100th Hotel drawing in Las Vegas

[By Mike Daikubara in Las Vegas] 2 weeks ago I was in Las Vegas and it was the 5th year in a row I was there working in the trade show booth for my employer Symmons Industries.
Vegas is a strange place in many ways and definitely exhausting too - but what's been great about this annual trip is that my employer allows me to stay at different hotels every year so I can add a new room drawing to my collection!

So it turned out that this drawing of the Aria hotel marked my 100th drawing since I started measuring/capturing hotel rooms 10 years ago!

I'm glad I kept up with this little hobby which turned into an addiction of mine since what I learned and the feedback I've been getting from people has been excellent. I even had my employer purchase a few hundred copies of my Hotel book to give out to our potential customers which is a pretty nice feeling.

Also if you're also in Massachusetts, I have 40 of these drawings currently on display all of May at L'aroma Cafe in Newton so drop on by for a nice cup of coffee and some artwork ! :)

I also noticed I have enough drawings to start working on the 2nd edition of the Hotel book which I'll be starting to work on soon!

Bodies Exhibition

My business trip to Las Vegas went very well and on the last day before going home, I had a few hours to spare before I needed to head to the airport. There was a 'Bodies' exhibition going on at the Luxor hotel so I decided to get a few sketches done.

The entrance had a large sign:
No Photography
No Video
No Cell phones
No Eating
No Drinking
No Back Packs

Luckily, it didn't say 'No Drawing' - and it's times like this I enjoy the powers of sketching.

While I worked on my 1st sketch, I had a few security staff members hover over me but eventually they noticed that I was harmless and was just sketching so they left me alone.

I've seen this exhibition back in NYC many years ago but it still amazes me that all of the displayed figures were 'real' human bodies!
 

 

Las Vegas: Mandalay Bay Hotel

Last week was spent on a business trip working at a trade show booth in Las Vegas.
I've been there numerous times both on business and on pleasure trips and still can't get over how surreal the place is.
Although I was really tired from working everyday, I still had to get the room sketch out of the way before I could really rest. After 8 years of drawing every hotel room I stayed in, it's almost engraved in me to get the sketch done. It does feel good after completing it though.

Out of the items that stood out in the room, 'The love box' was a small black box on sale along with other things such as snacks and drinks. I was curious on what was inside but was scared to touch it since all these items on display were on a weight sensor and touching it causes the item to be charged to the room.
The room was a little dated but was fairly nice.