more bridge at this scale, and the next three will smaller, more simplified. If I need more detail I can always include some close-ups.

On Saturday we leave for our vacation. This will be the first week-long vacation since before Felix was born. We're renting a house on Kelley's Island for a week. For anyone unfamiliar that's in Lake Erie near Sandusky. Nothing to do but swim, read, walk, and draw. And possibly go to restaurants featuring super-sweet Ohio wines. Our house even has a fire pit, which sounds like mixed blessing when combined with a three-year old. My brother-in-law and sister-in-law will be joining us. Even my parents will drop by for a night. This is kind of a new experiment for us, so we'll see how it goes.