It took a while New York, New York!

Drawing New York One Line at a Time: How a Vector Cityscape Kickstarted My Digital Art Practice

In early 2018, after being made redundant from my role as a youth worker, I found myself with a bit more time to focus on my art. I’d been working as a part-time artist since I was 18, fitting it around other jobs, but this felt like a moment to take things more seriously. At the time, I was using an iPad Air 2—not the biggest screen, and this was before the Apple Pencil existed. I discovered a free app called Adobe Draw (now known as Adobe Fresco) that let me draw in vectors. I started experimenting, and without really planning to, I began what would turn into a major piece: a vector drawing of New York City.

A Digital Drawing That Grew

Using only my fingers, I worked on the buildings and streets of Manhattan. What started as a small sketch grew into something far more detailed. Some sections took a full day each to complete, and by the time I finished, I’d spent over 100 hours on the artwork. From a distance, the piece almost looks photographic, but when you zoom in, you can see the layered, abstract gestures in each building. The image is made up of hundreds of small details, all drawn by hand in vectors.

Getting Noticed by Adobe

When the piece was finished, I posted it on Twitter and tagged a few Adobe accounts to share what I’d been working on. Unexpectedly, the artwork reached one of the directors of Adobe Draw, who then passed it on to others at the company. They got in touch and asked to set up a call, mainly to find out how I’d created the image on such limited hardware. It was encouraging to have that kind of recognition early on in my digital work.

From New York to Manchester and Stockport

That drawing opened the door to a new approach in my practice. Since then, I’ve continued creating detailed vector-based artworks using Adobe Fresco, with a growing focus on scenes from closer to home. I’m based in Stockport, near Manchester, and much of my recent work explores local urban landscapes—capturing overlooked buildings and everyday places in a bold, expressive way.

You can browse many of these digital prints on the Digital print page of my website, at www.SpringfieldHouseGallery.com.

Ordering Prints

All of my digital pieces are available as high-quality art prints, and I always recommend going as large as possible. These vector images were built for scale—the detail becomes even more striking the bigger you go.

Final Note

The New York drawing was an important step in my journey—not just creatively, but in how I approach digital media. If you’re interested in cityscapes, architectural artwork, or want to explore something different from a Manchester-based artist, take a look through the site and see what catches your eye.

Tags: vector drawing, New York illustration, Manchester artist, digital art prints, Adobe Fresco, Stockport gallery, cityscape artwork, large format digital prints, Adobe Draw, iPad art