Rather than snap photos with his camera, traveler and urban sketching artist Qian Shi captures his surroundings as watercolor paintings. Rendered in his distinct loose style, Shi works quickly to capture fleeting moments, forever immortalizing each scene in gestural line work and painterly brushstrokes.
Shi is a great believer of “practice makes perfect.” Even though he’s always on the go, he takes the time to sit down and create a sketch of his surroundings every day. From the narrow alleyways of ancient Shanghai to old European cities such as Prague, Shi brings his sketchbook and paint set everywhere he goes. Each picturesque scene is rendered by first laying down the composition in pen ink. The talented artist then adds delicate washes of paint to capture the colors and light of the scene.
From architecture studies to entire street scenes, Shi always includes little details that bring his scenes to life. Old shop fronts feature welcome signs, striped awnings, and jumbled displays of goods, while neighborhood buildings are painted to include air conditioning units and tangled power lines.
Scroll down to see some of Shi’s urban scenes, and check out more of his work on Instagram.
Urban sketching artist Qian Shi captures his surroundings as beautiful watercolor paintings.
He works quickly to capture fleeting moments, forever immortalizing each scene in gestural line work and painterly brushstrokes.
From shop signs to tangled power lines, Shi always includes little details that bring his scenes to life.
Qian Shi: Instagram
My Modern Met granted permission to use photos by Qian Shi.
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