Illustration Friday: Heights

I love looking at the scenery and sketching from rooftops, hilltops, and other high places. This is a quick sketch done on a land bridge over Pacific Coast Highway, and I thought it was a fitting image for this week's Illustration Friday topic, "heights".

This sketch is also included in "Skylines, Cityscapes and Panoramas" section in The Art of Urban Sketching book - it's fascinating to see this artwork next to sketches from other high places around the world like Brooklyn, Liege and Toledo. As an artist, reading other artists' tips and looking at their artwork is immensely helpful, too: sketches by architects tend to have serene, clean quality with precise perspective, while non-architect illustrators like me tend to trust the eye more, with organic views that feel immediate, done on location, from experience.

Photo by fellow Urban Sketcher Pete Scully

The Art of Urban Sketching book is now in its second printing thanks to the support from the sketching community, and is available on Amazon here (this is an affiliate link for Urban Sketchers which helps support the organization).