THE HERE AND NOW
How To Draw Future Worlds
A hand sketch done for a competition while at Grimshaw Architects.
My drawing style, like my writing style, has evolved over the years. For my last decade as an architect I used hand drawing as a means to communicate design ideas. Those drawings were super fast and crude, just there to show intent.
When I was fired, and starting to work for myself, I restudied the basics of the drawing styles I’d admired as a child. Growing up in Manchester all I ever wanted to be was a graphic novel illustrator, but for “reasons” that wasn’t permitted :) So I went to architecture school. In particular, I loved the hard-edge style of the artists Brian Bolland and Dave Gibson:
Brian Bolland's artwork for the Batman classic The Killing Joke.
Dave Gibson's iconic Roschak from Watchmen, one of the best books of all time.
Switching back from architecture to illustrations meant relearning the linework that inspired me as a kid. I spent hours working on line weights; details and shadows; and drawing proportions and layout. This was a style that a lot of architects liked as well, clear enough to convey the design intent, loose enough not to be seen as too “real.”
In this illustration you can (hopefully) see influences of the British comics I loved as a kid, but toned waaaayyyy down 😀
Lyft advertising image, 2019
Detail to show the linework and hard shadow style.
Before I knew it, my architectural illustration business took off in an unexpected way. Why? Here’s an interview I gave to ArchDaily, the biggest online architectural newspaper: (Archdaily) but it can be summarized as computer renderings are just so f*cking boring and overused now...
Three years later I am trying—and often failing—to work with a more painterly style in my sci-fi illustrations. What do I mean by that? This drawing is the first sketch I did of Alice:
So as you can see, with this image I . . . will have to talk about it next page, as I'm out of space here! 🤷🏻♂️ If you've read any of my books would it be possible for you to take a moment to leave a review ?
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