Project: Townscapes

Exercise: Study of a townscape using line

I did one quick preliminary study in my sketchbook of this view out of a skylight window. (I drew on sight, so figured one quick sketch would be enough this time.) I thought it would be an interesting view, with the old chocolate factory in all it's delapidated, Victorian glory. I chose to keep our neighbours chimney as the focal point just slightly of centre, and tried to indicate its close proximity by using thicker line. Along with this method, depth was created by including the row of houses opposite, their receding line jutting up to the chocolate factory adjacent. If I were to do this exercise again, I'd have worked harder at indicating depth by using aerial perspective, graduating the tones more. To be honest though, there isn't a huge amount of distance in this particular view and I think that helped create the atmosphere. I merely suggested at clouds and the small amount of foliage present, because I quite liked the fact that the atmosphere was kind of industrial, heavy and claustrophobic almost, like the bulidings are leaning in one another - I didn't really want to mess with that by focusing on the natural forms. When it comes to the scale of the buildings, I have to admit to them being inaccurate, but only slightly. The horizon line of the chocolate factory itself should be at more of an angle - it should be going diagonally down from right to left, which again would have helped to create more depth in the drawing.

Exercise: A limited palette study

After several preliminary sketches sitting in a cafe window opposite my chosen subject, I chose red, brown and black as my limited palette of colours. I guess I chose colours that resembled the buildings, which was perhaps a bit of a boring thing to do. Creating depth was harder than I thought. The facade of the building is obviously pretty flat so I needed to use the roofs to indicate what depth there was in the view. I used the black to show where shadow fell on the roofs and I think this helped a little to add a sense of depth, but sadly otherwise I think it looks very flat. I was quite selective over what detail to include - perhaps too much so? I'd definitely approach this task differently if I were to do it again. I think it needs to be bolder. I need to be clearer over the aspects of my view that I find appealing or interesting. I basically feel that this drawing is very dull and gives nothing away of the actually quite vibrant atmosphere of this particular area of Bristol. I don't quite know how I managed to sit for hours doing preliminary sketches, trying to get the 'vibe' right, then produce this drawing! (Win some lose some?)

Exercise: Drawing statues (see sketchbook)

Back to the cemetery for this exercise. I chose a statue unique to the others - there were tons of angels, cherubs, crosses, Virgin Mary's etc but this was the only one of Jesus I came across and it was very tall. What interested me about it was the commanding pose, the way he stands looking down, arms outstretched and eyes half closed in a meditative way - like he's praying for the person buried beneath his feet. I found it pleasing to draw, especially with ball point pen because you can achieve the nice flowing lines of his robe and hair, as well as the finer detail of his (quite efeminate actually) hands. And of course you can get a huge amount of tones using hatching techniques.