A Townscape in Line, a Sketchbook of Streetscapes and a Limited Palette Study

For the drawing of the townscape in line, I searched round for quite a while to find a view that might come somewhere near to what was suggested in the instructions. Finally I found it - some unremarkable looking backs of buildings which fronted on to the main street of a local town - Mitchelstown. Although I hadn't noticed it initially, while in the process of trying some early sketches I began to realise that it had the potential to make an interesting drawing. I was a little intimidated by the idea of interpreting what appeared like a multitude of textures in pen and ink, but after some practice sketches (below) and outlining the main features in pencil beforehand my fear slowly began to diminish. A couple of areas did give me a fright when I thought I had messed them up with a slip of the pen or over zealous shading - the eaves on the two central buildings), but I think I managed to reduce most of the damage with a little first aid.  

A few of the townscape sketches

Townscape in Line

How did you use a limited colour palette to create a sense of depth?

This applied only to the Limited Palette Study in coloured pencil (below). I used a little black conte crayon and dark blue watercolour pencil – a cool receding colour, with a touch of rose red pencil in the shadow areas. Where I used only blue and rose red combined, they merged into a vibrant but cool dark purple like shade. In areas where I thought increased shadow was needed I added a little black. A sense of depth was enhanced by repeated layers of shading and increasing amounts of pressure on the pencils. I applied rose pink alone, to areas where I wanted an advancing effect. I changed the colour, from what it actually was, on the larger building. The actual colours were black and light grey but I wanted to use a palette that would help to unite its appearance with the much smaller deep pink painted building next door. As the light grey paint on the large building had a blue tinge I decided to deepen the blue and mix in some of the pink shade from the adjoining building into the shadows, and vice versa with the blue and a little black.

Above - a sketchbook of streetscapes

As all the check and log questions seem to be geared towards them, I will keep to the sketchbook of townscape drawings and the limited palette study. I found some of the instructions confusing, as I’m not sure whether, for the limited palette study, I was meant to leave some parts unfinished (as stated at the end of the townscape sketches exercise) or to do a complete drawing, while leaving out a small amount of detail present in actuality. If this had been another sketch I would have done so.

It transpired I wasn’t happy that my preliminary sketches were sufficient because:

1. There was no variety light and shade, as the weather was overcast and at that time of day the orientation of the building I wanted to sketch was away from the sun.

2. I concentrated totally on the flat façade containing the shopfront and the ornate doorway next to it, which didn’t appear to have much potential to provide some sense of form.

After some thought I decided to return on a bright evening a couple of days later, when the sun was shining on the front right hand side of the building and was also casting quite long shadows. I did another couple of sketches - one of them of the complete scene. Admittedly, part of it was from photos I took there and then, as I didn’t have enough time to complete them on the spot.

It was quite frustrating trying to get the scale correct, as I had the scale inaccurate in the sketch of the buildings and I initially used the proportions in this for my final drawing. As the drawing progressed I soon noticed that a roof looked too high in one place then too low in another. When I took out a 30cm ruler to check these with the estimated vanishing point off the paper, this confirmed things, along with one or two other mishaps. So trying to judge the scale and perspective purely by sight was something I certainly wasn’t ready for!

Limited palette study

I felt it was really important to capture the architectural details such as the scrollwork and carved details around the nearest door and the left of the shopfront, even the roofs and chimneys, but in an understated way, as I think they are such a crucial part of the atmosphere and character of the buildings in the village and in the surrounding area. Part of the reason I wanted to extend the scene to include the small cottage type building next door was its smaller size and lower roof level. There are also other interesting disparities between this (pink building) and the larger, closer building. The two are both old and full of character. They are very different in style, one is older (probably), more rustic and relatively plain. The other, the larger blue building, is more elaborate in style but still traditional in appearance. Both are typical of local vernacular buildings.