NYC Urban Sketchers Blog

Weekly Theme:  Earth Day

The Word From Above

This Wednesday is Earth Day.  If things were normal we would be meeting outdoors to capture our world in a park setting.  However, since we are all under lock down, let's get creative and still celebrate the planet for our immediate perspective or from high above the earth. 

Since many of us live in high rise buildings, let's use the height to create drawings of our world from above the street level, celebrating this week's theme of "The World from Above".

Using reference materials to spark imagination, you can start as low to the ground or as high above the world as you like, but keeping the theme of the top down or "bird's eye" view. Some suggestions below are real time Urban Sketching (US) by looking out your windows,  and some will be Not Urban Sketching (NUS), using reference materials. 

Starting Low:  

• Look  down into a puddle. What do you see? Reflections of buildings, trees, bubbles on the surface?  
• Look  out your window or balcony.  Can you capture the top down perspective of the streets, yards, and building tops in your neighborhood? 
• Getting a bit higher, can you get to a roof top or upper floor in your building? How has the landscape changed? Can you use two or three point perspective. 

Going High: 

• Research titles "The Earth From Above" or "The World From Above".  There are books, videos, films and Youtube segments on the subject.  How does this view change your perspective?
• Look  at George Steinmetz's web site (https://georgesteinmetz.com), a photographer and environmentalist who went up in a  motorized kite to take pictures of the earth's deserts, forests, cities and rivers to create stories and documentaries about the our world and how we affect it.  Watch his videos and view his pictures.  Can you capture the colors, atmoshperic haze and shapes you see. 
• Look at pictures from space: the Hubble Telescope photographs or the The Big Blue Marble,  What can you gain from this lofty perspective? 

Representation:

Look at other artists work in capturing the landscape from a high point of view.  Are they working realistically? Have they abstracted the view? Have they used the view to create something completely different? 

Enjoy your week drawing and painting wether big and bold or small and tight, it will be fun seeing all the images on our Facebook Page.