The Challenge

Today’s challenge was deliberately different. No grand building, skyline or famous monument — just one battered Venetian doorway. I was no longer allowed to make drafts or use pencil first: straight in with the fountain pen. I found this uncomfortable because every mistake would be permanent, and initially it actually made me feel less loose. One useful lesson from my Sketchloose workshops came back to me, though: start light and go bolder. That works remarkably well, provided I remember to do it. The Reasonable Tyrant wanted me to concentrate on the character of the old wall without simply copying every crack, brick and patch of peeling plaster. The green door was to remain relatively pale, with the dark semicircular opening above providing the strongest tonal contrast. There were also two particularly important instructions: “Do not paint a swimming pool” and “You are not allowed to draw every brick.”

I went straight in with the pen, without a preliminary pencil drawing, and used watercolour afterwards. The doorway itself worked reasonably well and I was pleased with the strong dark above the door against the lighter green. Working directly in ink was uncomfortable at first, but it forced me to accept marks rather than continually correcting them. Unfortunately, faced with all that wonderful old Venetian brickwork, restraint deserted me somewhat.

The verdict – This is a successful sketch, but it revealed something important about where my style appears to be heading. My natural instinct is towards expressive, slightly irregular, energetic linework, and that is beginning to become recognisable. The danger comes when I encounter texture — bricks, stonework, windows or tiles. At that point I have a tendency to stop sketching and start recording. And yes… I went a bit brick mad. The lesson from Day 14 was therefore not really about drawing a Venetian doorway. It was about learning that texture can be suggested rather than catalogued. 

Score: 8/10.

Reasonable Tyrant’s instruction: You do not have to draw every brick for the viewer to know that it is a brick wall.

8/10 – I am more than happy with that!