As he travels, Sydney-based artist James Gulliver Hancock draws the icons of each locale, things like Switzerland's mountains, London's rain, and L.A.'s cars. When he lived in New York, his artistic compulsion was obvious: architecture of all periods, styles, and uses—yes, even, according to an interview with the New York Times, the city's brutalist structures, which he finds "really horrible to be in and to be around" but "amazing aesthetically." Hancock's blog, All the Buildings in New York (That I've Drawn So Far) started as a personal chronicle of his favorite buildings—mostly, at first, Brooklyn brownstones—but has since ballooned in popularity, ultimately garnering Hancock a stack of commissions and a book deal. The appeal of his work (above) lies in the personality he gives each structure: "Maybe I'm making an unconscious graphic novel of all these buildings hanging out together and having conversations." And how does it compare to drawing the Swiss Alps? "I love buildings. Of all my obsessions, that one got the most obsessive." More details over over at Curbed NY.
· New York as a Work in Progress [NYT via Curbed NY]
· All the Buildings in New York (That I've Drawn So Far) [Official]