I spent all of last year drawing London, a place I'd lived in for over 60 years and felt I already knew perfectly well. That turned out to be wrong Photograph: David Gentleman
It's changing fast, as its remaining empty spaces get built on and its mushrooming skyline bristles with new landmarks that dwarf everything else Photograph: David Gentleman
To look at the cranes you wouldn't think there was a recession on Photograph: David Gentleman
I enjoy London's variety, its contrasts of old and new, grand and ordinary – of Georgian, Victorian, Gothic Revival and the shiny glass and steel tower blocks of the City and Canary Wharf Photograph: David Gentleman
I love the Thames, for the space and openness it provides in a crowded city, and the way it gives one a chance to look across the water and survey the tightly-packed City from a safe distance Photograph: David Gentleman
I enjoyed drawing its profusion of green spaces – heath, parks, gardens, squares – and the gleam and peace of its canals. Exploring some unknown parts revealed surprises and delights in Wandsworth, Deptford, Walworth and distant Rainham Marshes Photograph: David Gentleman
I'm less keen on the city's paranoid security and surveillance, its numerous war memorials, its growing abundance of tourist attractions and pseudo-heritage, its traffic, expensiveness and increasing unfairness, and the constant sense that Londoners are being squeezed out as the better bits are snapped up by the unimaginably rich Photograph: David Gentleman
But these drawbacks are offset by many virtues: the presence of the ordinary Londoners, polite, cosmopolitan and tolerant; the city's grandeur and its cheeky street markets; the feeling of energy and vitality that pervades it Photograph: David Gentleman
Drawing its people, places and things made me look hard, notice, understand and remember them. It was a packed and fascinating experience Photograph: David Gentleman
