Sky-High Sketcher

Thomas Lamadieu travels the world taking pictures of buildings. Then he combines the photos with illustrations to encourage viewers to see cities in new ways. Using a wide-angle lens, the French artist shoots from the ground looking straight up. He uses the sky, a blue expanse at the center of each image, as a canvas for playful illustrations. Lamadieu draws people in the negative (empty) space between the buildings in the photographs. His digital collages combine photos of real places with whimsical, invented characters.

The artist took the photo above in Seoul, South Korea. Then he transformed the irregular patch of sky between the buildings into a man reading with a grinning cat at his feet. 

Lamadieu explains, “My artistic aim is to show a different perception of urban architecture and . . . what we can construct with a boundless imagination.”