Two recent sketches

Two architecture sketches that I have done in the last week - just for me!

A white house at the top of the hill at Cockatoo Island and St Thomas Church North Sydney.

I am having fun ….
- using a sailor 55degree calligraphy pen instead of a Lamy with EF nib
- using a small dagger brush instead of a #8 round brush
- very loose application of paint
- First sketch -  I was exploring how to achieve a nice wash for the shady side of the white building
- Second sketch - doing a few quick analysis sketches first to free myself up for the real sketch.
- a little bit of scraping of paint with a plastic card and letting the watercolour pigment do its own thing on the page!

This will be my last post for this year as I am booked to leave for a trip on Monday....so....

Thanks for following along this year and I hope to have some more regular features in 2014.

Hope you all have a wonderful 'festive season'

1 Day workshop in the Rocks

Last Saturday I held a 1 day workshop on Sketching Architecture in the Rocks. It was a condensed summary of the content we covered in the 4 week class and was an action packed day. In addition to my content, we also had lots around to distract us - scattered showers, crowds, markets, passing artists giving advice, police dealing with an aggressive drunk and a wedding! We had it all!

We started in a public seating area thinking about how drawing architecture is far more than just perspective. We then did a number of warmups - doing a few line exercises and drawing some boxes. I am very thankful that the Hero Sushi place allow us to sit outside their store as it started raining and the public seating area is only covered by sail cloth that does not stop the rain.





Our first sketching location was opposite the Australian Steam Navigation Buildings (we sketched this on week 1)… and just to throw everyone in the deep end I gave them only 20 minutes. The idea was to embrace wonkiness, to see the main 3D forms of the building and to add extra details to make it look convincing (despite the distortions) I was totally blown away by the work that was done in the time!




We then headed down to George St (which was a lot busier than it had been during the week). Like Week 2 of my classes this exercise was all about sitting straight on and understanding how to get overall proportions and work systematically from overall to structure to details. This is where there was a very unfortunate aggressive drunk and police incident on the other side of the road which caused a degree of distraction. We also had two artists walk past and add some advice and encouragement (I think it was all positive comments!) Time for a well earned lunch!

After lunch we looked at perspective (and especially the importance of nailing the eyeline!) and a few general approaches to adding tone and colour. We were sitting on a grass area opposite the Garrison Church so had a good view of a wedding that was going on. The various wedding guests walking across the wide road in front of the church was a great example of how you can 'hang people off an eyeline' - I think a few of us were interested in the outfits worn as well!

Once the wedding had cleared out we crossed the road and looked back to the end of a row of terraces along Argyle Place (sorry I omitted to take a photo of the building we were sketching). Trying to conquer perspective in a single afternoon is a challenge - especially as most buildings on location are not simple boxes on totally flat ground. Once again I was very impressed with the work produced and the fact that everyone seemed to grasp the basic principles and all the lines were going in the right direction!

What a great day and amazing group of sketchers - a number are just beginning their creative journey with pen and sketchbook in hand. Sketching architecture isn't the easiest but with a few basic principles and  an healthy attitude towards accuracy and wonkiness (ie. don't stress about distortions) I hope that they will all have more courage to have a go and have fun. Most importantly, keep sketching and sketch the buildings or parts of buildings that you like, that you respond to. Have confidence in your own response and be more concerned about your personal dialogue with the building rather than worrying about the 'correctness' of your lines on the page.

I do hope to start sharing more of the content of these classes in the new year.

Sketching Architecture Wk 4 - Tone Colour and Texture

Final (4th) week of my sketching architecture class in the Rocks - looking at tone and colour. A lot to cover in one morning so I did an overview.

This week included:
1. how to map the light vs dark areas and then distinguish between what is shade and what is cast shadow.
2. How to get an arsenal together of standard watercolour mixes for architecture - I shared my favourite ones. And, as per my other classes this year, I showed how I like to work with juicy washes and often wet in wet - hitting it hard and leaving it.
3.  Texture - how to decide how much to include and options for line vs colour.

We then went outside to have some fun (and no perspective!)





Thursday was a very warm sunny day. We headed to Susannah Place museum to look at the shadows and the textures of this historic collection of terrace houses. The sun moved quickly so we had to do value studies straight away and then had time to play with texture swatches. Trying to find areas in shade was a struggle and the security guard for the building we were using for shelter came to check what we were doing!





Friday was about 10C colder and raining…so not a great deal of tonal contrast visible but we still had fun exploring different ways to make textures with our watercolour and/or telling a story with one portion of the scene in front of us.





So much fun doing this course… and plan more in 2014.

Tomorrow I am doing a full day workshop summarising the content of this 4 week course- It will be a lot of fun whatever the Sydney weather is doing!

Thanks to everyone that we part of the class either on Thursday or Friday... what a keen and inspiring bunch of sketchers and it was a privilege to be able to share my approach to sketching architecture with you.

Sketching Architecture Week 3: Perspective

This week was the big week!

Yes, I was teaching perspective in my Sketching Architecture classes in the Rocks. (this is a little doodle sketch I did during the class to show the main setup for our subject)

Based once again in our wonderful classroom in the Tea Cosy, we started doing some line exercises - looking at ways to draw some typical patterns that we see in buildings out on location. Some of these are tricks I have picked up from one drawing lesson I had in 2nd year of my architecture course. Some of these are included in James Richard's wonderful book "Freehand Drawing and Discovery".



We then did a paper exercise with a photo before hitting the streets to draw a beautiful crisp sandstone warehouse. Both days we had very strong wind gusts to cope with as well and 'perspective lines'.

It is hard to find good examples of simple buildings on corners with good light and with shade on the other side of the street…so you can imagine how excited I was to find this! Everyone in the class learnt lots during the process of sketching this building and I think the results are amazing both days are. Many of the techniques were tested by trial and error!



It would require a number of very long blog posts to explain everything I shared this week but in essence I see perspective as a tool to set out the main framework for a sketch. Getting too technical, getting caught up in positioning all the lines perfectly, doing too much measuring and/or using a ruler kills the JOY of sketching for me. There are many wonderful artists out there who can achieve perfect perspective - but I am not one of them and am not trying to be.



So here are a few of my ideas:
(I am not sure how much of it will make sense in bullet point- but hopefully you might be able to glean some things from it.)

- perspective guidelines are used for setting the main elements - but you need to be able to first work out what the main elements of the building are!
- Use perspective to constrain out of whack or wonky lines but don't stress about wavy lines  (ie. small variations in the details are ok - they add life to the sketch - but try to keep the overall as 'right' as possible)
- eyeline (or horizon) is king! Everything is horizontal on the eyeline. This is a very powerful tool for sketching whether using perspective or not. It is the datum point that I use to locate all elements in my page. 'Hang' people off the eyeline.
- Develop the ability to be able to draw evenly converging lines. This is one of the most important drawing skills to have...as well as being able to review what is on the page and see if it is consistent.
- Don't need vanishing points! See this old post for my vanishing point-less approach to perspective and an amazing discussion on flickr . I still use Vanishing points, but don't stress if they are off the page.
- The importance of the VIP - my term for the Very Important Perpendicular. This is the vertical leading edge that anchors and sets out for the whole sketch. I use it to measure the number storeys or major horizontal lines.

Ah - there was a lot more that we went through but I think this list is long enough for starters.

Perspective 'scribbles'

As we will be looking at perspective this week in my sketching architecture classes I thought I better do a little warmup. Sketching from an architectural magazine - in some ways I find this harder than sketching on location as I don't engage with the building as well and I have to deal with distortion from camera lenses. Sketching from magazines and books is an important part of the design inspiration sketchbook that all architects are supposed to keep - something I have had many start stop attempts at doing regularly.

But getting back to perspective - I have my own simplified approach which I will share with my class… and it is best to do perspective setups slowly and carefully.(ie. if one believes in doing setups and I know some people have a hard and fast rule against that)  But I am not in that mood tonight so I went very quickly.  I do want to do some more without any setup at all but I thought some of you might like to see my red line setups as it explains the process a little better.

These drawings were done in a few minutes each. I am using what I call my 'design sketching" style - very rapid fast confident line - confident in its start and stop but it is not always in the exact 'correct' position and so I reinstate when I need to. These are totally exploratory sketches. I am exploring the design of the building as I draw it.

I am really looking forward to sharing my thoughts on perspective with my classes this week…I am really hoping for a dry Thursday and Friday morning. I have found the perfect building with great lighting… but there are some other good things to draw if it does rain.

Sketching Architecture in The Rocks: Week 2

Centrelines, edges, thickness and depths…

Week 2 we took perspective totally out of the equation and sat directly opposite some lovely buildings along George St in order to focus on these aspects of drawing architecture. This stretch of the road has a lovely variety of buildings and I let everyone choose which one they wanted to sketch. The easy looking ones still proved a challenge -especially getting the proportions right throughout and allowing for the right thicknesses of the various components - but by working systematically everyone was able to produce a wonderful sketch.



I encourage working from the overall shape to the major structure divisions and making sure that adequate thicknesses have been included (columns, ledges, horizontal banding, edges of roofs etc) before having fun with the detail.






Next week we will finally get around to perspective! I think that the skills learnt today (building on those from last week) will make some simple perspective rules a lot easier. Can't wait…

Once again I am so inspired by the work done by everyone in the class on both Thursday and Friday and very happy that numerous people really had fun and enjoyed their sketching this week!

 
 And BTW it was really fun to be able to show my class this image during the week ... thinking of planning a new course next year on styles of architecture and ways to draw them.

Doing homework....

It is really great to see that some of the class went home and finished off their sketches… and don't they look great!

When sketching on location it is easy to start to beat yourself up about how wonky it is, how wrong the proportions or perspective is but if you keep going with the it and add all the details and then add strong tones and colours to it… you will end up with a great looking sketching.

A few people also did another version once they go home. While their originals were god sometimes you do learn a lot by revisiting a sketch - I always learn a lot by having anohter go!

I have included the photos of the works as they were at the end of the class (this was a 45 minute exercise… although I did a quick intro and demo in that tie as well)

Really looking forward to Week 2 (Thursday and Friday)

A reminder that I am doing a 1 day Sketching Architecture workshop as well - condensed version of this material - on Saturday 30 Nov. There are still a few spots available so please email me if you are interested.

Sketching Architecture in the Rocks:Week 1

Well, this week was the first in my Sketching Architecture course of 4 weeks, based in the Rocks, Sydney. I am running the class on a Thursday and a Friday morning. It was really fun to do the same class back to back like this and I am especially excited about the opportunity to put together 4 consecutive lessons - each building on the previous.



Each week we start inside doing some 'theory' and paper exercises and I am very happy to be using the upstairs room of the wonderful Tea Cosy tearoom as our classroom. It is very strange to be in there and NOT to draw my cup of tea, cosied pot and scones… but we have architecture on our minds!

This first week I laid the foundation. Just for the record, I only mentioned perspective in passing… I also was not concerned about perfect proportion either  - both of these will be addressed in future classes! Instead we looked at a way to see buildings forms better  in order to give us confidence to have a go at a complicated building - starting with the big picture (the main volumes) and not allowing ourselves to get sidetracked by the details.

In the classroom we drew Notre Dame in 5 minutes -  ok it was more like 10 minutes and I think everyone found this fun ...it certainly was very achievable!

What was a little more daunting was the building I choose for them to draw once we got out on location… one of the most complicated buildings in the Rocks!? The Australasian Steam Navigation Building located on the corner of Hickson Road and George Street.  Warehouse and office building  designed by William Wardell in the Federation Anglo-Dutch style and completed in 1884.



Starting the the overall forms, everyone was able to produce a sketch that really captures the essence of the building and we shared lots of tricky bits along the way. The use of  coloured pencil setups is a 'week 1 specialty' that enables us all to see the process that everyone went through while they were sketching. Both groups did amazing jobs and as usual, I love the way we all learn so much from each other!

Next week we will become more accurate …but still have a lot of fun!

Complex buildings are fun - The Louvre

Just going through some old sketchbooks I came across this sketch from my first serious sketching trip in 2009 - 3 weeks in the UK and 1 week in Paris with my great sketching buddy Esther.

This is a rare black and white sketch  - I don't do many of them do I? The reason is that I lost my paint tin on the flight to Paris....but this is really besides the point.


The thing that I want to share is the mud map that I did before attempting the sketch. This was the way that I explored the building for myself  - the way I got to know it. After doing this diagram I found the main sketch a lot easier.... fun!

The more I sketch the less I need to do diagrams like this as I my observational skills develop all the time, but if I am presented with a highly complex building, it is really the only way to get to know.

Simplifying forms of complicated buildings

 Last week I was in the Rocks - casing the joint for my upcoming classes on Sketching architecture and getting excited at all the options available there! One of my favourite buildings in the Rocks area is the Australasian Steam Navigation Company building. "An unusually picturesque and exuberant" polychromic brick building by William Wardell (quote from Jahn's Sydney Architecture guide book)... so after I had planned my classes I sat down to sketch it.



Here are my first two steps... which clearly show how I constructed my sketch. I didn't use any persepctive guidelines at all - instead I used a simplified outline of the main forms of the building as my setup - drawing the shapes as I saw them.
 

Next I mapped the light and dark areas and then had fun drawing with my ink pen and then splashing watercolour over the top.

This approach is one of the things that we will be looking at detail both in the 4 week course and the 1 day workshop coming up. I will also explain perspective... but I firmly believe that you don't need to use it. It is incredibly useful and a tool to help you - but you should never become a slave to the fear of it!

I still have places available for my 4 week course Thursday mornings 07-28 Nov or  the one day workshop  on Saturday 30 Nov. Please email me if you are interested

Both of these classes are suitable for beginners as I will be starting with fundamental skills (yes, how to draw a straight line if you want to - though once again, straight lines are not the most important thing!)

I would love you to join me and the other great group of sketchers that have already signed up.... I knw we will have a lot of fun.... yes! sketching architecture IS fun!

More details here

My Architecture Sketchbook article

I am pleased to share my article on Sketching Architecture that I wrote for the UK magazine Artists & Illustrators. I am very thankful that one of my blog followers sent me a copy of it in the mail today as it is not a magazine that I see in the stores here (it is available but not that common)



Here is the article….
it is a good summary of some of the things that I will be sharing in my upcoming Sketching Architecture classes/workshop. If you missed it.... details here

Extra Sketching Architecture class and workshop!

On location sketching classes or workshop in the Rocks Area - Sydney

As the Friday class is now full I have decided to offer it on a Thursday morning class as well....and also a full day Saturday workshop which will cover the same content as the 4 week class.

Please let me know if you are interested in the Thursday class or going on the waiting list for the Friday class (I expect there to be some movement on a waiting list)

 4 week course
Thursday mornings 07-28 Nov or Friday mornings  08 - 29 Nov. Time: 10.00am - 1.30pm.  Cost $150.00

1 Full Day workshop
Saturday 30 November 2013
Time: 9.30am - 4.30pm Cost: $100.00


You don’t need perfect perspective to draw buildings but you do need to understand what you are looking at. This 4 week Friday course will help you grasp the fundamentals of drawing architecture and have fun doing it! I will share with you my system for drawing architecture which involves seeing forms and structure and detail, describing edges and using simple strategies for perspective.

Working with ink and watercolour wash, we will also explore ways to sketch architecture with lively lines and loose and colourful watercolour washes. A series of exercises has been developed to help all levels of participants progress from simple buildings to more elaborate architecture.. and I will also be doing demonstrations each week to show how it all fits together.

Extensive handouts will be issued to each participant of both the 4 week classes and the workshops.

Sub_urban sketching: Infill Porch

Another sketch in my Sub_urban sketching series.

Another occasion when I started with the roof and didn't apply any rules of perspective - just drew the shapes of the roof as I saw them. And then projected the walls down. Once again I managed to park my car outside the most rundown house in the street…but it doesn't look as bad in my sketch!
Also I only used a triad of colours….more about this over here www. lizsteel.com

Hope my little scribbly notes make sense.
A lot of the things that I have done on this sketch will be explained in my upcoming Sketching Architecture: The Rocks classes. More details just below

Sketching Architecture Classes: The Rocks Sydney

I was planning on posting this before I went down to Melbourne for my workshops… but anyway… now I can say ….

Following on from the great fun we all had at my Sketching Architecture workshop at Melbourne University, I am very excited to announced that I will be running a 

Sketching Architecture 4 week course - on location sketching in the Rocks area  Sydney. 
Thursday or Friday mornings   06 - 29 Nov. 10.00am - 1.30pm.
Cost: $150.00 for the 4 weeks.
and also a one day workshop
Saturday30 November 9.30am- 4.30pm (covering the smae content in the one day!)
Cost; $100.00

You don’t need perfect perspective to draw buildings but you do need to understand what you are looking at. This 4 week Friday course will help you grasp the fundamentals of drawing architecture and have fun doing it! I will share with you my system for drawing architecture which involves seeing forms and structure and detail, describing edges and using simple strategies for perspective.

Working with ink and watercolour wash, we will also explore ways to sketch architecture with lively lines and loose and colourful watercolour washes. A series of exercises has been developed to help all levels of participants progress from simple buildings to more elaborate architecture.. and I will also be doing demonstrations each week to show how it all fits together.



The Rocks area has a wealth of varied architecture from which to find our subjects…and I am really excited to be running this class.



Please email me if you are interested as spaces will be limited.

And although not in the Rocks ... I can't resist adding a SOH sketch to this post - it is seen from the Rocks area though!

The Forum in Melbourne

Casing the joint at Fed Square this afternoon for a future workshop!?! I am not sure it needs to be said that I love sketching Flinders St Station ...so you can imagine how much I  would love to spend a whole day sketching it with others next time I am in Melbourne. Sadly there is no shelter to sketch it in the rain.

As this afternoon was wet, very wet, I thought I would explore Federation Square to see if I could find some undercover areas with sketchable views... and I did find some.

The light was fading fast so I approached this sketch in my most slap-dash fashion but still using my basic system of starting with the main forms first and adding details loosely afterwards.

A very wet and cool evening meant that my paint was remaining very wet resulting in a very loose version of this very highly decorative building- I think I need to come back and sketch it again!

Sketching Architecture Workshop at Melbourne University

A very quick collage of photos from my Sketching Architecture workshop in Melbourne today.

I had a great time and had a wonderful group of sketchers who did amazing work today....tackling building forms, structure, complicated buildings and perspective. I hope it inspired them to just go for it and not stress about getting everything exact.

Had a good Melbourne day- hot, sunny, overcast, cool, cold, wet....but it all worked out well and we had plenty of subject matter at Melbourne University. Thanks to everyone that turned up...

more later!

Flinders Street Station, Melbourne

In Melbourne preparing for my Sketching Architecture workshop at Melbourne University which is on tomorrow!

I spent the day casing the joint and preparing sunny and wet weather options – I have a number of specific exercises that are best if I plan a good subject for each. That is done and I can start getting excited now! On the way back to my Melbourne ‘home’ I just had to stop and sketch my favourite building. Oh! I was having so so much fun doing this... This was just for me.


Here is a extra photo showing how I was staging my paint. I normally work more or less from light to dark but this time as the building is mainly yellow I wanted to do all the non yellow bits so that I could splash away with the yellow. Also I found today that my paint wasn’t drying (freezing here today!) so I painted the dark green mullions and window frames early giving them more time to dry.

Hoping that the isolated showers forecast doesn’t make it to the uni tomorrow ...but regardless I have a plan and we will have fun!

Demo of corner cafe at Balmoral

Here is a step by step of a quick demo that I did at my weekly sketching class at Balmoral today. I didn't use any perspective setup but did start drawing the main shapes first as I saw them.
 
 Looking forward to my first Sketching Architecture workshop in Melbourne this Saturday - I cant wait!
Also will be running more sketching classes based at Balmoral on Friday mornings in October if you are interested.

Barcelona Sketches

Here is my entire sketchbook (well actually it is 2.5 A4 moleskine watercolour sketches putt together as one book) from my recent 2 weeks in Barcelona including the 4th international Urban Sketchers Symposium.

If that link doesn't work for you click on the front cover and it will take you to the document in Issuu directly

There is a lot of architecture sketches contained in this book and a lot of future material for this blog.... so stay tuned!

Sub_urban Sketching: More on Roofs

Here is a sketch that I did (once again from my car) on Monday morning while waiting for an appointment.

 

I took a photo of my starting point and have made some notes of the things that I look for.
 A few comments
- I always look at the ridge (the flat top to the roof) and see what angle it is and whether it changes level.
- I also look at the bottom of the roof and make sure I follow it around. Often this is at the same level... but it also can jump around as well.
- I never draw every brick but when the mood takes me will indicate brick coursing (the horizontal banding) in a fine ink line or as I did here a watercolour pencil
- My watercolour is doing strange separating things on the roof... Love these accidents
- I did a bit of finger painting on the trees (so beads of water/paint were not drying in time so I smudged!
-... I love how I can see the hint of a teapot and cosy sketch on the previous page - not sure if you can see it but I can!

I intend to do some diagrams of basic roofs in the next little while.



And here is another quick sketch I did yesterday (filling in time again before another appointment - have a few of those this week!) There are a few curious things about this house which is why I drew it....I wasn't particularly following any system (except I started from the top again) What is curious is how they have split this house into two and a very weird entrance to the left side close to the bay window. I am rather pleased with the lovely watercolour effects that is happening in some of the washes on this page . and particular the glow in the shadow under the gable. More on this later!

A note on sketching locations:
Sketching in the car has its limitations. It IS very hard to be able to find a spot to stop outside a good view so often I have to compromise on the house/ view that I want to sketch. Then the steering wheel does get in the way and there is not quite as much space or comfort as you think there is. I am starting to get a system for it.
Far better is to get out of the car! Like I did yesterday and walk a few houses and sit on the gutter (between two cars) and sketch. But of course when it is raining and freezing cold the car is better than no sketch.

Once again please let me know if you have any questions that I will add to my list and get around to answering sometime....

Boring Buildings... Fun Colours

After my recent time in Barcelona and London (2 cities containing many examples of architecture that I adore) I find it is easy to become uninspired by the average stock of buildings in everyday life… but colour and especially watercolour can make anything fun! So I am determined to make interesting sketches from boring buildings!

Today three constraints (apart from the boringness of the buildings)
1.  the pen I was using is new (a sailor pen that enables variable lines ) and I don't have a feel for it yet and isn't flowing properly
2. sitting in a waiting room without any idea of time… so I just start and like the page evolve - ready at any stage to stop
3. I only had 3 watercolour pencils in my bag of very limited relevance to the subject matter (but at least a light, mid and dark tone)

I then added some splashes of wet watercolour on top when I got back to the car… without much consideration of what 3 colours… but I wanted to keep with a limited palette.

One of the things I like about sketching architecture is that you do anything with the colour! (I suppose you can do this with any subject... but as the buildings natural colour is normally fairly dull it is more a radical artistic license!)

Sub_urban Sketching: Draw the roof first

I have been trying all year to post to this blog more regularly… but I am determined to do so from now on….(yah! really! I hear you say!)  I have also found than now I live and work in the heart of Sydney suburbia that I have been somewhat uninspired architecturally. I thrive on being in city centres- being surrounded by big / important buildings and the pulse of the city streets. I have had great plans of posts that I want to do here on important aspects of sketching architecture… but 'planned posts' rarely seem to happen! I am a 'respond to the moment' kinda girl. So lets make some sketching architecture moments!

So anyway… a new idea this week… I am going start drawing the buildings of the exciting north western Sydney suburbs that I live in and at the same time share tips as I come across various issues. They will be fairly random and conversational… but I hope that if I do it regularly it will develop into a real series and motivate me to become a little more systematic. I am very keen to have you ask questions that I can answer the next time I am out sketching. Lets start a dialogue about what you kind hard….

Todays tip: I like to draw the roofscape first!

Getting roof angles right can be tricky so I like to draw them first and look at them as shapes as much as possible. I might apply some basic perspective (more of this on the next post!)  but just try to draw what I see. I then project the walls down from that…

(and yes, I was sketching in my car - in a parked position of course!)

Now I am sure I have not explained that fully… so fire away with questions and I will expand on it with my next post!