Ex 1. Sketchbook of townscape drawings
One building that has often caught my eye is a corner cafe in the heart of Basel. I also knew that there is a large open square opposite this cafe with steps that would be an ideal place to sit and draw. This square in Basel is full of some amazing buildings with lots of character. However, when I got there I discovered that the big Herbesmesse Fair has arrived in Basel and every space is full of stalls and rides all over the city. The view I was hoping to draw was totally obscured. This Fair then evolves into the Christmas Market Fair, stalls and rides. This meant that whilst I could do a quick ‘on-site’ sketch whilst standing amidst lots of people, the notion of drawing it in detail first-hand, was not going to be possible. As I have to move forward with this project, and cannot viably wait until the Fairs go in January, I took a variety of photographs from different angles so that I could work on it further at home.
This is a lively, vibrant place with lots of people coming and going in the heart of Basel, and even more so with the Fairs here. The buildings around are generally very old, squeezed together, tall and thin and have amazing shapes and windows, and usually an interesting roofline with innumerable dormer windows built into the roofs.
I went in to town early one morning on an Autumnal, bright, but cool-ish day. The shadows cast across the buildings added to the visual interest.
Knowing that the opportunity to get fair and sunny days is lessening, I stood in a busy street doing this first sketch, knowing that subsequent drawings would have to rely on some photos that I could use at home.
The advantage of also working from photos of this scene is that I can now take some time to acknowledge the people that were constantly on the move around and across this busy central location of this cafe.
The aspect I particularly like about this building is the conglomeration of roof lines from the surrounding myriad styles of buildings.
In this experimental sketch I used marker pens to establish the bold areas of shadow, and then some fine Edding 0.4mm felt pens to add in the details. I added the tram in this sketch, but on reflection I find it too distracting. The blue of the shutters is a focal point in the otherwise neutral palette, and adds charm, but the green of the tram competes too much with this. I also want to explore a slightly different angle as there is a lovely little lane between the blue shuttered building and the ones on the left which can’t be seen from this perspective.
I like this composition, but in terms of fulfilling the requirements of this exercise, of ‘focusing on one particular building, it does not fully meet the brief.
Moving then to my bigger drawing, I identified another photo that matched all the aspects I had identified as being required, through reflecting on my preparatory studies. Initially I tried to draw this new image in charcoal (on the back of the finished drawing) by just looking at the photo. I soon discovered that the relative sizes and angles were not correct the more I drew.
I then used a similar method to draw up this, with a pencil, as in a previous exercise. I projected a big photo of this building onto the wall and worked on a board on an easel beside it. I used a pencil held at arms length to measure relative widths and heights of buildings and was pleased with how accurate this method seemed to be. I was also able to double check my angles of the rooflines as I drew with this method.
I was keen to try my Winsor and Newton inks for this. However, after reflection, I thought my carefully drawn lines might disappear under the inks, so I drew out the framework in tones of grey felt pens, using lighter tones to represent distant, and darker ones for the focus and foreground.
I was pleased with the tones of grey used in the small study I had done, so similarly I laid grey tones across the picture for the cast shadows. As I began to build up the picture I realised the grey was not punchy or exciting enough and felt very ‘stiff’. I wanted it to be looser and more dynamic, so overpainted this with purple. At first I was a bit alarmed how purple it was, and thought the drawing had been ruined, but as I built up the other colours and knocked back the purple a little in places, I think the colour combination came together. The blue of the blinds draws the viewer. Hopefully the suggestion of people adds some animation and the depth is effectively created with the receding tones. I did choose to hint at a building in the foreground on the left, but did not want it to compete with the focus of the main building so kept the tones for this light.
As required by the exercise the supporting buildings are suggested at to contextualise the main building.
Reflections
Through this exercise I learned more about how to use inks. I found that I often didn’t get the dark tones I wanted in places, so I drew on top of the inks with the Derwent Inktense colours in places to widen the depth of tones in the painting.
Washing over the initial attempts at grey shadow with the purple ink was scary. I thought the drawing was ruined, but was pleased that I persevered through my doubts, and the final result is close to what I was hoping to achieve.
Drawing inks and Derwent Inktense pencils work really well together.
I like the range of tones available from the inks and how diluting a colour makes it lighter.
Using this projection method helps me to draw bigger drawings with greater ease. I really find it liberating and I am able to check and recheck measurement and angles. The bigger image on the wall also has less detail so I find I can more readily identify ways to simplify what I am drawing. It seems to give me more ‘thinking’ space and I am able to move back in the bigger working space and reflect of the drawing as it progresses and what options I have.
Ex. 2 – Study of a Townscape using Line
The Basel Munster is an iconic image of Basel and I was keen to draw that for this exercise. With this in mind I walked along the opposite bank of the Rhine and took photos from various angles. It was a bright and cool Autumn day, but not really warm enough to sit and sketch for a long period. The first drawing, a pencil one, was done outside on the day but the other sketch and the final image were created from photos taken on that day and worked up at home.
I do like this composition… long and thin, but it does lack much of a sense of fore, mid and background as it is across the river, and the forefront is made up of a lot of foliage.
The second drawing was more successful in having a very definite fore, (bike and tree) mid (river) and background (buildings)
I do feel that I wanted to more focus on the Munster as it is such a beautiful building, and in this one, that focus is pushed too far into the background.
I have decided to work up another viewpoint, from a bridge crossing the river, focussing on the buildings from closer in. I will experiment with creating a sense of distance in the drawing.
In drawing this, I was unhappy with the dark tone I had on the middle drawing, and so used some designers gouache to whiten it again and then added a lighter tone back in. However, I was disappointed that the pen did not sit on the gouache in the same way and it created a grey tint which immediately drew attention as it ‘stood out’. I tried another pen to make it a bit darker as it is towards the foreground.
However, I had once again made it too dark and dominating. I was also conscious that although some buildings are clearly ‘infront’ and ‘behind’ I hadn’t managed to create any aerial perspective to highlight this.
I tried to use a Derwent Chinese white pencil to push the Munster towers into the background, and knock back some of the overly dark tone on that middle roof.
This technique was effective on the towers, but worked less well on that middle roof. Consequently I decided I would create a ‘new roof’ by cutting another piece of paper, adding the tone I wanted and then glueing it in place. I was disappointed to have to do this, but I do think holistically this range of tones works better and creates a sense of aerial perspective and distance in the composition.
I think the next time I do a drawing like this, I will be much more conscious of using a finer, thinner pen, perhaps even in a grey tone, in the background and move to thicker and darker pens for the foreground to emphasize the aerial perspective.
I was happy with the line and wash effect for the foliage and it helps set the trees and bushes apart from the buildings and brings them fully into the foreground.
Ex. 3, A limited palette study
We are asked to select a sketch from a previous exercise and to draw the scene in 3 colours, deep brown, sanguine and black conte.
I wanted to redraw the Basel Munster set of buildings as I had noticed in my previous line drawing of the scene, I did not create sufficient aerial perspective. In this second version I wanted to ensure that the towers looked as if they are the furthest away, with mid tones for the middle ground and darker tones for the foreground.
I began with the sanguine pencil which was the lightest in tone and drew in the outlines for all the buildings. I was determined to use my easel and stay standing for the whole exercise to keep this drawing fresh and unlaboured. I then blended the sanguine tones and lines using a paper blender. The towers were too well defined as the drawing progressed so using a putty rubber, I lifted some of the conte pencil off to make them recede further into the background.
I then moved onto using the dark brown and blending with this too. Finally, I used the black charcoal pencil and found that I only used it faintly in the middle ground, and more comprehensively, but still sparingly, in the foreground.
I was more conscious doing this tonal drawing that the lighting on the buildings did not have a strong direction and it was hard to determine exactly where the light was coming from on some facets of some of the buildings.
I also wanted to make the nearest building project forward with stronger and darker lines, but in the photograph this building did not dominate in terms of variety of tones and lines to delineate it from its surroundings, so it sits gently, as if embraced by the building immediately behind it. The foliage in the foreground really does have some dark darks and light lights. I did not want these to dominate the focus of the drawing (ie the Munster buildings) and so although I used all three pencils, I was keen to moderate the strength of the black so that it did not draw too much attention from the desired focus.
I was pleased that having drawn a really carefully observed, and time consuming line drawing of this scene, this drawing came together comparatively quickly.
Although this is a bigger drawing, the lines from these pencils are still relatively chunky. I did try to ‘lift off’ some of them with a putty rubber. However, I think this scene would benefit from being even larger so that the relative width of the pencil marks are less dominating. As it is, I feel it has somewhat of a child-like quality to the lines compared to the really fine lines achieved with the drawing pens.
It was easier to create aerial perspective using these three tones than with the pens and line drawings, not least because you can still adjust aspects of your drawing as you continue to draw by lifting out marks with a putty rubber, or adding thicker and darker lines and tones to make things appear nearer.
Ex 4, Statues
An emblem for Basel is a Basilisk and there are several different statues all around the city of different shapes and sizes so this was an obvious choice for this exercise.
The statues, like the first two in particular are enormous, animated and very impressive. I have felt an urge to draw one often, and so was pleased to have this opportunity in this exercise.
The first one is at eye level. I chose to use graphite pencils to draw it and create form. The textures of the feathers proved to be quite challenging on top of the shapes itself.
The second one is the same statue elevated on a plinth at the head of a bridge. This meant that I was looking up to this statue. It was good to have the chance to draw this same statue from a different angle.
The thrid version of this mythical creature is a small one, which is a water fountain, along the banks of the Rhine river.
I was conscious to try and keep the second and third drawings more lose than the first one.
All these statues are pretty dynamic in reality, and in this instance I think the first drawing has much more presence, and on reflection it is quite unusual to have such ready access to a statue of such size and presence at ground level as this one.
Cathy's OCA Drawing 1 Blog 