One Sketch #40) Chapel Take 2

Yes, I'm sorry to be repeating myself, but to be honest, the one I did two days ago, well as a personal sketch it's fine, but not for a commission. It was hard to put my finger on it, but that front end just wasn't right. So, nothing daunted, I've had another go.

If at first you do not win,
Take your pen and try agin
If it does not work out then
Throw away your useless pen.

One Sketch #39) Some bloke called Trump

Ho boy. Right, yesterday, lacking in inspiration and not having a huge amount of sketching time, I said, - I know, I'll make a lightning quick sketch of the first person that I see when I switch the telly on. Guess who? It's not a great sketch, but then he's not a great president - feel free to disagree. Face is too long in this - but it was only a very quick sketch.

I left Fate decide.
It took its course.
And it's coarse.

One Sketch #38) Chapel

Broad, solid,
Unchanging
Let in the future
For I will still be here
When it has come and gone.

This is a commission, a nice, solid church which is probably not as old as it looks.

One Sketch #37) Jaguar Dream Car

My dream machine
Is only seen
To best advantage
In racing green.

Has a hard day today. Awkward situations at work, compounded by the fact that I woke up with a bad stomach at 3 am this morning and didn't get back to sleep. So when it came to choosing a subject for a sketch, I decided to share with you my dream car.

This is a Jaguar XK120. It's a stunningly British sports car from the 1950s. I fell in love with this car when I saw one in an exhibition for the Queen's Silver Jubilee. It was painted in gold, and I just thought that the front end of it was the most beautiful car I've ever seen. I promised myself there and then that one dat. I would have won of my own. Well, 40 years later and I haven't achieved that dream yet. Never mind. Dreams can keep you going sometimes.

One Sketch #36 Crocodile

I am not a log
No, I am floating death
And wait for you
In the steaming rivers
Of Africa and Asia

Basically, I've been marking a set of tests these last couple of days, one section of which is all about crocodiles. Can't seem to get them out of my mind right at this moment.

Tip: Putting things into perspective can create dramatic sketches

I’ll have to be a bit careful what I say here. In a way, I’m not a very good person to discuss using perspective in your sketches, since I don’t have any real system for using it, I just rely on my eye to create the sightlines I’m going to follow. So this blog entry is really making me think about how I do it. . . and it’s never a bad thing to spend a bit of time analysing your own technique. 

What Is Perspective?

Perspective is the way that the objects in a  two dimensional image seems to narrow as they recede into the background. Use of perspective can make a flat, two dimensional image seem much less flat and more three dimensional. For example, compare these two early sketches I made in 2016: -

Now, there’s nothing technically wrong with the sketch on the top, which shows the side of the Pierhead Building of the National Assembly in Cardiff. It’s as technically accurate as I’m ever likely to be. But it’s very flat, and uninteresting, which is wrong, since the Pierhead is a very interesting building. Bonmarche in Swansea is an interesting building too, although nothing like the scale of the other. By positioning myself some distance to the left of the shop, rather than directly in front of the shopfront, I was able to use perspective to give an idea of the building in its entirety, which I feel is a lot more interesting than the other sketch. 

It's probably easier to talk about perspective if I use a sketch example. Here’s a simple sketch of a house block.

You can see the way that the roofline slants down into the centre of the page, while the bottom of the block slants upwards towards the centre. Now, if you were to extend both of those lines, then there is a point where they would meet, which we can call the vanishing point. Now, if I was also to draw lines from the tops of the windows, and the bottoms, if the perspective is right, they should also meet at the vanishing point.

Now, if I draw the other side of the street, I could position the block about the same distance from the vanishing point. However, if I move it further away, then the sightlines will be shallower. If I move the other block closer to the vanishing point, then the sightlines from the vanishing point would be much steeper, and the perspective more dramatic.

I do know people who like to set their vanishing point and sketch in sightline very thinly in pencil, then rub them out later. Personally, I don’t go to all that bother. I’m not trying to produce perfect photographic reproductions in my sketches. If I’m trying to portray a building with particularly dramatic perspective I may put a small dot on the page to represent the vanishing point if it’s on the page, but I draw my sightlines just with my eyes. More often than not the vanishing point is past the edge of the page, though.

None of the sightlines on the three sketches were made using a ruler or straight edge. So it’s no surprise that none of them are actually perfectly straight. However, they’re straight enough, and the perspective is true enough to give me the effects I want, and perspective I want. It’s a matter of practise, and being bold enough to experiment. Try to always think where you want to put the vanishing point, and the effect this will have on the viewpoint of the building. For example:-

Here’s the sketch prior to applying watercolour to it: -

See how far to the left the vanishing point would be. Probably not as far as you think. Actually, the perspective isn’t perfect on this – the lines between the bottom and the windows is a little too steep. One thing you might notice, though, is how low the vanishing point is. Using such a low vanishing point was a conscious decision, because I wanted to give the feeling of the viewer, looking up at the Theatre from further down the hill. It’s a derelict building, but the dramatic perspective works to give it a sense of the faded grandeur I eel every time I pass the building. 

One Sketch #35) AEC Regent Bus Swansea Bus Museum

Well, I have to say that I had the most pleasant morning. I've been meaning to visit the museum for several weeks, but it's only open on a Sunday and this year it's moved premises. Never mind. I had a really nice chat with David, the chap who was on the desk when I arrived, made sure that he didn't mind me making a sketch, and then got on with it. There wasn't anywhere to sit down, so I made this one standing up. This is one of a very few single decker buses in the museum - it was made for use in Llanelli, to fit under bridges in the docks. I showed it to David, and he was extremely complimentary - asked me to be the first person to sign the brand new visitors' book, and took a photo of me holding my sketch for the Museum's newsletter. How nice was that?

Faithful iron horse
In peaceful retirement
Her dreams are of diesel
And the hot, sticky tarmac
Of summer dock roads.