Incredible Urban Sketches Celebrate the Historical Architecture of Paris

April 23, 2024

Architectural drawing by Stephen Travers

Rue du Gros Horloges, Rouen. (Drawn from original photography by @cbuiron)
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Inspired by the light, color, shapes, and texture of the world around him, artist Stephen Travers creates stunning urban sketches. The Australian artist is particularly fascinated by Paris, with many of his sketches capturing the city’s charm. Using pen and ink, he expertly captures the architectural environment.

Interestingly, Travers began his artistic journey as an adult, first creating oil paintings of Australian wildlife and nature. He transitioned to sketching in 2018 during a trip to Paris with his children. A simple exercise drawing Notre-Dame with his family transformed his life and set him on track to a full-time career as an artist.

Thanks to a collaboration with Parisian photographers, who allow him to use their work as reference photos, Travers has been able to continue his love affair with the city from a distance. His drawings have garnered him a large following on Instagram, where he posts his sketches, which are done with a pencil underdrawing and then finished with ink.

Travers’ work is distinguished by his skillful perspective and his ability to capture the rich details of historical architecture. Whether drawing the bustling interior of Palais Garnier or the Gothic exterior of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, he is able to create an intriguing visual story that transports us to Paris.

Church of Saint-Étienne-du-Mont, Paris (Drawn from original photography by @vmphotographe)

In developing a scene, Travers creates a focal point around what first attracted him to the scene. “It may be an object in itself, or it could be the play of light and shadows, or contrasts of various surface textures, or any combination of these and other possibilities,” he tells My Modern Met. From there, he builds out the sketch, favoring COPIC multiliners and COPIC sketch markers to build out the ink values.

Fans of his work are grateful not only for the finished product but also for the wealth of drawing tips that he shares. Travers’ YouTube channel is filled with informational videos on everything from how to improve your drawing process to the pros and cons of social media as an artist. For more in-depth instruction, he also has an online drawing class with over nine hours of instruction.

“I hope people are drawn into my work when they see it and that it connects in some significant way—whether their own memories of the location or more visually through the effects of angles, marks, and values,” he shares.

“Although the amount of detail is often commented on, I hope most people see the whole before individual details start to push forward. And I like it when people realize that I haven’t, in fact, even drawn all the detail they had supposed at first. My technique is to draw the effect of the detail rather than the precision of it.”