Portrait of a Grand Old Lady

My drawing of a Victorian era home at 1000 East Walnut Street in Springfield, Missouri is the subject of this story. It took nine days and a crazy amount of hours. The drawing is 14" x 11" on Bristol board, a much smaller drawing than the 24" x 18" Walnut Street Inn Drawing.

My approach to any drawing is the same; anxiety, stress, apprehension… Truly, it isn’t too bad, but planning and starting a new drawing is almost as important and the drawing part in my world. When working with images as much as artists do today, they need to understand that photos lie. The lens distorts perspective and foreshortening, but since it is a photo your brain ignores the false representation. Artists get into trouble when they have completed a piece without taking this into account. Their art just looks “off”. (I am not looking to include this effect).

When I work on setting up a new work, I start with sketches and then incorporate my reference images. On my recent drawing “Victorian on Walnut Street”, The image of an old house with mostly straight lines was the basis of my drawing, I started with a two-point perspective drawing of the house. I then added the heavy detail that is the calling card of the Victorian style. Since this drawing is smaller the many of my previous building works, I had to edit some detail out, or allow it to be obscured by shadow. 

I considered correcting the obvious missing decorative sections, but decide that I would not make a ninety-year-old man look twenty-five, so why would I fix this old beauty. After the pencil drawing was complete, I started the ink drawing. I chose a level of detail to work in, and how I would adjust from lightest to darkest tone levels. This included where the level of detail would set how light or dark the base structure would be. Too dark, and the whole drawing would be dark and heavy. Too light, and I would lose a lot of detail that gives this drawing such character. The best part of this subject is the great number of ornate angles, fixtures and details.

Since most of my recent drawings have been animals or nature, the subject is living, but a street scene, a house or large structure crave a bit of life to be introduced into them. In the drawing “Victorian on Walnut Street” I used the trees and bushes to add a bit of living matter, random shapes and soft structures to break up the shapes. The movement is implied because trees and plants are moved about by the wind blowing through the foliage.

As I finish my work on a drawing, I am always happy to be done, but I want to live with it for a day or so. This way I can notice the small problems and correct balance issues that will bug me if I see them