Art Alley

I've always loved to look at drawings of city scapes, especially alley ways and the more grungy parts of town. However, I've never attempted to draw one myself because the idea of having to correctly render buildings and streets with all their right angles and perfect squares was fairly intimidating, not to mention it sounded kind of boring, even if the end result might be nice.

But I've noticed that many of the drawings I've admired on pinterest are those that are more sketchy and not as precise, some even with the perspective deliberately drawn incorrectly.

While I have many pictures saved that are perfectly rendered, here are a few from other artists that I love because they're not:

loish.deviantart.com
























































Pete Scully, Mallet Street, Soho

I love the following painting so much. I think because of the bright orange underpainting.




Reno 7 AM by Mark e. Mehaffey

This last on is the one most like what I wanted to draw:



Jon Shaw

 

I've been thinking for a while that the art alley we like to visit in Rapid City would be a cool drawing- plus it's one of the few photographs of a city that I have taken myself. (I really wish I'd taken more photos in Seattle).

I figured if I could stop myself from worrying about all the right angles, straight lines and perfect perspective I could probably have some fun with it.

I didn't want to recreate the best pictures I had of the artwork we saw there; then I'd just be copying some other artist's graffiti. So I sifted through my photos and found the perfect shot.

For some reason I like city drawings that show all the wires and poles that make the city work, and this photo had plenty of those. It also had regular graffiti so it looked like an alley anywhere.

So as usual, the photo of this drawing doesn't show it exactly right; the colors on the right hand wall for instance seem a litte too yellow, and the road has more blue to it in the real drawing. But for the most part it works.


























I spent the most time coloring the structure holding up the batteries at the top, and the wall to the right; I really like how they turned out. I deliberately did a lot of red in this wooden platform because I was thinking of those pictures with the orangish red underpaintings that I love. I drew the sky last; I didn't want to wash out the blue batteries or power towers with with a blue sky, so pink seemed good. I just wish I'd have spent more time drawing the towers further away like I did on the one in the foreground, since they're in the center of the drawing and you notice them first. Guess I didn't think that through enough.

 

Here is the wall that I think is the best part of the drawing. I spent a lot of time trying to make the windows right, but I only roughly sketched in the bricks so it wouldn't be so uniform and tedious. I like how the brick lines aren't perfect, and I think it turned out great.

 

 

 

I'm still trying to learn about all these art markers I have, and this was the perfect project for it. I would definitely try another cityscape sometime in the future.

 

11x14" Prismacolor and Copic Markers