My husband and I took a Danube River cruise on Uniworld’s S.S. Maria Theresa a few weeks ago. The cruise took us from Passau, Germany, to Budapest, Hungary, where we spent a couple of extra days before flying home to PA.
On our last day in Budapest, we found a shady park bench with a great view of the Hungarian Parliament Building, and I mustered all my sketching skills to attempt a drawing of the incredibly complex Gothic Revival structure.
According to my iPhone, I took the reference photo above at 11:13 am and snapped the picture of my finished sketch, below, at 12:10, so it took about an hour of intense concentration to do the drawing.
I worked as quickly as I could since Fred was waiting patiently, reading a book and people watching while I worked/played.
I roughed in the drawing first with a pencil, then used a fine-nibbed fountain pen to ink the lines and add detailing. I intentionally kept my lines loose, imperfect, and a little wobbly. I think they’re more interesting that way.
Because the architecture was so intricate, I had to greatly simplify what I saw, making choices as to what to include and what wasn’t necessary. I wanted to capture an impression of complexity without having to draw every excruciating detail.
the I liked the graphic look of the black and white drawing when it was done, but after I got home I decided to add some color to the sketch. I thought you might want to see the step-by-step process I used to paint the building with watercolor.
To begin, I painted a wet-in-wet sky using Cerulean Blue to serve as a backdrop for the building.
Step 1 – Base washes: A base wash was painted onto the roof areas using Burnt Sienna with a touch of Ultramarine Blue. Notice that sunlit areas are lighter, while shaded areas are darker and cooler, with more Ultramarine added to the mix.
Next, I mixed up a warm golden color for the stone using Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber plus a touch of purple to dull it down a it. This color was brushed onto everything that wasn’t part of the red roofs.
The green turrets were painted with a mixture of Sap Green, Burnt Sienna, and a bit of Ultramarine Blue.
Step 2 – Midtones: The shadows on the building weren’t particularly clear when I took my reference photo, so, when it came time to paint them, I just assumed that the sun was in the upper left, shining down on the building at an angle, and I painted the all the shadows so they made sense with that light source.
For the midtone colors, I simply used a darker, more concentrated mixture of the base wash. For the darker shadows, I mixed in some Shadow, a dark, muted violet by American Journey.
Step 3 – Darkest Values: Everything looked a little washed-out at that point, so I amplified the value contrast by adding deeper, richer rust colors on the roofs and some darker shadows on the golden stone. I painted deep shadows on the green steeples and added accent shadows to some of the detailing along the lower part of the sketch.
Step 4 – Final touch-ups: The windows behind the buttresses were painted with a mix of Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna (my favorite color combination for shadows). I also added some detailing to the large red dome and the smaller square turret on the right.
To add a touch of liveliness and whimsy, I spattered diluted paint onto the building and the sky.
The final addition was a hand-lettered title, drawn in a casual, informal style.
This sketch is a fun, lively representation of all I love about these old architectural masterpieces: the incredible attention to detail, the skill of the craftsmen who created it, and the unbelievable creativity of the architect who designed it. And I appreciate the fact that all of the countries we traveled through care enough about their heritage to spend the money to preserve it.
Here’s my finished two-page spread…
So, did I make the right decision in adding paint to the sketch? Which do you like better, the line drawing or the fully painted sketch?
That’s one of the challenges I face with every sketch I do. How far do I push it? How much should I add? Sometimes I’m glad I forged ahead; other times I wish I had stopped earlier.
But then I remind myself that it’s only a piece of paper, and there is no right or wrong way to do a sketch. The most important thing is to enjoy the act of creating. And with this one, I truly did.
