UK Architectural Drawings

A little look at the architectural study drawings I did after my first trip to the UK in 2000 - read more over on my blog.
I also shared some of these drawings here .

Another Sketching Architecture workshop

Only a few spaces left for my new 2 day Sketching Architecture workshop - please email if you are interested... it is proving to be popular!

I am super excited about this... it is GOOD to be teaching architecture sketching again. And looking forward to teaching my 'pointless perspective' approach (more details soon)

More details here... and blog post about my 'prep' work here

The Perpective issue again...

Musings further to sketching Lambton Rotunda - sketching it myself and instructing others during my travel sketching workshop last month for Newcastle Art Society.

Do you need to understand perspective to draw buildings or do you just draw what you see?
How do you draw what you see - how do you switch off the objective brain and use your visual brain?
When something looks wrong can you work out how to fix it?

I share a few ideas (for starters!) over at my main blog.

(I have been working hard over at my blog and my new SketchingNow online class site and hoping to get a fully integrated solution for this architecture blog soon - I promise!)

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A building I DID sketch again - Tasmanian Heritage Council Building

So... first day in my trip to Tasmania last month I did sketch 'that' building from my previous post that I sketched in 2005. That building is what I call the 'Butler Bank building'  - originally the Commercial Bank designed by Frank Bulter  in 1866. It is now the home of the Tasmanian Heritage Council.

There are some sketchers that once they have sketched an object or scene - it is 'done' and  they want to do something different. I am the opposite. There is a part of me that wants to sketch the same thing over and over again. It is like visiting old friends - like renewing acquaintances and having a new dialogue with them (hmm, not only do I talk to myself - I talk to buildings so it seems!)

I also think there is a lovely creative memory that is brought back when you sketch something for the second time. (or third or fourth) To quote from my sketchbook
"It is a really complicated building - of course I looked at my first sketch of it (from 2005) recently but I do think that I would have remembered it (it = its design and basic configuration) - or at least what to look out for"

Anyway - I thought I would share with you a diagram what I saw at the time - this is what I drew first. I often (not always) do a very quick setout with watercolour pencil of the main guidelines and you can see these lines in this diagram and how I adjusted the spacing when I drew with ink.

There are lots of lovely design features - double columns, square and round, interesting patterns of brackets and modillions.... but nailing this overall structure is crucial to put all the details together. A beautiful building.

As I have said often.... the most important thing about sketching architecture is the ability to be able to see the structure.


And finally, here is a sketch I did at crazy pace the next day. I didn't do any setup lines but just went for it. This is the waterfront facade to TMAG - Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery.

I made many mistakes while I was sketching this... but I am struggling to see them all now... 'just keep going' is another important piece of advice I give when it comes to sketching architecture (and many other things as well)
 

A building I have to sketch again in Hobart

Before I sketched, I used to take a lot of photos and put together elaborate photo books from my travels.



 In 2005 I had a long weekend in Tasmania of 5 days. I put together a 160 page book which I printed myself of quality paper and got professional bound. Here are three pages from that book….and the important part of these pages is that it records my first ever attempt to seriously sketch a building on location.



I just love the comments that I wrote at the time

"actually attempted to do a sketch of the two buildings opposite me"
(comment: I always wanted to sketch but never found the time)
"the sketch was pathetic - but the experience of actually looking and then recording a building on location was so novel for me that I think it is one of the highlights of the trip!"
(comment: love the process of looking and record and not concerned by the result)
"it was also a bit of a break through in my ideas about how to look, learn, record and enjoy architecture"
(comment: this is also very interesting - I think the same things often! I am always having break throughs and new ideas as how to look, learn, record and enjoy)
"I realised after attempting this sketch that I would be better off sketching diagrams and details rather than try to draw the whole elevation accurately - this is just too hard for me to achieve on location - at the moment anyway, till my skills improve"
(comment: ironic thinking that sketching was too hard… but realisation that I need to work on my skills"
"Wow - I got a lot out of it"
(comment: exactly!)

A very quick sketch of complicated building

Those of you that follow my daily blog would have seen these images during the week (from last Saturday's USK SYD event at Rivendell Rhodes), but I want to write a little more about the step by step of this somewhat crazy sketch.



The whole thing was completed in just over 15minutes and has been done in a large A4 moleskine watercolour book (so the width of the sketch is 2 x A4) I think this is the fastest sketch I have ever done at this scale. I have been doing a lot of sketching lately so am 'in the groove' and therefore decided to risk attempting this sketch of a large complex building in a short time frame.

So… a few comments on my approach (which in many ways was unplanned)



First: I knew I didn't have much time  so I decided to go with watercolour pencil - I certainly find using pencil of any kind a lot freer than ink. I started with the main tower (I always seem to start from the top and this is the important feature of the building) and then worked left then right (running out of steam as I moved right… sometimes it is good to be impatient… my 'running out of steam' is a good way of not overworking secondary elements - I was not sure how much of the secondary building I would want to include)



Second stage: I haven't really decided what I was going to do (ie. I didn't necessarily intend to use ink) but as time was short so the paint had to get on as soon as possible. So I quickly splashed on some colour in the areas of shade/shadows. After doing this, I realised that it would take too long to try to build this sketch up with paint - it would be a lot quicker if I had ink lines to hold it together so pulled out my sailor pen (with an up-turned nib) and added the major edges. All of that scribbly pencil work provided guidelines and helped me be strong and confident with my ink.



Third stage: Running out of time… so quickly splashed on more colour … can't really explain in any detail… just going with the flow at a crazy exciting pace. As soon as I thought "should I do sky? - do I have time?" I paused and then realised it was time to go for the show and tell.


Finally: I decided to add the sky once I got home as there was so much white on the page… and having blue sky was a rather special part of that morning (had been raining when we woke up but turned out lovely for our sketching event)

Anyway - there are a lot of 'mistakes' in this sketch - things that don't align or are not evenly spaced… but do you think I will lose sleep over that? NO!

This sketch is another example of my approach to sketching architecture:  the most important thing is to understand the major components of the building form .. and not to stress about perspective
(hmm, was I supposed to use perspective on this sketch?? - oops didn't even enter my head!!!)

I hope that seeing the stages- and in particular the first stage is useful to see what I think is important…

Sketching architecture with Watercolour pencils

In the last week (or two..since my last post here) I have been continuing to experiment. And out of the blue I got out my watercolour pencils..the very night of my previous post in fact! I had not seen that coming at all.

Well it wasn't quite that random- I was prompted by Koojse's coloured pencil exercise of Week 2 of Sketchbook Skool to get out my (watercolour)pencils (WCPs). I don't have any serious set of normal coloured pencils. Although I use WCPs regularly in association with watercolour paint I rarely use them on their own mainly because I just LOVE paint and water so much. So decided it was time to really get to know them better on their own!


Of course the first sketch I did was a tea cup but them the second subject was a baroque facade



… and then I did a step by step of a bigger sketch. I am working in a very similiar way with the pencils as I do with ink and wash. Draw all the edges first and then lay in the colour- leaving plenty of white for the sunlit area. And then adding the areas of shadow. I am very bold with my use of pencils and then easy with the water! After I had applied the water I needed to go back and add some more details.

BTW I will be holding some workshops in Tasmania next month - using both watercolour and WCPs...more details here

Linelessness - painting buildings shapes not edges

One of the things that I love about keeping a sketchbook and sketching regularly is that you never not what direction your art might take. The regular habit puts you in the space that can lead to the unexpected. Last week, I started keeping a food diary and decided to paint with no lines…

This week this state of linelessness has taken over…and interestingly extended to my architecture sketching.

What is really  fun about this is that it is so different from my normal approach of clearly defining edges according to the architectural form of a building. This week I have just been playing with shapes. In the delightful tension between painter vs architect, I think the painter is winning at the moment!

My first sketch was from a photo (I am heading to Tasmania for some workshops next month) and I was drawing with paint here and trying not to describe every element the same way. Really trying to make the most of the power of the white on the page as well.

The next sketch was a local Federation house (in Mosman) and I was really concentrating on drawing shapes or the negative shapes to describe form. Working Very wet as well.



My third sketch is a Tasmanian building from a photo again… and this time I started with the openings and worked my way around from there. The very last thing that I did was to add those paint lines that describe the architectural details - the columns and the moulding details.



And finally, yesterday, I did two versions of a local house. (ok...the second version has some watercolour pencils lines in it...so I have not totally abandoned my lines...no indeed intend to)
 

I took a photo after my first step - once again drawing shapes first and not the important edges.




Who knows what I will be doing next week….

What has happened to my architecture sketching???

yes, once again, I seem to be missing in action when it comes to regularly posting on this blog. But to be honest, I have done very little architecture sketching this year.
 
Lots of teacup and cake sketching and lots of sketching on Cockatoo Island which is often more about cranes and texture. If you missed it, the Cockatoo Island focus was in preparation for a big 2 day workshop I taught with Paul Wang from Singapore (more here)

However, this title does not just refer to my slackness in posting here… it is also poses the question of the style of my architecture sketching… it is getting looser and looser and more colourful...and more fun!




I think the change is seen in my teacup sketches as well - more about it here. (Oops this blog is supposed to be a tea cup free zone!)

I am playing with paint and watersoluble pencils, mixing up the order of colour and line… and basically just having fun and working in a state of play. But behind it all is my foundational working method of working from overall form to details.



I haven't even been doing any late night Baroque sketches- something I used to do a lot of … this is the only example in months and months!



Even my SOH sketches are going crazy!!! (SOH = Sydney Opera House)

And if you haven't noticed I feel totally free at the moment from the dreaded p-word (perspective)!

Someone asked me in a workshop I taught on the weekend how the architect in me coped with abandoning perspective rules!!

That is a good question…one that I will answer in a separate blog post soon (I promise!)
I am starting to get focused on my trip to Brazil in August where I will be teaching at the 5th International Urban Sketchers Symposium. My workshop is called "feeling the edges, a tactile approach to sketching architecture' so there will be more activity here... seriously there will be!

New Sketching Architecture Workshop in The Rocks - 22 February 2014

I am very pleased to announce another Sketching Architecture Saturday workshop out on location in The Rocks. Saturday 22 February 2014

Exploring the fundamental aspects of sketching architecture:
building forms - structure -details - edges - tone and colour - perspective - space

This one will be similar to what I ran in November 2013 - though we will be sketching some different buildings. Check out this blog post which describes in detail what we did.

The course is suitable for any drawing level - we start with lines and shapes before moving on to buildings. We are not trying to achieve perfect perspective or porportions in one day, but we will explore the basic principles for you to use as a foundation.

Please email me if you are interested

Email me now to secure your place - spots are limited (Maximum class size: 12)

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.