For me, one of the most awkward parts of art is finding reference photos. I always feel weird using other people’s photos as references, but I can never find anything to take pictures of myself. Recently, I decided to change that. I picked and traveled around a few places in Ithaca to see how good they’d be for use as references in art. In the end, I found five.
Originally, I had a list of fifteen different places I wanted to visit and photograph that I compiled from existing lists of the parks and falls in Ithaca. To be specific, I looked on the official website of Ithaca, New York, and the Tompkins County Convention and Visitors Bureau in the Finger Lakes. I chose places based on whether I had heard about them, reviews from other people, and the images of them I could find online. My final list ended up being the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Sunset Park, Cascadilla Falls, Ithaca Falls, and the Cornell Botanical Gardens.
I chose the Cornell Lab of Ornithology because it seemed like a good place to practice drawing wildlife, people, and nature in general. They have an indoor area looking out onto a lake, and they have an outdoor area that includes four miles of trails through the woods. During my visit, I saw three chipmunks, multiple geese, one woodpecker, two squirrels, and two blue herons. There’s a lot of parking space and many benches along the paths that you can sit on to sketch, take photos, write, or just relax. A general consensus would be that this is a good place to draw wildlife and nature but not as good for practicing large landscapes, as there weren’t many.
The best location I found for practicing drawing landscapes was Sunset Park. Sunset Park is a very small park with an absolutely gorgeous view. You can see lakes, highways, and hills incredibly well from there. Before conducting my “research,” I had never heard of this park, and from what I could find, it doesn’t seem like a lot of other people have either. If you were to go to only one place off of my list, I would recommend this one, as it was definitely my favorite and probably the most useful for drawing landscapes and nature.
If you have trouble drawing water, then I would absolutely recommend viewing any of the waterfalls in Ithaca. Two notable ones would be Cascadilla Falls and Ithaca Falls. The Cascadilla Falls Trail doesn’t get too close to the waterfall itself, but it still supplies a beautiful view. Out of all of the places I’ve mentioned, Ithaca Falls is probably the easiest to access from IHS. It’s eight minutes away from the school on foot! While there, I saw one heron, and I’m sure that if you stayed there longer, you could find more wildlife. This could also be a good place if you want to practice taking photos with a camera, as waterfalls can be good places to play with shutter speed.
The final place I visited was the Cornell Botanical Gardens. For me, this was an obvious choice. If you’re the kind of person who partakes in “people watching,” this would be an amazing place to do it! These gardens also have a variety of different plants for your sketching and viewing pleasure. There wasn’t much wildlife, except for a tiny stone pond I found with an orange fish in it. And though there were quite a bit of people, there are also a lot of secluded and cut off spaces where you can sketch or take photos on your own.
Visiting these sites in Ithaca was something I genuinely enjoyed—both as a way to find references and just as a walk. I’d highly recommend a visit to at least one of these places, even if you’re not an artist! It can be a very tranquil experience that is both relaxing and energizing in its own way. I, for one, will definitely visit these places again sometime soon to enjoy the views all over again!