Vacation Drawings 1

Here is the first collection of sketches from my trip. I have a lot of sketches that I want to post, so I decided that I would break them up somewhat categorically, the first being people in airports and landscape or architecture. I drew a lot of animals on this trip so that's gonna be a post in itself, as well as one for just girls, and just my own cartoony doodles. These aren't really in chronological order or anything though. I hadn't really been drawing too much from life before this trip. I always carry a sketchbook around, but lately have just been drawing my own characters or whatever came to my head. So it took a little getting used to again, the whole not-wanting-to-stare-and-make-people-feel-uncomfortable thing. And I'm always on the fence of whether I should try and exaggerate what I'm seeing, design it better, make it more funny, or try and capture it as close to reality as I can, trying to focus on the anatomy and actually looking hard at someone's face or something. I'm not great at either, so I guess I usually bounce back and forth.
This guy was feverishly writing a postcard.

The above drawing is from Auckland, NZ, where I first arrived. This is the view I had from a Mexican restaurant that wasn't very good. I started with the seagull and fabricated a simplified dock from the one I saw. But the buildings are true to the view, except for my exclusion of the many other buildings in the city behind them.
I took a free day tour of Auckland the first day I got there which led me to this bench and tree. It was quite serene and peaceful.
I arrived in Wanaka, NZ a little more than a week into my trip. A good friend from home is living there now, in this small town next to a huge, beautiful lake. It was fun watching these kids come to the lake after school, still in the uniforms, and jump right in.
There was a cool floating dock that the kids would swim to and play on. It was actually much farther away from the shore than my drawing suggests.
This was a nice cathedral in Christchurch, NZ. I started with the main building, but had to be somewhere, so I had to fly through the big tower. It very hard trying to simplify ornate architecture. I mean, you can't draw every brick and every other detail. Well, I guess you could, but I couldn't in my little sketchbook. Plus that's not even the point for me anyways. I guess I'm just trying to capture the feeling of these places for the most part.
Ah, a little girl and her swing... Actually, there where about 50 or more girls and boys in this playground. There was a line for the swing, all girls mind you, and it was interesting how the girls in line would count out loud for 45 seconds until it was the next girl's turn. This took place in Auckland, on that same tour.
My only attempt at watercolor on this trip. I brought a little set with me, but I'm not very good at it, and I found my sketchbook didn't seem up to the challenge either. It's hard to make out really, but the mountains continue on into the distance, turning grey. This was in beautiful Waitomo, NZ.
And finally, this was in Rotorua, NZ, the center of Maori culture, or so I'm told. I think the was an art museum, but I didn't go in or much closer to it for that matter. There where many nicely groomed cricket fields and bocce ball fields in front of it. The building itself was awesome and much more ornate than my poor little hand could take. More drawings to come!