Our grandparents wouldn’t have thought much of holidaying in a city. Cairo or Chicago, Riyadh or Reykjavik would have been unthought-of destinations half a century ago. Yet a century before that, were you the child of the noble and landed, you might have undertaken the Grand Tour. A room with a view, of dome or spire, harbor or square, is the much sought after, researched and price-compared destination of our time. It seems that we are all city fans now. As a result of budget airlines and broadening tastes, along with the Internet and affordable accomodation, city breaks are more popular than ever before, and for sketchers, the world has become conveniently smaller.
Just as cities have appeal, so, therefore, does urban sketching. What might be on your bucket list? Istanbul, Hanoi, Hong Kong, Toronto, Santiago, Sydney or closer to home? Or maybe yours is a list of one: your hometown, celebrated in a hundred sketchbooks and still counting.
Look more slowly. Challenge the view. Interpret what you see. Every city has a cultural identity, a cultural footprint. Of course there are icons, such as the Reichstag, Golden Gate and Trevi Fountain. There are signature stretches of streetscape too: Amsterdam’s flower market, Saigon’s street food, Skate Park in Lyon. All these places are high-energy. Feed off them—the exhilaration of the city is there to be captured.
SIMONE RIDYARD
Milan Cathedral, Italy
Building facades really don’t come any more complicated than this! This was my sketch in the Piazza del Duomo, Milan (above). I’ve already described my approach to this sketch earlier in this book, but it’s interesting to see it in the context of a photograph. All the crowds and the view, just slightly imposing! Interestingly, I gathered quite a collection of people watching over my shoulder as I drew. I was quite nervous at first, but I tried to blot them out and just concentrate on the view.
PETER RUSH
King Street, Sydney, Australia
Above is a sketch of downtown King Street in Sydney, by Australian sketcher Peter Rush. “When sketching it’s normal I think to pretend the cars filling the streets are not there and ignore them. This is my local main street and the traffic is often relentless. This sketch was to show the often true character of the inner-city Sydney environment: streets as sewers.”
AHMAD HAKYM BIN AHMAD HILMY
Petaling Jaya, Selangor, Malaysia
This accomplished quick sketch by Ahmad Hakym bin Ahmad Hilmy (above) demonstrates a great use of marker pens, which boldly cover the double-page spread. It has a clear sense of scale, and what looks like downtown corporate buildings are skillfully articulated. This sketch demonstrates confidence and enthusiasm for architectural sketching.
The city has moods and rituals, patterns of movement, light and noise. Sketchers will be sensitive to these as they try to put down moments. A city is buildings, spaces and people; it is also light, shade, temperature, sky and noise. How to sketch the cacophony of car horns in Cairo’s Tahrir Square, or the tuk-tuks in Delhi? Maybe you think you can’t, but then that’s the challenge. How many noisy sketches have you seen?
Some say that cities are man’s greatest achievement, that the triumph of the city is the art of living. You may not agree, and head for the hills. For urban sketchers, though, each new city is a clean white page.
SUMA CM
Cleveland Skyline, Ohio, USA
The Detroit–Superior Bridge in Suma CM’s richly colored cityscape above leads us into the city center, while Terminal Tower in the distance establishes scale. This is another great example of a painterly approach to drawing cities. It also illustrates the rule of thirds. Most of the view is contained within the lowest third, while the high-rises occupy the right-hand third of the page.
LIZ STEEL
Barangaroo Under Construction, New South Wales, Australia
Cranes and building sites are always a clear indication of a thriving city. This vibrant sketch of the suburb of Barangaroo in New South Wales by Liz Steel catches this perfectly. It’s loosely but confidently drawn; I particularly like the yellow highlights and the subtly suggested sky.