Sketching Florence

As an architect I enjoy traveling and exploring new places, cultures, art, and architecture. I record all of my experiences in sketchbooks that I carry with me everywhere I go. Within its pages I create an archive that documents the places I go, the people I meet, and the things I find. I feel that drawing, meeting people, and collecting things leave a much more lasting impression in our memories than photos taken by our phones or cameras. – Nasser Alzayani

Nasser Alzayani is a Bahraini/American architecture student and aspiring artist. Adopting the motto “drawing where I go, going where I draw”, Nasser records moments of time in a travel sketchbook. Mainly working in ink and graphite with occasional introductions of color and mixed media, he considers his drawings as traces of memories that portray his experiences.

In a project called “Urban Sketching Florence”, Nasser invited students to join him on his quest to travel through the Middle East within an ancient European city. They got an inside look at his process as he created his sketchbook for the “Middle East Now Festival”, compiling his research on Middle Eastern influence within Florence in the form of drawings, collages, and writings. Together they mapped the architecture of Florence while discovering the manifestations of Middle Eastern culture throughout the city.

Currently studying at the American University of Sharjah, Nasser continues to develop his style as an illustrator and perspective as an artist.