I decided to make some architecture sketches recently, spurned on by three things:
1. The success I had a couple years ago making a few architecture sketches of photos taken on other vacations (the Notre Dame in Paris, Chenonceau Castle, and the Rialto Bridge in Venice - the last of which is still available for sale,
here on Etsy), and
2. The success I had painting the Charlotte Skyline recently in the commissioned triptych acrylic I created earlier this year, and
3. Going through photos and finding all the best architecture pics of our recent trip to NYC for all those recent blog posts.
I thought it would be fruitful and fun to pull a few of the best photos out and try to draw some of the iconic buildings, particularly the One World Trade Center, the Empire State Building, and the Statue of Liberty. I also had some thin Koh-i-noor magic pencils (tri-color pencils that have three different shades in a single pencil) I've been meaning to try out for ages, and knew from my experience drawing the Notre Dame, Chenonceau, and the Rialto Bridge that magic pencils could make for some successful drawings. So I gathered my supplies - the colored pencils, a ruler, white paper, a pencil sharpener, and my source photographs - and measured out 5"x7" areas to draw within.
But the sketches didn't go as well as I wanted them to. Part of my struggle was undoubtedly that architecture drawings are not my typical subject matter, and even though I did recently draw and paint a Charlotte Skyline, I did a lot of preplanning, measuring, remeasuring, and using ratios and rulers to make sure that my sketch was as accurate as possible, rather than drawing it freehand. For these smaller pictures, I was going for a looser, freehand style, and then found myself unsatisfied with it.
Another struggle was that I wasn't used to the thin magic pencils. Though I've used the tri-tone pencil type before for architecture drawings, those pencils were thicker, meaning that my lines couldn't be as precise, due to the constraints of the materials. With the thinner pencils, my lines could be more precise - and so I thought they looked a little too rough when they
weren't as precise as I wanted.
Finally, I had other projects I was also concurrently working on - finishing up the varnishing layers on the Charlotte Skyline painting (blog post on that process coming soon), as well as planning and starting other symbolic floral colored pencil drawings, and working on my novel(s) (again, more to come about those in future blog posts), so my heart wasn't totally "in it" when it came to these sketches. I was more excited about those other projects, and so when I forced myself to still work on these small sketches anyway, while NYC was still relatively fresh in my mind, I just wasn't feeling it.
It really doesn't take much for me to lose confidence or lose heart in an art project I'm doing - it can even just be other feelings or experiences I've had that day that are making me sad or self-conscious or anxious, totally unrelated to the artwork at hand. Once I start having doubts or feeling like the piece is not going the way I want it to, it can be hard to overcome those issues.
In the end, I made four sketches. They're decent, but they're not great - that is, they aren't what I really wanted them to look like, and I don't think they're of a high enough quality that I could or should sell, so I'm not going to list them on Etsy like I had initially wanted to. Maybe some day in the future, when I'm in a better place or a better mood, I'll try again and see if I can't get sketches that I'm happier with.
In any case, I still wanted to include the photos in this blog post, just to share what I've been working on lately. Not every art project is going to end up being a winner, but the important thing is that I keep trying anyway - trying new subject matter, new materials, new ideas - and that I don't let the weeks when I'm struggling pull me permanently down.
I started out with the Statue of Liberty. The image on the left is a black and white printout of one of the photographs I took in NYC. I used three different thin magic pencils to draw a (rather linear) sketch of the statue and her large pedestal. I was not satisfied with it in part because it was so small - I could do very little, if any, shading without the drawing just becoming a dark, incomprehensible mess.
Next, I drew the Empire State Building, as seen from the Top of the Rock observation deck. Again, the image on the left is my black and white printout of a photo I took in NYC, while my drawing is on the right. I used a blue magic pencil for this one, and then added in some of the other buildings in the background using a red/yellow pencil.
For my third sketch, I revisited the Statue of Liberty, because I wanted to try again. I didn't include her pedestal this time, hoping that without the large pedestal I'd have more room to get in some of the shading and details that I wanted to. I do think this one turned out better than my first attempt, and like some of the shading. I used two green magic pencils for this sketch.
Finally, I drew the One World Trade Center building, with some of the nearby buildings that make up the NYC skyline, as seen from the Hudson River. The black and white image I was using as a source photo was one that I took on our Circle Line Landmarks boat tour. I used a blue magic pencil for this sketch.
Here are the three best (and three last) sketches. I don't think they're horrible for the quick sketches they are, but I also think I can do a better job if I put a little more planning and time into it. I also think New York City is so big and iconic (it is called the "Big Apple" after all) that I'm only doing myself a disservice if I try to draw small sketches. When I revisit this idea another time, I think I'll make larger drawings, so that I can add in more detail and shading, like I wanted to with these.
