Detail of a Central Park footbridge

A few years ago I visited New York and spent quite a bit of time roaming the streets, parks and galleries of Manhattan. I think like most visitors I was really taken with Central Park....what a wonderful place to have right in the heart of such a huge city. I visited New York twice at Christmas and once in late fall. Consequently when I was there most of the trees had no leaves, and there were no flowers to speak of. I actually really liked the washed out sepia tone of Central Park in late fall. In the afternoon glow is was quite magical and I though sort of old world, like looking at an old photograph.

It may be because of this pretty stark landscape when I visited that I noticed the little details in fountains, bridges and buildings so much. This weekend I decided to draw a section of bridge that I took a photo of on one of my trips, it had lovely concentric and intertwining circles.

I would normally use pastels for this sort of picture because I love the very flat and vivid colours that dry pastels produce. I haven't yet figured a way around the "no smudgy media" rule....so I pulled out a box of coloured pencils and gave it a shot. I think it'll be a while before I do that again as it took an awfully long time to colour in the two page spread. But, it was pretty miserable weather outside and it was nice and calming to sit at the kitchen table and colour-in. I like to draw with orange, the colour just seems so cheerful to me....so I drew my bridge in this colour simply because it makes me happy.