I spent a surprisingly wineless Saturday driving around Loudoun County, Virginia, a few miles west from my urbanified home. My destination was not a winery but a country store in the tiny crossroads town of Philomont, where I bought a pair of deerskin gloves. So my wine budget went to gloves instead. Down the road and through the horsey fields, you get to Aldie, which is another slightly larger town full of historic buildings and attractive shops. I stopped in one shop and sat in a rusty old chair from the next door's property to do this drawing. This building was built in the 19th century as a country store but was turned into a residence and then abandoned, so no one lives or works there now. The double-stairway porch is impressive for a vernacular building. The place is in disrepair and if I had a lot of money I would buy it and fix it up. Unfortunately, I can't make this happen so all I can do is draw it.
I didn't get all the work I wanted done on the drawing because the sun was setting and I was losing light. So I finished it when I returned home. I also did some touching up in Photoshop. I know that the Rules of Plein Air Art forbid such studio re-working, insisting on the Authentic Experience of Being There. Well sue me then, if I can't fix up the real building I'll fix up my drawing.
Pentel Pilot gel pens on sketchbook page, 9" x 8 1/2", September 29, 2012. Clikonthepic for larger view.
3 comments:
Normally I am not into pictures of houses or buildings, but youra always seem to have so much life and personality that I love them! You realy should consider a book of your buildings. I mean a small 8 1/2 x 11 24 page book with full color and black and white work in it would be relatively cheap to publish...I would even be willing to do the leg work (act as the publisher).
Tristan, you've done so beautifully with your picture books and folios over the years, that is what I want to do. I want to make a full color book of my winery drawings which I can market in the Virginia wine world. I have no idea how to do this or what kind of image format is needed. Your experience and help as publisher are just what I am looking for. Let's talk (or exchange e-mails) in private.
email me about a book tristan@vampyre-nmp.com
Post a Comment