“Walking around a city” has been my hobby for quite some time in my life.
It started back in my college life. I joined a mountain trekking club soon after I entered college. While the club’s main activity was climbing the mountain, I somehow got attracted to walking around a town, visiting small towns and villages in rural areas. As I majored in city planning, it was not long before I started to explore cities as well as towns.
Upon graduation, I worked for a city planning consulting company where I got involved in various types of planning. I continued to “walk around a city” but it was just as research work for my job and not necessarily out of my personal interest given that I just did not have enough free time. Afterwards, I left the company to do an independent city planning consulting myself. Throughout the period, I encountered a number of picturesque landscapes but I never took out a sketchbook from my bag, leaving the city with the sketchbook blank.
Time went by and it was after I became 60 years old when I experienced a shocking incident (the Great East Japan Earthquake and its subsequent nuclear disaster that struck the region in 2011) which for the first time motivated myself so much to draw the city landscape. But I had not so much time as my strong motivation. Based on my past failed experiences, I came up with a “method” to be able to keep drawing and never give up.
That is, I always made sure to bring my bag with light compact tools (eg. water colored pencils, ball pens, and water-filled calligraphy pens) and a small sketchbook (10x15cm). I used every possible spare time during business and leisure and drew a great number of sketches. Before I knew it, I made over 8,000 sketches since 2011 to date.
Whether it was in the train, on the bus, during a bit of waiting time, or resting at a café, in order to make the most of every spare time and draw without taking much time, I developed some little techniques. I learned how to snapshot the landscape such as the ones on fast-moving cars and draw based on those memories/images. I also got to be able to finish the drawing on the spot in a timely manner.
Out of those numerous sketches, the one I selected and posted this time is an excerpt from my art book "Walking and Drawing 1" from the perspective of Waterfront. I have posted it with a few comments as a city planning consultant.
It includes the places I never visited and have been longing for, but in either case every sketch is supposed to reflect the moments when I felt “this is a picturesque scenery”, “this town is very attractive”, and “this is the attractive aspect of the town”. It works like a mirror that shows my sense how I perceive an attractiveness of the city.
I hope you flip through the book and enjoy.
