And Dim Sum More: High Elevation

Jennifer Cheung

Inking is addicting, so I’ve decided to make a series of ink drawings this summer! In preparation for my first year of college in Shanghai, these drawings will focus on different aspects of the diverse city. Each drawing will be based on a photograph I took last summer while in Shanghai. And to spice things up, I’ll be adding some color in the form of some abstract watercolor shapes. Very exciting.

Shanghai is one of the biggest financial centers in the world and has 126 skyscrapers! I managed to get a closer shot of two of them and was very intrigued by the geometric shapes in the photo. So, I spent a couple hours roughly sketching it out with my favorite 0.2 mm Micron pen. The triangular building, the Shanghai World Financial Center, was done fairly quickly, while the spiky building, the Jin Mao Tower, took more patience and attention to get all the angles and details in the right place. After many small lines and dashes, the sketch was completed.

The Shanghai World Financial Center’s cheese-grater minimalism contrasts with the intricacies of the Jin Mao Tower.

To make the drawing more interesting than a plain photo-to-drawing conversion, I added some blue watercolor triangles! With all the geometric layers of the Jin Mao Tower, I felt that angular shapes would fit well in the drawing. In line with the cool tones of the original photo, I painted the shapes blue hues. Enjoy!

Shanghai Skyscrapers, Remastered