The View From Above

[Meshon]

So, two to three times a week my partner and I take the kids to Capoeira and then we get a date for an hour! So exciting. We usually go have coffee and bring reading or sketchbooks. Last week I was sitting there looking out at the street and imagining how I'd try to represent it artistically (I've been doing this a lot lately, I'm hoping it translates into the guts to do more pictures!), and I realized that I have chosen a pretty strange way to artistically represent the world. What kind of odd brain does it take to look at or imagine a space and then say, "I'm going to draw that from the top down!"? So then, like I see real artists do sometimes, I got out my sketchbook and sketched the space I was in.

This is dedicated to all the cartographers here who use their amazing minds to envision and create worlds from an unusual perspective. You are a source of inspiration!

theViewFromAbove.jpg

cheers,
Meshon

[Abu Lafia]

A fine little sketch Meshon. I love the wood texture particularly! Looks like a nice place to spent your kids-free hours.
Btw, i'm also trying to somewhat overcome my rather tenacious top-down or "iso" tunnel visioning of places and things around me lately...but always come back to it Don't know why, but Hopper's Nighthawks just came before my inner eye and i wondered if there has been a "map a famous painting / picture / scene in top-down view" challenge here already? Think it could be really fun...

[Mouse]

I don't know why you feel so bad about your drawing, Meshon - almost nervous? Your drawings have charm and character, which goes a long long way beyond some boring old photograph or a perfectly correct but characterless professional survey plot of the area.

Besides - you enjoyed it (I assume) which is the only reason that any of us really carry on drawing maps... isn't it?

Abu - Why don't you suggest that idea? Or, if its close enough to the one I suggested a couple of weeks ago you could modify that if you like

[ChickPea]

This is a sweet little sketch! I like the slight shading around the tables to give the sense of height and also how you've done the floor. It gives me a mental picture of the place, which may be all wrong, but it's nice to conjure up an image in your head anyway.

Abu, I rather like that idea for a challenge. No idea what I'd do, but it might be fun!