An urban sketched vignette of a Tavira Building
This article looks at how to incorporate the definition of a vignette when sketching buildings, to create pleasing sketchbook layouts.
Urban Sketching Buildings … but how?
I love sketching people, but now that I’m heading to Toulouse later in the year to attend the Urban Sketchers Symposium, I thought I’d better brush up on my building and urban scene sketching skills. But I have a dilemma. I can sketch buildings, but I don’t have a natural passion for them. It’s more a case of I should, rather than I want to, and that’s no way to approach a blank page in a sketchbook.
I decided the best approach is to try my hand at urban sketching a collection of vignettes rather than forcing my self to sketch every aspect of a complex building.
Urban Sketching Buildings in Ayamonte
When I went on my Ayamonte urban sketching day out earlier this week, I specifically went with a view to sketching buildings as well as people. I think it’s good to push ourselves out of our comfort zone to explore new subjects and experiment with new techniques or art materials. This is what I endeavoured to do in Ayamonte, and through that process I realised that there’s more than one way to sketch a building.
I’d planned to sketch the front facade of the old church in Ayamonte’s old town. But it’s down a narrow street and I couldn’t get far enough back to get a good view of all of it. Instead I had a severe worm’s eye view creating severe vertical convergence. I had no interest in sketching the church from this vantage point, so I sketched a vignette of the elements in front of the church, and added a couple of boxed vignettes on the right of the page of a couple of interesting elements from the church (the spire, and an ornate light).
Even though I refer to the sketch as a collection of vignettes – it wasn’t than successful as a sketchbook page layout. But I didn’t really understand why. So I decided to research the definition of a vignette, to see what design elements I could incorporate into my next vignette. Here’s some descriptions of vignettes from two well-known urban sketchers:
Vignettes, isolate the objects of our affections … Vignettes do not extend to the borders of the page … Vignettes are irregularly shaped … Vignettes end on all sides in a definitive way, and don’t just fade away in every direction … Vignettes use the white of the page (the negative space) as an important design factor.
Fred Lynch: Hunting & Gathering: Sketching Collections and Vignettes
Vignettes, loosely defined, are small-ish sketches that don’t go all the way to the edge of a page. What I really love about vignetting is that the outer edge of the shape you create sets up an interesting negative space on the page instead of the composition being controlled by the edges of a page.
Suhita Shirodkar: Vignettes and some Thoughts on Them
The use of negative space is something that both Fred and Suhita mention in their descriptions, and I feel it’s probably one of the most important aspects. A vignette really needs room to breathe, and by not extending your sketches to the edge of your page you’re able to ensure there’s enough white space all around each vignette.
How to Improve My Ayamonte Vignettes
Main Sketch Vignette
My main vignette sketch went all the way to the edge of the page. The window at the top and the chairs and tables at the bottom. Those elements anchor the sketch on the page, and there should be more white space around the sketch.
Small Boxed Vignettes
I also sketched a couple of small vignettes on my page, that I added a border around. The top box has white space between the border and the edge of the sketch, but I didn’t leave enough white around the sketch of the steeple.
If we think about those boxes around the small vignettes as the edge of a page, these small sketches shouldn’t touch the sides.
Tavira Rooftop Vignette Urban Sketch
I was looking back on some other building sketches I’ve attempted, and the Tavira roof top scene seems a more successful attempt at a vignette.
Although the sky reaches to the top edge of the page, there’s plenty of negative space at the bottom of the sketch. And I like how there bottom of the sketch has a jagged edge and doesn’t just stretch across the page in a level horizontal line.
Toulouse Building Vignettes
This series of ink and tonal vignettes is almost a good example of a page full of vignettes, although one of them does disappear off the page, and they’re a little cramped.
Is My Sketchbook Big Enough for Vignettes?
I think the challenge for me is that I usually sketch in A6 and A5 sketchbooks, so there’s not a whole lot of space for complex page layouts. I do have an A4 sketchbook, but that feels too large for my approach to urban sketching.
We’ll see how my vignette sketching proceeds, and if I keep running into the issue of not leaving enough negative space, then I need to invest in a larger sketchbook. I may consider getting a sketchbook that gives me more room than an A5 sketchbook, but is smaller than A4.
