Wet in wet and no lines

There is no doubt that the impact of my trip to Singapore over Xmas/New Year has been huge on  my art. I am working wetter and have been weaned off my inklines... but this sketch is almost one step further. I did do a few very basic setup lines in a lavender pencil but then just went for it with my paint. I was painting the lines. I could have done this entire sketch without any lines (oh! just ignore the fact that I used a watercolour pencil for the fence)

I am currently using a Stillman & Birn Beta book - it is very very nice  thick watercolour paper but the sizing on the paper means that the paint sits on the surface of the paper longer than I am used it. Combined with the fact that I was working quite wet this afternoon meant that I was really working wet in wet. I did have a momentary thought early on that I should slow down and wait for hte paint to dry,  but I quickly abandoned that idea...deciding instead to go with the flow (literally!) I was sitting in my car, half way home from the gym and not wanting to get caught in the traffic....there is always many reasons that I give myself for going fast!

What is really interesting about this exercise is how the hard edges of the building have still been expressed despite the bleeds left right and centre.I am really enjoying breaking away from my previous addiction to lines. At heart I am an architect, so that obsession will never go away.... but it is so much fun to explore new stuff!

Newtown Post Office - On location and back home

Today I had 20 mins spare before meeting friends for lunch and so I decided to do a quick sketch of the building that caught my eye a fortnight ago when I was there.

From all my extensive sketching, I know that this was an unrealistic time to do a ‘proper’ sketch...but of course I still tried. So what resulted was a very loose sketch. I used my usual red pencil guidelines only for mapping the overall shape on the page and then went for it in ink without any real regard for perspective.

I also was so focused on my time limit that I just went for it without really thinking about whether I could have strengthened (and quicken) my sketch by focusing on one element/ part of the building.
A few other things - I painted the sky first, something I don't always do. I also left the King St facade white as it was sunlit (in fact both facades where in the sun but I made the choice to add shade to the side street facade) I find red brick buidling hard to paint and often feel my sketches are too heavy.

Anyway, I decided to have another go back home- using my knowledge from the above sketch and also looking a little more carefully at the building (via a photo)

Now before I get into that, I want to highlight some amazing posts by Meegan (a fellow Sydney sketcher and friend) about sketching architecture. Her comments are extremely thought provoking and her work inspiring.

Here is one of her recent sketches - but Please go over to her blog to read her post here and here

One of the comments that has got me thinking (and it was also something that came up at lunch today) is sketching architecture without pencil lines. I personally do not have a problem with using pencil for the set-up - grid lines of a building (ie. not ever line in pencil first)   I find that if my pencil lines are limited, and when I go over with ink I make corrections as I go, my inklines still retain their spontaneous nature. BUT, tonight I thought that I would go ink only. In the past when I go ink only, I normally use a re-instated line approach (ie. loose and multiple lines) For more see here
So tonight I wanted to do ink only and neat (well neat-ish... I am never really neat in my sketchbook)... a bit of an experiment.



To do this I decided which where the important lines in the building (well, I do this always) but it was more important to try to nail this step when only inking. So here is a photo with the lines of the main parts of the building. I often use the top leading edge of cornices to define each storey. The cornice is the band of sandstone going around the building. It often tells me things about what the surfaces of the wall is doing as it often (mostly) steps when the walls step. I also start from the top and work down - this avoids the tower off the top of the page.


And just in case you want to see the building without my green lines...




So here is my outline, I didn't use the back of my nib to create a lighter line- but perhaps I should have. Anyway... I was going to have to live with this - but you can see that it has mapped out the whole of the building and I can now sketch without stressing about whether I will warp and go off the page.
The only other thing of note is that I decided to do the eyeline- the horizontal line which is at the same height of my eye. This helps me get the perspective lines more correct (but still my perspective is not perfect...but hey, I am not going to loose  any sleep over it!)



And here is the final sketch... a few points
- I decide to paint both facades but instead of just using burnt sienna (or my verison of that colour) which isn't actually the colour of the brick, I mixed it with pyrrole orange which has made the building brickwork more lively... I am liking this!
- added a little more shade to the side street facade
- my general line work was a little more 'neat' than those setup lines but you can't really tell - even the eyeline line is not that obvious
- My tower wasn't right proportion but rather than correct it, I decided to live with it
- I added the sky last when I had a better feel for the overall page
- I need to work on my cars (and of course people)

I must say that I have found this exercise of re-doing a sketch very helpful - more so than sketching a random italian baroque facade from a photo!
And also finally.... I am not making any judgement as to which one is "BETTER"... it is all about enjoying the process, and learning and trying out new things all the time!!!
I am intending to be more dilligent with posting to this blog... I have so many posts planned... but it is a challenge to find the time for them.

How loose can I go?

On Saturday I went into the city (downtown) for a bit of sketching. I felt the urge to do some architecture sketching and that is what I ended up doing! This was how I started.... A very complicated building in Martin Place.

After a good cup of tea and some yummy scones I decided to sketch this little gem on George St in the Rocks. I have sketched it before but never had the sun on it like this. It is only a small building but delightfully complicated
I tried to draw the line work as loose as I possibly could – without any regard (well, without much regard) to accuracy. As I have sketched this building before I already have a relationship with it so didn’t really need to study it much before I started scribbling. I was rather pleased with how it turned out

I then splashed on colour. I am trying to get lively washes – particularly in the shadow areas- trying to capture the warm glow that occurs in the shaded areas of the Sydney sandstone. Although I am a little happy with the effect in the archway- overall I wasn’t that keen with the end result... Maybe I added too much watercolour and the excitement of the linework is lost.

Anyway... The process got me thinking and I am going to experiment a bit more..... Stay turned!

Sketching complicated roof forms

This was a very challenging roof to draw! But rather than stressing about getting the perspective perfect, I am starting to be confident that my loose linework and paint can sometimes hide the wonkiness. The question is how much wonkiness can you get away with?

I like to drive around suburban blocks looking for houses that catch my eye. Sketching from the comfort and security of my car!

Many hideously overscaled new houses...so this one stood out this afternoon and it also fits in with the USK AUS monthly theme of Roofscapes. Yes.... we have decided to have our own monthly theme...for more details visit our flickr or facebook.
www.facebook.com/pages/Urban-Sketchers-Australia/29145153...
www.flickr.com/groups/uskaustralia/

I think I will try some more complicated roofscapes in the next few weeks.

A holiday from sketching architecture

I spent my two week summer holidays at home sketching around Sydney as if I was a tourist. I feel I didn't sketch much architecture... but from the look of this post I did more than I realised....

My first day was the ultmiate tourist day ... I ended up sketching that buidling again (the Sydney Opera House)


Between the shells - the door to the left is the loading dock! I drew another two sketches of this building on that day... but won't bore you with them.

On the other side of Circular Quay....

Just up the road from that.

On my second day (which was Christmas Eve) I sketched the tree in Martin Place with the GPO tower in the background. This seems SOOO out of date and old news now doesn't it!

Then a morning in a great museum - The Hyde Park Barracks

Afternoon in the Art Gallery and then I sketched the exterior of the buidling at closing time.
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After Christmas I went up to the BLue Mountians for a few days and although my focus was grand vistas I did sneak a few building sketches in...

Managed to sketch architecture in the background during lunch

And then a few cute buidlings in Mt Victoria.

A shop in Blackheath....

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During my second week I have some days at home, and then sketch meetups with some of my Sydney sketching friends

a quick sketch of QVB

An abandoned sub station with the Harbour Bridge in the background

The Mosque at Auburn - home to the Turkish community... the start of my world tour of Sydney suburbs.

I will leave my final day's sketching for another post!

So.. I suppose I did a fair share of architectural sketches even when I think that I am not...