I spent a day in Trenton, New Jersey exploring with my digital sketchbook. The capitol building is undergoing extensive renovations so that many of the windows are covered with plywood panels. It makes it look like the building is recovering from a natural disaster. For the first time I decided to treat a digital sketch the same way I would treat a watercolor sketch. I left the lightest areas pure white as if I were leaving the white of the paper to shine through. Working this way is much faster but the result seems more poster like and a bit cartoonish. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. I just need to keep experimenting.
After the sketch was done, I went to the New Jersey State Library (185 W State St, Trenton, NJ 08608) next door to find a bathroom and write an article. In the afternoon, I explored the New Jersey State Museum (205 W State St, Trenton, NJ 08608) which has a decent collection of modern art. Some of the painters are from New Jersey, but many were international. The museum also had a collection of mammal skeletons and some New Jersey historical collections like some Civil War era battle flags. My favorite exhibit was a series of WWII war posters which were created to raise funds for the war.