Centers Of Interest In Realistic Drawings

by Niranjan Garde
(Pune, Maharashtra, India)

What organic features find their way into realistic drawings created by architects? Take a stroll in the woods or along a jogging path. Open your eyes wide. Remember what you see. And after awhile what you "see" influences your work.

Being an architect, I sketch professionally. Sketching is also my hobby. Quite naturally, forms of structures have always interested me.

The sketch is of staff quarters at the University of Pune. I created it in the National Film Archives of Pune building on campus.

For any sketch to be successfully appreciated it should exceed in basic line work, relative proportions of objects to be illustrated, the angle of framing of objects, and overall composition of the field of view on the canvas.

This sketch is an example of the use of rhythm. See how the curve of the foliage meets the opposing roof-line. Doing so creates a positive center of interest on which the eye rests. It's a natural framing technique leading the viewer deeper into the image.

Anything to be highlighted, if it is bounded by or framed by surrounding natural objects like trees, bushes or natural openings such as those found in fortified walls, makes the subject interesting.

Sketching in charcoal pencil on a leather textured paper as I have done here, can prove challenging for two reasons.

Reason #1: No rubbing of any sort once you draw the line!

Reason #2: This limitation on erasing and editing compels the artist to "know" the positions of the entire picture on the bare canvas before beginning to draw.

This puts me in mind of the level of accuracy the ancient artists had to imbibe for sculpturing on a bare stone. The Rock cut Kailash temple in Aurangabad, India, and Petra valley in Jordan come to mind.

If you want to try leather textured paper, highlighting depends on the density of the shading pattern achieved with charcoal pencil.