Part 3 Project 5 Ex 3

A limited palette study

One of the sketches I really liked was the one of The Old Nick Theatre in Gainsborough.  A black and white sketch cannot possibly show exactly how ornate this building is.

The Old Nick Theatre, Gainsborough

My sketch of the building:

It's a very complex building from the point of view of pillars and my sketch gets nowhere near the detail I need so I looked at my photos and zoomed in.  What I wanted was to see how the windows sat in their frames and what the fancy carving really looked like.

Acanthus carving on pillars

Complex arches above windows

Arch over door

How the window fits

I don't think these are very good sketches but they have done the job of making me more aware of the intricacies of the Old Nick.

I don't anticipate that my limited palette drawing will have this amount of detail but it's given me some practice as well as a good feel for the building.

Old Nick Theatre , Gainsborough

Because the brick is a honey colour I chose some A3 Ingress paper of the same colour.  The door and some of the infills are blue and the coloured brick is a bright rust colour so there are no real decisions to be made.

I sketched in 2B pencil and got some basic shapes.  I found that a drawing of this size couldn't support much detail so I drew in conte crayon.  The door and window infills are in water soluble pencil crayon.

I left out some of the ugly drainpipes as well as some of the detail I couldn't quite understand.

I had to photograph this as it's too big for my scanner and the brickwork looks rather too grey.

The focus of the drawing is the entrance to the theatre and that is where I have concentrated my work. I lightened the building in the background by smudging to get depth and keep it different and unobtrusive.  I purposely left the bay window on the right slightly unfinished.

It was a challenge to get the perspective right and then keep it right throughout all the convoluted pillars and porches.  There are bits that look a bit shaky but considering how I've struggled with 3 point perspective I think it's passable.

I've done something that I think is unforgivable.  I didn't think the roof on the far left looked right (see photo and sketch).  I added a roof and spoilt the character of the house.  A good lesson but maddening.

Conte crayons are a medium I've avoided because I don't like the texture - they feel a bit scratchy.  For this exercise I was instructed to use them.  I found they were quite good for the job I had to do but I prefer soft pastels.