Urban sketch of a building in Conceição de Tavira

Urban Sketching a Street Scene

On the way back home from a people sketching outing, a street scene caught my eye, and there was a shaded area just opposite, so I took 5 minutes to do a quick line drawing of these apartments with the laundry hanging on the line. (There’s a board game I used to play with my brother when we were kids, called Mousetrap, and this scene reminded me of it.)

It’s a playful scene, with lots of interesting elements to it. I like the use of negative space, and how I was able to segregate an area of the building to sketch, and not get distracted by the surrounding buildings. My intention was to make the laundry on the line the focal point, but because of the colours I chose it merges too much into the background, and the pink sun umbrellas are the focal point instead.

I really should be practicing sketching street scenes a little more often, especially in light of going to Toulouse next week for the Urban Sketcher’s Symposium. I don’t have any desire to sketch large-scale buildings in Toulouse, but I do enjoy sketching small portions or decorative elements of buildings. Hopefully I’ll have an opportunity between now and then to get my eye trained at seeking out street scenes, and not just sketching people on their phones!