The third chapter in my new book 5 Minute Sketching Architecture is called Time-Saving Techniques and in it I explore lots of different ways for using line and colour.

The secret to sketching buildings quickly is to simplify them into the big shapes and structural elements that we looked at in Chapter 1. Once you have done this it is much easier to reduce a complex scene into a few loose watercolour washes and a few lines to define the important edges. This is exactly what I did in this sketch of the National Gallery and St Martins in the Fields at Trafalgar Square.

 
Putting down a few paint shapes as the first step is my favourite way of working at the moment, but Chapter 3 contains a lot of different approaches to getting your story down on paper. A few initial considerations include what size you draw, how many lines you use and how thick your pen is.

But then you will need to think about tone and colour and how best to use them quickly in your sketch. This chapter works progressively through ways of adding tone and colour and then finishs up with a few fun experimental approaches.

Do you mix it up, or just stick to ink first and then wash?

Thanks again to this amazing group of artists whose work is also featured in the book:
Asnee Tasna | Carol Hsiung | Daniel J Green | Delphine Priollaud-Stoclet | Inma Serrano | Isabell SeidellJames Richards | Luis E Aparicio | Luis Ruiz | Lynne Chapman | Marc Taro Holmes | Matthew Brehm
Murray Dewhurst | Peter Andrews | Peter Rush | Rene Fijten | Richard Alomar
Rob Sketcherman | Suhita Shirodkar | Tiago Cruz | Virginia Hein

Buy the book today: Amazon.com