Jenny Zhang’s sketches of Chicago reflect a ‘well-rounded’ city

THE LOOP — Outside of the Chicago Theatre, State Street itself is a stage, and artist Jenny Jing Zhang is bringing her own front row seat to the daily drama of construction and commotion, in which construction workers are digging and cars are speeding through the street.  

“It’s about people, right? People, cars, what’s happening in the city,” Zhang said.

Zhang is a sketch artist using watercolor paint, colored pencils, and a fountain pen to document the day.

“To me, drawing or art is similar to reportage,” she said. “Right, like you know? You really put yourself there. You are part of the scene. You want to document what you feel and what you see.”

This famous building is simply a backdrop.

“I’m constantly observing,” she said. “What’s happening on the street level?”

The 38-year-old from China has been sketching since she was young. She earned her master’s degree and worked as an architect in Chicago – a city of architectural landmarks — using the technical practice of straight lines and exact measurements. 

“When I draw, I actually kind of deliberately betray my training from architecture,” she said. “I think that’s kind of a way to free my mind.”

Instead, she sketches in a style she calls “the umbrella perspective” in which her subjects sprout up and out, bending toward vanishing points.

“So that fan shape, where you see the umbrella perspective, that’s actually, I think to me, that helps me put the foreground as the main role, so everything is kind of working around that,” Zhang said.

It’s like a 360-degree camera shooting in all directions at once, turning her surroundings into a sphere and making her sketches on flat paper feel like pop-up books.

“I love how playful the lines are, where it’s capturing everything that’s happening in a kind of fluid way,” said Hannah Gorrill, who was walking past Zhang as she sketched.

When Zhang works on the street, instead of in a studio her sketches spark curbside conversations.

“This one is really beautiful,” Gorrill said. “The colors stand out so nicely.”

Zhang’s sketchbooks hold artwork from around the world. She created a mural on display at Soldier Field. Her work hangs on the gallery walls at the “artful framer” studio in lake view. But the true satisfaction of sketching is “drawing out” reactions from her subjects. 

“First time I’ve ever been drawn on a construction site,” said Josh Cummings, a utility worker.  “It looks great with the Chicago theatre behind it.”

Zhang posed for a picture with Cummings, who was the construction foreman working on State Street.

“If just walk by, I would never be able to talk to the construction guy, right? But because of the sketch book, I started to make a connection.”

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