I started to do some sketches of architecture in Leicester beginning with the view from my bedroom as that gave some interesting angles and compositions which I liked. I like the idea of capturing different segments of buildings in areas rather than just one building as this could show how old architecture has collided with new architecture.
This is the first drawing I did capturing my next door neighbours house. I added a lot of detailed brick work which took a while but I feel it really paid off. I believe this piece will look great when I add some colour and I’d like to explore different ways of portraying brickwork as there could be simplistic ways that are still very effective.
This is another sketch of the view from my bedroom window from another angle so that I captured a view of the house I live in as well as houses in the background. I like the zoomed in area of the house as this could allow me to add a lot of detail when it comes to adding paints.
I would like to continue sketching views from my bedroom window as well as physically going to the different areas of Leicester and capturing different architecture. This will be easy since I have lived in Leicester my whole life and am very used to the area.
Tutorial:
I had a tutorial with my tutors which allowed me to see that I was producing drawings that weren’t fully representing my full potential. It was made clear that the addition of detailed brickwork in the above drawings were ‘interesting motifs’ but took away from the drawing and the place as one of my tutors said I was drawing what I thought I saw rather than what I was actually seeing. I also realised that I need to start motivating myself to produce more work at a higher quality to allow myself to gain the best result at the end of this project.
After my tutorial, I went back to the drawings I had done and photocopied them so that I could explore the brickwork separately. I then erased the brickwork from the sketchbook drawings to leave a simplified drawing that I am planning on adding colour to next week. I feel that doing the simplified paintings in the sketchbook as well as working on the more detailed photocopies will allow me to see which is more effective and how I could proceed, possibly by combining elements of the two?
These were the simplified drawings which I am going to continue to work on. I am also going to work on the photocopies and do more drawings of Leicester from real life. I intend on creating some paintings in the upcoming weeks exploring how different places in Leicester have different features such as windows and doorways, even the quality of the bricks and how these differences can be quite subtle yet still make a big comparison.