Landscapes and Townscapes

being a bit of a

geometry geek as a kid, I always found drawing buildings easy; then as a student of architecture I enjoyed learning new rendering techniques from my peers.

However, once I discovered life drawing in my 30s, I stopped with the geometric shapes, prefering to concentrate on the subtlety of light shade and character rather than subconsciously checking the construction using theoretical perspective.

But these things are perhaps set aside only to be later rediscovered . . .

I drew

this Spanish scene in summer 1983. I know that because my baby daughter was sitting in a sling on my belly.

If ever

you go to a world expo, you can bet the Moroccan pavilion will be full of beautiful intricasy. Here is the little seaside town of Imsouane telling the story of economic change

this

building doesn’t really exist, its actually a mashup of several similar places – again in Imsouane

one of my

all-time favourites on instagram is this Korean artist.

I had his simple linework and watercolour in mind as I did this sketch in Beaune while travelling across the south of France in autumn 2020.

Albi

a little courtyard in another staggeringly pretty French town. I was looking for a way of depicting depth by making the foreground in higher contrast than the farther-away planes.

another one of the same

town. In this case the magnificent brick church tower.

same trip

different town.

This was Sauve, a pretty little riverside town.

Practicing sunlight and shadows in a very simple single point perspective.

Sauve again

The other side of the square, a winebar called Jaja which gave us a giggle because it means “bollocks” in Polish

Brousse-le-Château

Castle, church, hillside, stone bridge, cobbled streets – cute overload really.

here we are

Road-trip done, and a sketch of our next door neighbour in the place where we stayed for the next six months. Dordogne.

I used the BigWetSet brushes for all the digital watercolour rendering in this set. I like them a lot. (I also used them for all the colour work in Life Hacks)

fast forward a year

and we were back in Dordogne again, this time near Verteillac in a different tiny hamlet, so this was a warm winter’s day in January. Cheap mechanical pencil and printer paper.

Verteillac

Same place same pencil new sheet of paper, plus digitally added sky.

rolling dordogne hillsides

derelict irrigation systems and this time the sky rendered in pencil.

This is a photo of the drawing, those above are scans. I thought this one had more character this way.

sometimes

I like my little scribblepix the best.

This was a three minute study of light and shade to show depth.

yes

this isn’t a landscape but here it is anyway.

and now

for something completely different. A study of spring light in the beech forests at home in Poland.

It was at about that time that I made this illustration for Jabberwocky

footnote to mobile site . . . This note appears in a sidebar on computers and tablets . . .

being a bit