Aug 27 - New Orleans, LA

I arrived in New Orleans yesterday afternoon and my host took me on a bicycle tour of the French Quarter and the river front (the Moonwalk).  The streets were packed, Jackson Square was alive with a ring of artists, performers, and tourists; I got a $5 caricature lesson from one of the guys we stopped to talk to.

Today, though, things are different.  The city's been in a state of emergency since last night thanks to TS Isaac coming in tomorrow, and though there isn't a sense of panic or rushing about in the neighborhoods, folks are missing from the streets and store-fronts because they're off preparing for gale-force winds and 9 - 14" of rain.  The Quarter is quiet and the normally welcoming full-length windows are shuddered or boarded up. Not much to photograph or sketch there.

I managed to get a few good sketches and photographs this morning while the skies were still blue; later they got a little silvery because the cloud cover had moved in, which washed out a lot of the image colors.  Most of the pictures (not shown in the album) I'm keeping back to use as reference material for later pieces.

Click on the picture below to view the New Orleans album of my day in the French Quarter and river side: