JCU Street Sketching in Townsville: An Approach to Drawing in the Street

Briggs is a practising artist and British registered architect based in Sydney and through drawing he aims to provoke and inform discussion on the built environment. His simple line drawings explore the hidden gems in our cities encouraging the viewer, visitor, and the inhabitant to look at the streets in a different way. From the finer details to large expansive lines of a city skyline, his drawings evolve into patterns that form spaces and urban quirks which aim to convey a sense of place. Briggs has been exploring and drawing streets for the past 17 years in various places around the world including India, Cambodia, Bolivia and has studied and documented change in the Surry Hills area in Sydney for the last decade. He has taught drawing in both private practise, public forums and has helped co-run a course at the University of New South Wales in Sydney called street life studies which helps built environment students explore cities using drawing as a tool. He has also run workshops both locally and internationally with the global group urban sketchers, which encourages drawing on location for people from a range of skills and backgrounds (more on Richard’s work here and here).

The aim of this workshop is to look at an approach to sketching in the street and learn tips and tools about how this can be a simplified process. We will then use these skills to tell a story about the place, people and the streets of Townsville encouraging observation first then sketching.