SCBWI Southern Breeze Sketch Book Event - Train Museum!!!!

Saturday, a group of illustrators from Georgia gathered at the www.SoutheasternRailwayMuseum.org in Duluth, Georgia. What a great place! There were antique trains, pullman cars, bullet trains, Amtrac cars, you name it. So fun to explore and check out the digs inside. Two birthday parties were being hosted in train cars while we were there and the kids were so excited! They even got to take a real (albeit short) train ride on a real train. It was great to draw, but man, if you've got kids, you really need to check this place out!!!
      Afterwards we went to lunch in historic downtown Norcross (adorable!) at Mojito - an authentic Cuban restaurant with music on the weekends (I have to go back to hear it). The food was FABULOUS and of course I had to have a mojito, which was truly the best I've ever had.
     
Illustrator Michael A. Austin organized the event for us, and did such an amazing job tying in John Rocco's How To Train Your Train and Brian Floca's Locomotive along with fun exercises like, draw a train but don't use any straight lines, or, draw a train feeling anger, euphoria, loneliness. Here are mine. The dude is from a lantern that looked like the head of some sort of underwater sea adventurer to me:


But maybe the photos were better.







I don't know what was more beautiful - the trains still in good shape, or the old rusted out ones:



     Michael has arranged six of these events for us now, and they are such a blast every time. What a treat for our illustrators! Thank you Michael!