Timber Framed Architecture

Since starting this website I have rather thrown myself into it, completing a sketching challenge every day and putting together a record of the courses, workshops and sketches I have completed along the way. One of the main reasons I started sketching was to record the places I visit on holidays and through work — although, having recently retired, I’m hoping the latter is unlikely ever to trouble me again.
Given that the website, and my daily commitment to urban sketching, only started a few weeks ago, I have naturally managed to increase my stress levels by deciding that I really ought to practise timber-framed buildings before a holiday just outside Shrewsbury, where we also intend to visit Ludlow and Much Wenlock.
I was born and raised in Chester, where you can hardly move for black-and-white timber-framed buildings. Some are genuinely old and some are later Tudor Revival, but together they are a huge part of the character of the city. Learning to sketch the crooked, leaning and wonderfully characterful buildings of Shrewsbury and the surrounding area should therefore put me in good stead for eventually turning my attention to my home city.
There is, however, one small problem, they are very difficult to get right!
My journey so far is below:

The Problem
Attempts 1 & 2

Trying Too Hard
Attempts 2–4.

Something Starts to Click
31 August

The brown street sketches.
I’m beginning to like these — although I’m not entirely sure whether I’m improving or whether I just like the colour.

Platinum 3776 UEF Shrewsbury sketch — more controlled and architecturally convincing; we preferred the brown one for its looseness, but this showed another solution.

Back to Henry Tudor via a long street scene and final comparison.

I am by no means there, but there has been substantial improvement.