Hardwick Hall Revisited

The two pages below represent another go at sketching Hardwick Hall. I was there last year and somewhat overwhelmed at the time (in a good way!) by the enormous windows “Hardwick Hall more glass than wall” that I drew the sketch above... Large sketch showing every pane of glass and got so sick of it by the end.

Today I wanted to achieve two things
1. Understand the building BEFORE I sketched it (last year on location I discovered things about the building while I was sketching and wasn’t able to correct my sketch as I was doing it on the run)
2. Find a more expressive way of sketching the building without having to draw every window.
Well I did achieve the first but sadly had a break in time before I sketched the building...so in effect lost the benefit of the analysis...so a number mistakes in the number of panes in the sketch on the first page... This sketch I faded parts of the building according to structure... ie. I started to draw the building from the centreline and faded my linework and colour as I moved out from the centre.

On the second sketch I sketched and painted in response to the light hitting the façade. This was a suggestion of John Haycraft and I am very excited about the possibility of exploring this idea further – following the light across a building.

Visual Note Taking - An amazing insight into FLW's work

Since starting this blog, I have already had the feeling a number of times of doing a full circle. This page of extremely quick sketches (mainly plans) is one of those occasions.

I purchased the book "On and By Frank Lloyd Wright - A primer of Architectural Principles" edited by Robert Mccarter five years ago and tucked it under my arm as 'light' reading when I went to the airport to pick up some friends...one of whom was 'Eza' the friend that shortly afterwards introduced me to the small WN Cotman Field Sketching Kit... and what a change that moment has made to my life. On Saturday- having a break from my computers and my sketching is it somewhat significant that I happened (after picking up a few other books first) to decide to re-commence reading this book. It made me realise that since I have started sketching regularly I have stopped reading... but also, as I mentioned last week, that the constant sketching is certainly making it easier and quicker for me to take visual notes of the book that I am reading. It is also funny that I am now MUCH more concerned with making the page look nice - through colour and random composition... plus the inclusion of a few silly notes to self and comments about the appropriately themed music I was listening to at the time!

Anyway... FLW is SO famous and SO well known and loved but this book argues that few people actually really study his work. This week I read an amazing essay (towards the back of the book - you can't expect me to read the book sequential can you?) by Neil Levine on the Diagonal Planning of FLW and I have to say that this idea is one of the most amazing concepts I have come across for a while. SO obvious and yet I have never realised it before.... the way that he composed rectangular spaces and more importantly the experience of these spaces is so rich and dynamic because of his use of diagonal axes across rooms and open corner.

Despite this essay being a great read... it only has very small plans and the concepts are described verbally. I REALLY want this principle to sink in so I looked up the plans Neil referred to in my book of every built work of FLW and then drew my own diagrams of what (I think) he was taking about. I wish more architectural books used DIAGRAMS!!!!


I could write more...but I think that is enough for tonight!!! BTW, the other book in this photo is AMAZING too!!!

Architects Sketchbooks

As I have mentioned earlier, for years I have tried off and on to keep a sketchbook dedicated to interesting buildings, details etc that cross my path so that I can absorb and maybe use (reinvent etc) later in a project of my own. I am also a bit of a magazine/book junkie which has now morphed into an architectural blog junkie (archdaily etc)... is there any one else out there like me? What do we do with all this visual stimulation... do we absorb any of it?
Today, I got my latest copy of Houses magazine so within 30 minutes I had flicked through it and drew a few sketches and (of course) splashed a little bit of watercolour over the top.
I haven't done this for a long while and I was very pleasantly surprised to discover how quick and easily I was able to do this sketches... ie. all my on-location sketching (particularly when on a crazy holiday) is certainly helping my ability to sketch quickly in any situation!


Last year, I tried getting to the office early to sketch these 'inspirational' sketches - I started in my personal daily sketchbook..but I go through them so quickly that I would never have them to refer to at my desk in the office.

Then I tried them in my daily work notebook (which is a moleskine with the thin paper...I kept that up for a number of weeks... but the paper isn't really what I love using...)

So I am trying my A4 size sketchbook dedicated to architectural sketches(which is what I used today)... and I think that this would be a good lunchtime activity (if I am not going out to sketch people!?! hey!)

Just for the record, these are early attempts at keeping such a reference/inspirational sketchbook. These sketches were done 10-15 years ago - on A3 cartridge paper and coloured with WC pencils. Done as research for the second house that I designed... I spent the WHOLE day looking through magazines and books to produce this... so labour intensive! It is amazing to look back and see how my desire to add colour and make images (rather than just scribble notes) was there back then!

SO... to all my architect friends out there who sketch on location do you sketch reference/inspirational buildings/details... what do you sketch them in/on and do you have any to show me????? And what do you do with all your magazines....