Self-taught artist Carl Lavia, who goes by the nickname “Sketch,” has been drawing intricate cities and architecturally-minded illustrations since he was the age of five. Although his early works were imaginative renderings of fictionalized cities, his practice has grown into immensely detailed depictions of large cities from an aerial point of view. Lavia uses ink and archival paper to produce each drawing, which appear like maps from a distance, but have a loose, almost Impressionist style when viewed up close.

In 2016 Lavia paired with photographer Lorna Le Bredonchel to form the project “#69Cities,” which aims to create a portrait of the whole United Kingdom through large-scale drawings of its 69 cities. It takes approximately 2-4 months for Lavia to create each drawing in the expansive project, with Le Bredonchel documenting the entire process from his wall-sized sketches to their time exploring each city by foot.

So far the duo has traveled to Birmingham and Manchester […]

Source: Large-Scale Drawings of the United Kingdom’s 69 Cities by Carl Lavia