Townscapes

Exercise Study of a townscape using line

 I wanted to draw something in great detail for this exercise and had the perfect opportunity whilst visiting Florence.  Again I drew the basic outlines in situ but put in most of the lines and details after.  This reminded of the work of Stephen Lawrence, who I admire greatly!  Although mine is only a very poor attempt.  It was very time consuming but an interesting exercise.

This drawing on the right was done from the stairs below the building hence the very dramatic perspective.  The walls are leaning a lot but this is because the view point is underneath.

I liked the simplicity of these buildings contrasting with the detail on the windows and balcony.

Exercise A sketchbook of townscape drawings

   

For these exercises I sat on the riverside in Florence and studied the old buildings on the opposite river bank.  It was a lovely, peaceful area which was very calming.  The buildings were old and interesting and not at all uniform.  Each building was unique in shape and size and colour.  I was sitting just at the height of middle of the building so I could also see the wooden beams holding up the buildings.

Windows and doors seemed to placed in a varied fashion and shutters were very much a feature of the architecture.  It was a warm day but slightly overcast so there were not too many shadows.  The drawing on the top right was a quick sketch which I then started to colour with pencils.  I then  sketched in pencil trying to show the shadows, where the light fell.  I also focused on the shutters for a detailed drawing.

Exercise A limited palette study from your sketches

For the limited colour palette exercise I decided you use a drawing of a building I had drawn before.  I decided to use red, brown and orange.  This was drawn on watercolour paper so using colour pencils gave this drawing texture.  I quite like this effect.  I tried to limit where I put the colour to give a hint rather than flat colour everywhere.

Exercise Drawing Statues

This statue of Freddy Mercury resides in Montreux where we have been many times to visit.  It is a bronze, life-size statue situated in a lakeside park.  I first drew an outline sketch from behind and then decided to focus on the top part of the statue from the front.  I wanted to capture the details and attempted to show the shadows on the bronze material.  The second statue resides in one of the parks in Geneva.  The challenge with this drawing was to accurately represent the proportions of the body and the foreshortening of the legs.  I am quite happy with this but think the top half of the body is too bulky and she doesn’t have enough length in the torso.

Check and Log

How did you use a limited colour palette to create a sense of depth?

I am not I succeeded in this task of creating depth.  I like the feel of this drawing and the fact that the colour fades on one side of each building.  I also find the limited use of colour makes this more interesting.  I also quite like the texture of colour pencils on the watercolour paper.

Did you preliminary sketches give you enough information for your final pieces of work?

I am sure that I haven’t fulfilled the brief in this regard as I tend to go directly to working on finished drawings.  I struggle to draw many different sketches before I start on a final piece.

Would you approach this task differently another time?

I am not sure which task you are referring to but in general I think I should do more preliminary sketches.

Have you got the scale of the buildings right?  Make notes on what worked and what didn’t.

In general the scale of the buildings is correct although some of the vertical lines bend or lean a little.  I am happy with the perspective.

Have you captured the colour and atmosphere in your studies?  How did you do this?

Not really,  I need more skill with colour mediums to do this.