Draw Like a Bird

Catedral Plaza - Havana

Creperie Oasis Neva - Havana (highly recommended for lunch btw)

Plaza San Francisco -  Havana

I've been throwing some different approaches into my sketch repertoire recently.  I  have a professional fascination with urban spaces and often do aerial perspectives - aka bird's eye views, of the designs of public places that I'm proposing.  I long regarded these drafting table drawings as technical and somehow not "urban sketchy", but this fall realized that they are a really valid way of understanding and documenting places.  This vantage point describes the whole space in a way that one, or even several, conventional views cannot.  

And its fun to do.

Mental gymnastics - exercising my perspective muscles. 

Documenting what I can see, but not directly in the way I see it.  A creative bridge to creating designed or imaginary places.

Floating Over the Room

I've been playing with aerial views and one-point perspectives looking down on urban spaces, so thought I'd draw the whole room this way during a 2 hour life drawing pose.

This is  an interesting way to study and record a place, as you must look beyond what you can see from one static, point of view.  It's drawing what you see, but not the way you see it, with the exception of myself, of course.