Virtual Travel Sketching with Google Maps

For the last few days Mark Leibowitz, who organizes the NYC Urban Sketchers, has been tantalizing us with the following sketch of his. We were given several links to get ourselves familiar with using Google Maps, because that was how we were going to do our weekly sketch event this weekend.

Digital sketch by Mark Leibowitz using Procreate.

It turns out that our destination was Amsterdam, where so many of us had attended the last Urban Sketchers Symposium. For the morning we were given a link to a particular area, but we had the freedom to wander around and pick a view nearby. Imagine my surprise to click on the link and find that I was right outside the apartment that I had rented when I was there. lol So of course I didn't really move around much because I wanted to do that view which included the apartment door, the canal, a houseboat, some typical Dutch architecture and the obligatory bicycles. My apartment is the one on the far right with the planter filled with flowers.

We took a lunch break and then Mark gave us a second link, this time to the area near the Rembrandt Museum. I took a bit of a walk on Google Maps and found this interesting shop.

Sketching today brought back some really good memories of my time in Amsterdam. The only thing I didn't miss was the days of 100 degree temperatures!