This week, Spacing presents excerpts from The Art of Urban Sketching, the new book by Seattle-based artist and journalist Gabriel Campanario. The book examines a global movement driven by urban sketchers drawing their cities and sharing their visual dispatches.

TORONTO

From red rockets to tall towers, Toronto’s iconography is ubiquitous. Architect Eugene Zhilinsky likes to sketch while strolling with his family. Find artist and Spacing contributor Jerry Waese along Dundas Street, drawing streetcars.  His column, Street Scene, appears twice a week on Spacing Toronto’s site.

Front Street at Dawn
8.5″ x 5.5″| pencil, Yarka St. Petersburg watercolor set on Canson watercolor paper block; 20 minutes

Summer Stroll
8.5″ x 11″| pencil, watercolor set, blue acrylic, Woodbridge black hardcover sketchbook; about 15 minutes

ARTIST PROFILE
Eugene Zhilinsky

“I am a Toronto-based, Russian-born graduate architect, artist, and architectural illustrator. Sketching comes naturally to me. I’ve painted, sketched, and drawn urban views all of my life. About five years ago, I became very interested in carnets de voyage, or the travel sketchbook genre. My sketches are accompanied by written comments, which become part of the art. Those written observations help me share interesting facts I have learned while painting and sketching. It’s also a fast genre, which is important, especially when you have a little child at home and only five minutes for your creativity.”