In this month's blog I interview local artist Hannah Kirkland , to explore her wonderful take on the world with her striking cityscapes.
Hannah, I came across your amazing work quite by chance last year. Waiting for friends to arrive for a Sunday lunch in Ancoats I was browsing the market there when I came across your striking work. What gave you the inspiration for these amazing cityscapes designs, where you bring all the famous icons of a city together ?
When I was learning how to illustrate, I started out with buildings because I thought that it would be quite a simple thing to illustrate and so I started off with illustrating my favourite Manchester landmarks. I then ended up with a collection of Manchester landmarks which I decided to collage together, which then became my first print. Since then my illustration and print style has developed but the premise of creating modular designs has remained the same.
Do you tend to draw only cities you have visited or do you draw them based on photos and information available online?
At the start of my illustration journey, it was mainly cities that I had visited, but as my practice has evolved I’ve started to illustrate cities that other people have requested, using information available from tourism boards, Google street view and social media!
What was your favourite city to draw , and why?
My Budapest print was the most enjoyable to create because I’d had such a lovely holiday there, back in 2017. To be able to use my own images as reference and to illustrate the places that are important to me and that I had visited, reminiscing about my holiday, definitely made for an enjoyable illustration process
I particularly like your colourful depiction of the Icelandic capital, Reykjavik. Did you see the Northern lights there?
Unfortunately not! That was the one thing on my list during that trip that I didn’t manage to see.
When you start to compare cities you can see striking similarities sometimes. For example, if you compare your depiction of Bath & Paris side by side, they look very similar . I have been saying this for years.
Both are planned , purpose-built cities , and both are crafted entirely out of their local stone. All the residential buildings are the same height in each city, and there is very little in the way of modernity that interrupts the cityscape. Ironically, in both your depictions you have captured the one glass and steel modern element in both places that people most remember : the new Spa in Bath, and I M Pei’s glass pyramid at the Louvre. I think it’s testament to how accurately you have captured the essence of each city. Have you seen other similarities as you’ve been sketching cities?
Definitely, there are lots of similarities between many cities. For example, as I’ve depicted in my illustrations, I felt as though Brussels and Amsterdam had many similar looking buildings, as well as more unlikely pairings such as the grid-like system in the Northern Quarter, Manchester, and New York City.
I gifted your print of Disneyworld, Orlando to my cousins there last Christmas:
They were thrilled that you had captured all the major rides across the Disney Parks. It reinforces my view that in each city you do an amazing job of not missing out any key landmarks. Do you do a lot of research for each city ?
I do! I try to research as much as possible. Because of my design style, I know that I can only fit around twenty buildings on each print, and so I always try to capture the most popular buildings and landmarks for each city. I find that looking at the tourism boards for each area and studying their maps are a massive help in gauging what the city itself are pushing visitors and tourists to experience.
Do you have a favourite city from all the ones you have been to, and what can you recommend to see in that city?
Last summer I got the Eurostar over to Brussels and fell in love with all of the comic-style street art around the city. If you ever visit Brussels make sure you follow the free walking tour of the street art! It’s a great way to see the city.
How can people see your amazing work in the physical form? Do you regularly exhibit at particular markets?
I’m at different markets most weekends, but my most regular markets are in the Northern Quarter (the second Sunday of every month) and Ancoats (the first Sunday of every month), which are both in Manchester.
What’s your next stop to transform into a cityscape?
The two prints that I’m currently working on are Birmingham and Cardiff. This year my goal has been to illustrate as many UK cities as possible and I’ve still got quite a few left on my list to tick off!
Hannah, I can’t wait to see it! Thanks for your elaborating today on your striking work.
Thank you for having me!
You can see more of Hannah Kirkland's striking work over on her online store: Hannah Kirkland Prints
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