Fireworks Lake Eola

The Lake Eola Swans were being paddled around the lake right up until sunset. They then returned to the dock for the duration of the fireworks. Mayor Buddy Dyer got the crowd rallied and ready for the spectacle. I had been working right up until sunset on the drawing of the far skyline looking across the lake. Disney music from the animated films warmed the wet the crowd for much of the afternoon.

When the first fireworks bursts went off flocks of swans and nesting birds took flight panicking as they tried to escape the noise and bright flashing lights. I made sure to capture the red white and blue lighting of the fountain. The fireworks were launched from a spot just to the left of the fountain, probably near the peninsula which had recently been denuded of palm trees near the red gazebo.

As I painted the fireworks burst I realized I had a disadvantage to the video and photo shooting phones. All the giant bursts went off in exactly the same place. So I focused on making the one fireworks burst I painted as visually interesting as possible. I discovered a whole series of luminous brushed in Procreate, my digital sketching program and I played with the toys as the fireworks burst. I might have missed some of the show as I hunted for new brushes to play around with. All the smoke from the fireworks drifted off silently to the south.

Waiting for the Lake Eola July 4th Fireworks

I experienced the Lake Eola Fireworks with Pam Schwartz and her family visiting from Iowa. July 4th also happens to be Pam’s niece, Destiny’s birthday so she gets to celebrate her birth on the same day as our nation. We all got a strong lesson in Central Florida History before heading down to the lake along with artifacts like a KKK robe and a lynching photo. On the same floor of the Orange Country Regional History Center there is Love Speaks which features art created in answer to the Pulse massacre three years ago. The history Center is just one block from the lake and we hiked to the lake with a picnic blanket, some lawn chairs and a cooler. We got to the lake about four hours before the fireworks were scheduled to go off.

The crowd grew thick as we approached the Disney Bandshell which had live music. Food trucks. TV trucks and various vendors were around the bandshell. A bus was parked at the end of Washington Street adjacent to the park so that no madman could drive into the park to kill pedestrians. As we spread out our blanket I scanned the high rises looking for spots where a gunman might decided to fire on the crown below. Our blanked fit nicely between two other families. Kids played cards and grew squirrely as they lost patience.

I decided to sketch a woman seated next to us who had a piece of luggage which had a convenient shelf that opened up as a portal to a TV screen. She had on head phones and around her neck was another digital device probably for audio. I had been tracking storm clouds using my iPhone radar and predicted about a 50 chance of rain. As I sketched it started to rain. Pam went back to the museum to get some red white and blue umbrellas and also some Geico blue ponchos for the kids.The rain never got heavy enough to keep me from sketching. The opposite was true. The rain settled the crowd down making the scene easier to draw.