I Drew These Inky Pictures Of Buenos Aires

I’m an illustrator and toy designer, but I’m also a Tango dancer, and having visited Buenos Aires to dance a few times, I’ve now fallen in love with the city, not only for its Tango scene but for its beautiful but gritty streets.

Inspired by the light, I’ve drawn 6 images of different buildings around the city from photographs I took while I was there, I use china ink line and wash, which simplifies the way in which I approach indicating shadow and color difference.

I lose myself in the process of drawing these and can’t help thinking about what I was doing on the day I took the photo.

If you’ve never been to Buenos Aires, I hope these illustrations make you want to visit, as it is the most wonderful city!

I do have a limited number of Glicée prints of each image, if you want to take a look, visit my website.

More info: sarahvonthronlaver

6 PHOTOS

1. A window near San Telmo Market

I think each illustration probably took me about a day to do. After drawing the lines, I layer up the shading, using the palest wash first and then adding a slightly darker wash where needed, and keep going until I get to black!

But to allow each layer of ink wash to dry, I had to walk away and leave each piece to dry thoroughly before adding the next layer. So even though it may have taken me about a day in actual hours, each piece wasn’t actually finished over a day.. more like 2 – 3 days.

2. Street on the edge of San Telmo

3. A shady San Telmo Street

4. ‘Cafe Margot’ in Boedo

5. ‘Cafe Poesia’ in San Telmo

6. The restaurant ‘Teatriz’ in Recoleta