How I go about drawing
On my site I show some of the buildings I have enjoyed drawing over the years now available as Giclée Prints. There have been many more renderings over the decades, but most of them were either sold privately, or commissions. Unfortunately sometimes, they just got lost… misplaced somewhere.
Forgotten in a cupboard or under a dusty bed.
My methods are slow and detailed, often quite meditative as one wash after another builds up depth. A drawing usually takes at least a month or so to complete, apart from the research that goes into getting it on the drawing board.
Some buildings are frustratingly short of detailed information.
Each drawing is created using Chinese Ink or watercolours.
Only the highest quality 100% cotton Watercolour paper is stretched over a wooden drawing board until it is as tight as a drum.
The building is then carefully draughted in pencil — and shadows worked out.
Once the building is fixed, I start laying washes and slowly the building appears — like a photograph developing in a darkroom, gradually the texture and colours reveal themselves.
As in the Beaux Arts renderings of decades ago, I cast the shadows carefully and pay attention to the nuances of the back shadows and lights, and with the shadows and shades, the building jumps into life. Even though these are solid structures, I hope to achieve a transparency in the rendering.
The modelling becomes clear and the architect's intentions reveal themselves.
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Once I feel the rendering is ready, and unfortunately not all of them make it to this stage, it is then professionally photographed for reproduction — they are always too large to fit on even the largest flat-bed scanner. I work with a Bristol Fine Art Printing Studio who take as much care over the details of printing as I do in rendering it.
So whether you are interested in a large Limited Edition or a small A4, the quality is assured.
I never use drop shipping and each print I send out will have been quality checked by me.
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Please contact me if you are interested in commissioning a new drawing.​