The Westgate centre in Oxford is the city’s latest bigger, brighter incarnation of a shopping centre. It has dozens of shops over several levels and a rooftop level populated by various restaurants. The rooftop also has a view of the Oxford skyline, looking out towards the east. This is something that I’ve been meaning to get around to do a drawing of for some time. Over a couple of visits I’ve managed to do this – producing a panoramic drawing in two parts. This post is about part 1 of these 2 drawings.

I choose a weekday morning, after the daily rush-hour but before any of the restaurants got going. At this time of day the roof level was pretty quiet with just the occasional shopper or shop/restaurant staff having a chat, so generally it was nice and quiet. The drawing itself was a little tricky as you need to stand to have a view over the glass screens and also there is a lot of detail out there to sort out. None-the-less I was fairly happy with the result.

Here is my drawing in situ with the towers, spires and domes of the Oxford skyline in the distance.

And here is the view on its own. Because of the panoramic nature of skylines the photograph only shows part of that view – to get the whole skyline would probably take maybe three photos together.

Here’s a scan of my finished drawing.