Drawing and painting buildings

Artists have different pet subjects. It could be that you don't have much interest for drawing buildings, but it is important to be self-disciplined to become skilled. It pays to tackle all subjects in a professional way. The skill required, for example, to draw buildings accurately is just the same as that needed for drawing trees, animals or people.

Fig. 1 outline of a simple house

All problems of draftsmanship are related. It is only the way we think about them that varies. Start with basic construction lines. Learn how to draw some of the buildings or houses which crop up in landscapes. Let's begin with the basic construction of a building, be it a house, temple, a church or a tower. You have to mentally strip it of all its trappings details and regard it in its simplest form.

However, complex and daunting a building looks at first sight, once it's broken down into geometric shapes such as cubes and cones with squares, triangles or oblongs attached to them, it's not so daunting. Combine this thinking with the basic rules of perspective.

Once you've got these simple shapes looking right, you can start building the details such as windows and doors. Once having got our basic knowledge in drawings done, the next you got to think about its light and shade.

The usual mistake here is that not enough thought is given to the lighting and the result is that a building looks flat and dull. It seems fairly obvious that if you can see two sides of a building one should be darker than the other to give it solidity and depth. This fact often seems to be forgotten once a painting is in progress.

Fig. 2 A finished painting of the house

Remember the darker the shadow, the brighter the adjacent parts appear. If the light at the time you are painting a building, is not bright you can use your imagination a bit and intensify the shadow, as long as their direction is consistent. The form of an object is revealed by the contrast of light and shade on its surface, shadow and cast shadows are powerful element, in making buildings look three dimensional.

Fig. 1 shows a preliminary drawing, the outline of a simple house. Fig. 2 a finished painting of the house. Observe the way the big stones had been used in the low wall. Do this illustration by first putting down the main construction lines as shown. The finished painting looks more solid and real.

I never wanted to paint modern buildings in the city. They do not arouse any feeling. I find old and weathered subjects like this house fascinating and render their texture more effectively. I have used heavy colours of burnt sienna to convey the texture of the weather beaten walls and the wooden shutters in the house.

The kind of paper you choose will play an important part in the textures you create. First try them out on extra piece of paper before starting to paint the picture. Remember, a golfer practises strokes before putting a club to the ball.