Last weekend, I was out for the "Light to Night Festival" to take photos of the event that was happening that night. But before the event started, I went strolling around the City Hall area.
It was still early for the "blue hour" photography and also for the event, so to pass the time I did a sketch of one of my photos. I find it a great way to hone my skills in sketching as well.
I mentioned on my previous post, when I was younger, one of my hobbies is sketching. Most of the time I draw characters from my favorite anime like Dragonball Z, Ghost Fighter, SlamDunk... and the list goes on. I'm a big fan of it.
When I was studying Architecture, my interest diverted to sketching buildings for my school projects. Until I shifted into computer graphics (CGI). That's the time that I totally forgot about the art of manual sketching or drawing. I never did any drawings since then, that was about 9 years ago.
When I joined Steemit, I began discovering great talents that are getting successful in this platform. The one that really interests me are the artwork done by sketch or drawing artists. I'm inspired by their artwork but at the same time I'm also enthusiastic about photography. At that point, I had this idea to combine my passion for drawing and my enthusiasm for photography.
My idea of combining my sketch and the photo that I take happened on the previous weekend. I had a lot of spare time and because of boredom I took a piece of paper and a pen. I tried to sketch the subject of my photography. After I'm done with it, I positioned the sketch in front of the camera while having the subject of the sketch as the background. I began with the sketch of Marina Bay Sands, here is the result.
This photo will served as the base image, I'm using it as a background for my sketches.
| Category | Cityscape photography |
|---|---|
| Camera | Sony DSC-RXRr |
| Settings | ISO-100 f/7.1 1/400sec |
| Lens | 35mm |
| Location | Marina Bay, Singapore |
On this shot, I overlay my sketch of the Marina Bay Sands on top of the base photo. I was able to get a decent fit with the help of my tripod. This is crucial to the process of sketching, it will be very difficult for me to assess the right scale without it. At times, I have to look through the camera while doing the sketch.
The next structure I sketched is the Singapore Flyer. The circular shape of the Flyer made it challenging for me to gauge the scale of my sketch. On top of that, I still have to consider the silhouette of the buildings behind it.
The last among the three buildings is the Garden Dome, I find it the easiest due to randomness of the curve lines. I figured not to get bothered by the scale as long I can get closer to its shape.
So that is how it began.
Now, going back to my latest drawing...
In my mind, I already plan to sketch the building that I will photograph. And that's why, I already brought my sketch note for it. Even though I'm prepared with my tools, I wasn't prepared enough for the difficulty of my subject. I guess I underestimated the classic design of the National Gallery.
The challenges that I faced are: the intrinsic detail of the building and the point of view where I took the photograph. To begin, I had to gauge the scale of the dome, I used it as the starting shape. From there, the rest of the drawing follow through. The test for my skill was the point of view, it's an extreme angled of view. I was standing in front of the building, this makes my view distorted unlike the one I had at the Marina Bay area which is in planar view.
The difference between views is that, on the extreme angle view all lines are diagonal and receding at one point. While the lines on a planar view are mostly horizontal and vertical lines which are simpler to draw.
Actual photo of the National Gallery building
| Category | Architectural photography |
|---|---|
| Camera | Sony DSC-RXRr |
| Settings | ISO-320 f/5.6 1/250sec |
| Lens | 35mm |
| Location | National Gallery, Singapore |
My sketch of the National Gallery dome on top of the actual photo. It's done using the same method as what I did on the other sketches. I took two photos, first a bare photo of the scene while on the second shot I've included my sketch. Then the two images where blended together in a photo editor software called Photoshop.
It looks like I still have a long way to go, I was just beginning and I guess I have to keep practicing for me to improve. It doesn't have to be perfect for now, I believe that with constant practice I will eventually hone and redeem my skills in drawing.
Well, that's it for now fellow Steemians. See you in my next drawing session, I hope you find my post useful and interesting to read.
