IT’S RARE for me to have a whole hour free so to make the most of it, while I wait for Barbara to finish work, I draw the bookshop, starting with the door frame and working across the double-page spread, running out of ink halfway and borrowing a pen from Barbara to finish.
With any complicated subject I have to establish an anchor point before I can start mapping everything in its place. Those long verticals of the door frame that I started with on the left weren’t much help and it was only when I established the leaded window above the door that I was able to get a grip on proportions. The 45° pattern made a useful grid.
You can see where this went slightly wrong as the window started going into perspective on the right, my drawing equivalent to the distortions you’d get if you were photographing the scene with a wide-angle lens.
I love this drawing. I find it so inspiring; it makes me want to sit in the quaint used bookstore in my own town and sketch.
Thanks for taking the time to share your drawings.
It’s a great little bookshop but I am a bit biased because they always have all my local guides and walks books in the display rack by the door. In fact when Barbara started work yesterday morning the first book she sold was my ‘Walks in the Rhubarb Triangle’. Calling in 3 or 4 times a week is just too tempting for me and when I revamped my studio a coouple of years ago I added extra but even those are beginning to fill up. Thank goodness that I find the new library in town equally tempting.