Urban Jungle - Drawing Tower Bridge in under a minute.

Exploring the urban fabric of London.

I use drawing as a method of meditation,

and an exploration of the urban fabric.

I don’t trace but connect

landscapes and spaces,

through LINE, FORM AND DESIGN

I see these aerial drawings and the landscapes I create as part of an ongoing exploration

of flight, freedom, connectiontions and relationships.

If you would like to see how I created this drawing read on…

Starting with a gessoed board to provide texture, I monoprinted with graphite powder to give a tone and grain for the buildings and to add depth. Sometimes I leave the drawing black and white or I will add colour in certain areas. I use colours which reflect the green environment between the buildings or the colours of the cityscape.

This is a smaller work, just 20 x 20cm, but I have completed commissions for many clients in a range of sizes from the micro to the macro in a new restaurant in Bangkok, Thailand. Take a look below…

Bristol Park Street, Clifton, the harbour and the Clifton Suspension Bridge. A commission made a fantastic and unique graduation present.

Mittlere Brücke, Basel, Switzerland. One of the first of a very popular series which I framed and sold at the Expos in Switzerland.. Ink and watercolour on Arches watercolour paper and framed in a natural wood frame.

A detail of Basel Munster from the aerial view. This has become one of my most popular giclée prints amongst Clients such as Roche and Novartis. All these drawings capture a moment in time. Cities are constantly developing and the drawings evolve over time.

A Swiss Client recently asked for a large giclée of Basel for her home. We agreed a size but I didn’t like the quality of the print so drew it for them from scratch and added dots of colour in the centre. They sent me a photo of the finished work installed in their home which looks fantastic. The whole process took three months from the first idea and email to the final installation.

Sydney Harbour. Living in Sydney was a fantastic experience and the harbour became such an inspiration, particularly as artist Brett Whitely had his home and studio in Lavender Bay, just a stone’s throw away on the other side of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.

Up a ladder, banking on furniture. I managed to find some scaffolding which helped.

It was extremely warm and I tried to beg, steel and borrow all manner of scaffolding so that I could reach the top of the wall which was over 6 metres high. On top of a rough chalk sketch I used white acrylic and housepaint which was sealed afterwards. Together these murals took two days and had to be completed on a tight deadline before the restaurant could open.

The Client was very happy with the final result which depicted her home town of Caracas and the Angel Falls in Venezuela. The restaurant is a fusion of Venezuelan and Asian cuisine so these two murals helped to create an ambience whilst connecting directly with the Client’s ancestry.

This was such an interesting project and the Client also commissioned a series of artwork for the walls on the first floor which became a fine cookery school.

Tips for creating murals

Try and see if you can project the image onto the wall first, this saves a lot of time. Unfortunately this didn’t work for me as I couldn’t push the image to get the right dimensions so I drew it the old fashioned way from a sketch I held and copied.

Make sure you have safe and comfortable scaffolding. Mine was a little dodgy and I borrowed it from the decorators. Usually I pay for a cherry picker or proper scaffolding.

Use good quality paints and seal the work afterwards.

Use good brushes to create linework - it will save you so much time.

Preparation is key to completing a high standard of work. It makes it so much easier.

Agree the image with a sketch or digital mock up first with the Client and get them to sign it off. Make it absolutely clear that you cannot change the design later.

Make sure you budget for all this when giving the Client a fee proposal.

Lastly, enjoy it. You can find so much satisfaction in working like this.

Crank up the music and go for it!