In a world consisting of nearly endless numbers of the endless collections of grids that we call cities, buildings and trees and parks and river ways aren’t the first things that come to mind as intriguing subjects for black-and-white illustrations. You’d be mistaken, though, to ignore the creations of artist Stefan Bleekrode (via Beautiful/Decay). The Dutch illustrator meticulously draws and paints cityscapes from memory, resulting in partly true-to-life, partly better-than-real cities that contain enough detail to mesmerize for longer than even a genuine, beautifully composed photograph might.
Bleekrode has been drawing since he was eight, and describes his work as “snapshots of things I’ve seen when travelling or just going through my everyday routine, small bits of beauty in familiar settings. Often they come in through the backdoor, and after a while I turn these ideas, combined with a good bit of my own imagination into fully worked out paintings.”
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode
Photo credit: Stefan Bleekrode