Part 2: Exercise - Architectural Illustration

For this exercise I decided to choose St Mary's Tower in Hadleigh, Suffolk. This particular church has a special place in my heart as it was the church where I was married and it's surroundings are a beautiful place to walk my dogs most evenings.

I began this exercise by taking my sketchbook to create some very fast drawings of different angles of the church. There is so much detail here it was hard to capture it in such quick references. I took lots of photos on my phone and continued to explore through sketching at home where I could focus more. 

Some of the Reference photos I took.

The church is situated next to The Deanery Tower, another historic building which is quite a contrast in both colour, style and era (1495, Grade 1 listed.) I decided to use the contrast of these two buildings for my final illustration because they are both beautiful buildings from different eras and both within the church yard.

The church does have other surrounding houses and buildings, including The Guildhall opposite and residential housing to the back and sides. Looking through my photo reference The Deanery Tower and St Mary's church were the best overall compositions I had.

History:

St Mary's Church in Hadleigh, Suffolk is a beautiful old church situation in the centre of Hadleigh and surrounded by The Deanery Tower, The Guildhall and other beautiful old houses from different eras.

The church itself has been built in sections and dates back as early as the 13th century. With it's tower being built first and then adding in the aisles in the 14th century. Further additions and renovations were made over the years and is still being maintained even today. As I was sketching, scaffolding was being taken down after doing works to the tower and bell.

The clock has also been repaired a couple of times over the last two years as it kept stopping or slowing down in time. You can imagine the tittle tattle this caused among residents when it didn't chime at the correct times or didn't tell the correct time at all!

St Mary's church is a Grade 1 listed building made from flint rubble, stone dressing and lead roofing and spire. It has many beautiful features including some angels on door posts, gargoyles and of course stunning stained glass windows.

The Deanery Tower was built in 1495 and was going to be a grand entrance hall for William Pykenham's house, the current rector at the time. The house was never finished and so the Tower became an open hall house, used as a parsonage until the current Deanery House was built in 1830.

The Tower is made of red brick and has several turrets and chimneys which add to it's beauty. The chimneys were a later addition in 1830.

Stmaryshadleigh.co.uk. 2021. Hadleigh, Layham & Shelley Benefice - St Mary's Church Building. [online] Available at: <https://stmaryshadleigh.co.uk/index.php/st-mary-s/history/st-mary-s-church-building> [Accessed 19 December 2021].

Stmaryshadleigh.co.uk. 2021. Hadleigh, Layham & Shelley Benefice - Surrounding Buildings. [online] Available at: <https://stmaryshadleigh.co.uk/index.php/st-mary-s/history/surrounding-buildings> [Accessed 19 December 2021].

Final Illustration Research:

For my final illustration I wanted to do some research into styles of architectural illustration. I've used pen and watercolour a lot in my previous illustrations on the degree course and I wanted to try something new.

I found a selection of different illustrators and compared them to see which style I found most exciting. Firstly I found a lot of watercolour and ink illustrations which I find beautiful but I was looking for something a bit different. I then came across a selection of illustrations which were more solid colours and angular lines. These intrigued me so I kept looking and then came across these bold, bright, stylized architectural illustrations by Jessica Hogarth. I knew this was the style I'd been looking for and wanted to try for myself. I really enjoy digital painting and colour so this seemed like a great fit for me.

Sketch Idea:

Digital Sketch with gouache brush.

I wanted to do the final illustration quite loose and thought my original sketch lines with the gouache brush added might work but it wasn't the look I was after in the end.

Final Illustration:

Digital ink pen and dry brush pen.

Reflection:

For my final illustration I used digital ink pen and dry brush pen. I was hoping to achieve a similar style to Jessica Hogarth but with my own colour palette. I found myself getting caught up in the details and couldn't seem to pull it all together. I felt that I wasn't doing the beautiful buildings justice because I struggled to capture the details in my own drawing. My rough pencil sketch felt more true to life and I think maybe even pen and watercolour would have worked better. Using a new style along with the complexities of the building's detail made it very hard for me to produce an illustration I was proud of. I do however think that this final illustration does show the contrast of the two buildings well.

Reading Resources:

Richards, J., n.d. Freehand drawing and discovery. - Examples of ways/styles to draw quickly in and advice on what tools to take very useful. Tips on how to draw people in the landscape and how to use them to create scale for the buildings. How to break up and complex scene.

Campanario, G., n.d. Architecture and cityscapes.