Hello New Yorkers,

I'm an illustrator and artist based from Belfast in Ireland, and I visited your city a few weeks ago. I was able to access the crown platform inside the Statue of Liberty and I got this incredible view of lower Manhattan, Ellis Island, Brooklyn, and part of New Jersey. I had reference photos and a rough sketch, but it was a drawing I properly wanted to realise when I got back home and used Procreate on my iPad Pro. I finished this a few days ago. I enjoyed my time in your city and its people, I hope to get back soon in the near future.

If you like what I do I'm across the internet in different places, my instagram is jamesashestudio and website is https://jamesashestudio.com (I had difficulty setting a new account using my artist name, so using an old account 😑)

>I was able to access the crown platform inside the Statue of Liberty

Good stuff, I keep telling people to book crown reserve tickets, super cool experience.

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Love this work btw! I'd love to see your take on the SummitOV deck one day :D

Thank you, yeah I had to book a couple of months ahead of my visit in March. The statue itself; best viewed from a distance on the boats, but the crown platform is something special (and worth the exercise!). Ellis Island too was a worthwhile experience, visiting from Ireland the immigration history was very important to learn.

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Didn't get to do the SummitOV, but will likely do it on my next visit. However, I visited Top of the Rock. I've a sketchbook of rough ideas I did on my trip, I might do a series of NYC illustrations in my free time somewhere down the line.

Thanks for mentioning ellis island btw, that's a spot a lot of people just sail right by on the way back to manhattan but it's so packed with history that a LOT of us can directly trace our family trees through and it's quite eye opening to how different the world is now

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And I'd love to see what you make out of top of the rock! Your art style lends itself really well to high buildings it seems just based on this piece, it really captures that sense of vertigo I had up there

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Very nice! 👍

This can be MTA train art. Its dope. Im saying that ina good way. I love train art.

Very cool

When I was there MTA had some pretty cool banners inside subway cars they commissioned illustrators to do. Would definitely love to work with them or within NYC if the opportunity ever came.

Fun story time: last time i visited the statue of liberty i must have been about 5 or 6. all i remember is how it was hours of climbing stairs for a 20 second view out of some air plane windows and 20 minutes walking down stairs. I was so annoyed by the experience that i swore a solemn vow to never return. seems silly that i took such a vow so young. but I've never once returned.

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Reach out to them! https://new.mta.info/agency/arts-design

as a new yorker ……..ive never been.

I was a US Park Service Ranger, and I worked T the monument for a few years from 1998-2001. Your experience is not unusual. But I will say that for every person who visited the hot, small crown, queing up outside, and walking slowly up the entire pedestal and statue, who was unimpressed, at least 3 others thought it was the most amazing experience of their lives. I’ve been up there no less than a hundred times, and one time I was lucky enough to actually get to the torch. OP, you have taken a little “liberty” with your beautiful sketch, as the view from the crown points east, towards France, not to the he Manhattan skyline. Your artistic expression of your he view is astounding though. Amazing job.

Is that really how it looks from there?

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This would be the real view

https://www1.pictures.zimbio.com/gi/Crown+Statue+Liberty+Opens+K2ypIHtmFoNx.jpg

https://www.nps.gov/media/photo/gallery-item.htm?id=2A6BBCA3-155D-451F-6707F669E400E24F&gid=2A2FCFBB-155D-451F-67024931C528EA71

Great job and thanks for enjoying your time here. QQ why was the view at a slammed angle? Thanks

Thanks. The illustration is actually based from a reference photo I photographed from my visit. The window was located on the left hand side of the platform, as you finish climbing the stairs. It gave me the best view of the city and the statue's tablet. Initially tried an early version with skyline sitting straight, but I didn't really like the composition.

Thank you, the Park Rangers there on my visit were really friendly and proud of its history. I can see why some people wouldn't enjoy it, personally I'm interested in architecture so it was up my street. The museum was really fascinating. Thanks for posting that out, my view was actually based off the left hand side window as you finish climbing the stairs and enter the platform, but that's good to know! I actually based it off one of the photos I took on my visit. It was windy enough on my visit, can't imagine what the torch would be like!

You can go back up in the crown now?

oh yes this is dope🫵😎🔥

Yeah, but I had to book a couple of months ahead of my visit for the crown.

I can see my apartment building in this!

Thanks for taking time to explain! Looks like this is just limitation of where you could see. Sometimes we just don’t have a choice! Beautiful hough

I remember now, that you could see downtown Manhattan if you looked off to the side b Your artwork is so awesome. I bet if you did have a chance to visit the torch (it was actually opened to the public in the early years, until 1916 I believe) you would make another great piece.

Update: been working through some more reference photos I took, I think I'm going to work on an illustration based from my view from Top of the Rock as my next piece.