NEW YORK CITY
by: Timothy McVain
Since 2013 I have drawn 27 cities. My 28th & current art project is to capture Detroit, Michigan.
With all my "City Drawings" I try to research and learn as much as I can about the city I'm working on from it's history, it's peoples, and attempt to capture the feeling of the city through it's architecture...
It was a truly daunting task attempting to capture New York City & all of it's very unique boroughs in one large drawing. I felt a lot of pressure to not miss anything and I didn't want to disappoint people that are from or are currently living there.
It all began with sketching out the buildings one by one, from the most iconic to the unknown. After months of research and sketching I finally began the planning and layout phase where I went through the more than 50 pages of sketches and decided how I wanted the buildings placed in the drawing, going so far as placing each borough in it's real life place around the center; Manhattan.
I finally put my pen to the large piece of blank white paper and drew the beautiful Chrysler Building!
I decided to try something different with this drawing and place all of the old, abandoned or demolished buildings in simple black and white on the bottom as a foundation for the rest of the colorful city.
Color is one of the most important and personally, my favorite part of any of my City Drawings! I decided to make the sky an orange and golden sunset yellow which coordinated well with the bright blues that I had planned for the buildings. I wanted the colorful version of the drawing to give a "Good Morning, New York" feeling of wonder and adoration.
In my research, I went back and watched videos from 9/11 and remembered when I was 13 back in California watching the events of that terrifying and sad day unfold from the television screen. I wanted to do an ode to the Twin Towers and their architectural beauty and achievement in a respectful way, so I went with a white and grey reflection in the windows of the new One World Trade Center. I didn't want to make it a big, distracting deal in the drawing, but of course since it was such a huge part of the city and nation's history, I knew I had to address it.
Central Park is a major part of Manhattan and while in my sketches I tried to capture every bridge, path, and building, I felt like a larger, "view from above" type of image would convey it's beauty more profoundly as a garden of Eden in the midst of a concrete and steel metropolis!
13 Months after staring this project, I finally finished coloring everything in and carried the drawing, wrapped and sealed, to have it scanned in the highest quality. This was nerve racking to me because I had to hand my precious baby over to a stranger to have them scan it for me. I was afraid it would get stuck in the scanner, be dropped on the floor, etc. But thankfully, it was returned undamaged and I was able to start making prints and products from the digital image.
Then, in August of 2018, I had the unforgettable experience of actually visiting New York City with my older sister for a whole day! I took so many photos, here are just a few! It was incredible seeing all of the places and buildings I had spent so many hours learning and watching online in real life! Walking through Central Park in the rain was one of the most precious moments for me, but honestly I was on the point of tears the entire time from how overwhelmingly beautiful this city truly is! I hope you feel that I have enjoyed the way I captured the most famous city in the World and that maybe you'll have it in your own home! Check out my online store at www.timothymcvain.com
Thank you for reading & I hope to share more of my adventures soon :)
