Tumblr 'Draw NYC' Turns New York City Into Surreal Cartoon

Cartoon drawings have always charmed me for turning the most unbelievable and implausible scenarios into a reality. Portable holes can be painted on stone and entered. Gravity can be defied. The laws of physics can be entirely discarded. The most surreal ideas have a chance to be taken seriously.

Draw NYC, a new Tumblr account, is blending the line between New York City and a surrealist drawing by combining components of real-life photos with sketches from an animator. By digitally doodling on top of photographs in a variety of locations around the city, the founder of the site has turned moments of his life into dream-like chain of moments shared between strangers and friends. The result is something that looks like its been pulled directly from A Scanner Darkly or Waking Life, two movies that transformed realities by having sketch artists draw over frames recorded in real world scenarios.

I do a quick little doodle every morning as a warm up for a day of drawing, says Randeep Katari, the founder of the blog. According to his personal blog, Katari was a grad of Sheridan College's BAA-Animation program. He shares several intimate moments from his life on his personal blog (such as this and this), each of which is accompanied by a doodle. Some doodles are incredibly elaborate, while others are more simple.

Draw NYC, apparently a side project for Katari, currently has about 14 drawings on it, the first of which was published on March 27. We strongly encourage you to follow either of his blogs and give him some love if you find yourself as inspired as we have.