The Vancouver Sketchbook
Lush Landscapes, Vibrant Streetscapes, Soaring Skyline
Location | Vancouver, Canada
Release Date | November, 2019
ISBN | 9781770503250
Size | 9″x9″, 158 pages
Publisher | Whitecap Books
Buy it in USA, International
In the summer of 2017, I made almost a hundred drawings of Vancouver and subsequently spent a year researching the city’s history. All the work is culminated into a book that explores Vancouver’s pictorial identity using a selection of personal observations and history.
While this book does not intend to carry out a theoretical analysis of aesthetic ideas, it is a response to ongoing revolutions in visuality. From the rise of digital culture to the dawn of virtual reality, images have become the most common and most powerful medium available for consumption. Yet spatial and visual richness of cities – which the Picturesque embraces – is under threat in the increasingly data-driven world. This book stands to re-examine this perspective in today’s context and call for the visual appreciation of the urban landscape. By tying together drawings and writings on the history of Vancouver, the book hopes to share how the people of Vancouver – sometimes accidentally but often deliberately – turned this corner of the planet into a contemporary Picturesque city.
‘Justin Ng’s viewpoints, inkline drawings, and watercolors combine to capture the atmosphere and beauty of Vancouver, a vibrant urban center set amidst the mountains, forests, and shorelines of the Pacific Northwest.’
– Frank Ching, Author of Architecture: Form, Space & Order
‘Toronto-based artist T.K. Justin Ng belongs to a new generation of authors who are embracing urban sketching as a storytelling medium. In this new book of Vancouver sketches, he has packed more than 60 hand-drawn ink and watercolor scenes and insightful commentary about a city he knows well and dreams of moving to one day. Whether you are local or planning to visit, Justin’s visual report of one of Canada’s most important destinations is sure to delight. He draws and writes from the heart.’
– Gabriel Campanario, Founder of Urban Sketchers
“Part travelogue, part guidebook and in celebration, Ng’s vibrant, colorful sketches and lively text are the perfect companion for visitors and residents to appreciating Vancouver’s spatial richness and cultural diversity.”
Ng’s watercolours create an intimate and personal connection to the city. Through his eyes the city is rendered soft and inviting to the urban wanderer. . . Beautifully illustrated sketches and watercolours, and Ng takes the reader on his personal journey through the city via his active artwork. . . (A) welcome addition to a Vancouver bibliophile’s collection or a lovely gift to a homesick expat.