Tonbridge artist aims to draw entire city of London and has already completed the London Eye, Houses of Parliament, the Gherkin and Battersea Power Station
05:00, 20 May 2022
updated: 14:23, 20 May 2022
An artist is aiming to drawing the entire city of London – but at his current rate estimates it will take him the rest of his life to complete.
Architecture graduate Jack Hines started the project in January after quitting his job in October.
Jack is aiming to draw the entire city of London
The 27-year-old from Tonbridge said: “The idea popped up in my mind when I was trying to get to sleep - I thought ‘nobody’s trying to draw an entire city before’. “
Currently, Jack has drawn 0.026143% of the 1.6 billion metre squared area of buildings he wishes to cover. But he still thinks it will be possible.
He plans to create an archive of his drawings which will act as a time capsule for future generations to look back on.
He said: “I hope to create an archive of every single building I’ve drawn in my lifetime, which would be for the whole of the 21st Century.
“People in 100 years’ time can look back at what it was like, because London continues to shift and change.”
As to why he chose the capital, he said: “London has that diversity of architecture and cultures and people - it’s interesting to draw.
“Big Ben is such an iconic building and probably my most challenging drawing today as well, just with the amount of detail on it.”
Jack supports himself through commissioned work, which have included sketches of The Oval cricket ground and the Vauxhall Tower, and selling prints and original drawings.
He added: “On average I’d say it’s about two days to draw a single building, some of them can take longer.
“I think the Big Ben picture took four days while the Shard, which is quite a simple building, took a day.”
The 27-year-old regularly shows his work to followers online.
He said: "I stream on Reddit, which I find is quite a good way to get it out to a larger audience. I really do enjoy streams because you get the interaction from people that are from London and like London as well.
“So it’s nice to have that one-to-one conversation with people about art as well as London itself.”
Jack aims to start drawing council and town hall buildings across London as his next task.
