Puerto Rico mini sketchbook

With summer work right around the corner (Monday...eek!), I'm trying to catch up and get everything in order. Time to finish up commissions and get them mailed out before I'm battling munchkin induced exhaustion every afternoon! 

One thing high on my list to get done before Monday was to get my Puerto Rico sketchbook all documented!  These are some of my favorites from my little mini sketchbook but I have the entire Puerto Rican sketchbook posted on Behance. I'll share some more photos from my trip soon as well. 

1. I free-handed everything this trip! No preliminary pencil sketches at all! Which is always a challenge when there's cursive or writing...

2. Our hotel had a little private beach with a ton of palm trees. This was also where they had all the hammocks strung up!

3. I'm still in love with the blue streets of Old San Juan! In my dream house, I would have my whole kitchen floor made to look like those streets...

4. On one of our last days, we drove up to the Arecibo Observatory, the largest radio telescope in the world! 1000 feet across! If you've seen the movies Contact, The Losers or Golden Eye then you've seen this beast! 

5. Some quick little people sketches from my 7 hour layover in Ft. Lauderdale...

6. On our last day we threw on some goggles and chased the fish in the lagoon, where I found a giant shell! This ended up being my perfect little (free) souvenir!

bits & pieces of Puerto Rico

Some instagram photos from this past week in Puerto Rico. Yesterday we did some stand-up paddling boarding and, if the weather behaves tonight, we're kayaking through a bio-luminescent bay in Fajardo! It has been pretty tricky enjoying the sun and exploring everything and not getting fried instantly...very tricky...

In internet news, my little bud vase DIY was featured on BuzzFeed! Hooray! Also, if you haven't already entered the giveaway, head on over to Kitty and Buck to enter to win some earrings and cards! 

1. Flying over the Keys between Florida and Puerto Rico. Through the Bermuda Triangle...trippy!

2. I told you I'm obsessed with these streets (my computer background is a photo of the streets too)

3. Our hotel has a section of hammocks strung up between palm trees right along the water. It's my favorite spot here! 

4. Another little waterfall from our hike through El Yunque rain forest.

5. Getting work done is hard here when the view is so pretty and the water is so perfect!

6. I've been drawing a lot of palm trees...sketching and watercoloring...over and over...

7. There's a reef right off a dock by our hotel.

8. We explored the two forts in Old San Juan the other day, Castillo San Felipe del Morro and Castillo San Cristobal.

El Yunque National Forest

Puerto Rico continues to surprise and amaze me. On Sunday we drove an hour outside of San Juan to visit El Yunque National Forest. Hiking through the rain forest was pretty surreal. It was so gorgeous and lush, and of course insanely humid when we were close to the waterfalls and swimming holes! Here are some of my favorite photos I snapped during our hike.

San Juan, Puerto Rico

Hola amigos! Greetings from Puerto Rico! I got to San Juan on Friday but it already feels like I've been here a week. We've been doing the touristy thing all weekend but now we both have to get some work done. Which isn't all bad, the views make the work a lot easier to tackle!

On Saturday we cruised through old San Juan and checked out the fort. San Juan is a pretty cool city. It has a very old Europe vibe...it reminds me of Barcelona, Sorrento and Burano all at once. And the streets! Oh don't get me started on the streets...most of the streets in the older part of the city are paved in glazed blue bricks! I swoon! I've been kicking at ones that look loose hoping I'll get lucky and find one that wants to come home with me...

 

I'm in love with all the differently colored building fronts here! Every store front and home is painted a different bright color! It's pretty amazing. If I didn't sunburn so easily, I'd post up on every sidewalk all day and just watercolor all these buildings. I've found a couple tiled fronts too...they're pretty gorgeous. These first doors may be my favorite. I would love to have my house decorated with this color scheme one day...

We also stumbled into the smallest, most crowded antique shop I've ever seen! We found the widest assortment of random things...everything from outdated travel guides of Europe, Vietnam protest buttons, Elvis postcards and a pretty extensive collection of 80's vinyl. 

So far, I'm loving Puerto Rico. I wasn't sure what to expect of this place. It's an odd country to visit since it is a combination of a lot of things. It has an old world vibe to it and a lot of history, plus a tropical island getaway feel but it's also a US territory so it's very American and familiar here too. I swear, I've seen more Subways and Starbucks within a couple miles around the hotel than I have in all of Santa Barbara! It's strange... I feel like a tourist with the language barrier but then on every block there's all the convenience and familiarity of living in California. Very strange...

We spent Sunday exploring the El Yunque National Forest, something very new for me! Hiking in the rain forest was incredible! I'll post those photos soon. It's time get to work on some wine label and photo album commissions. But here's one last photo...I can't get enough of these doors!