I haven't been in Turkey, at least not since 1975. This study is copied from a picture book I have of Ottoman architecture. The scene here is a back alley in Istanbul. This national style with its domes and archways and interlocking forms has been greatly influential on other nations such as France and the USA. It's part of the cultural movement called "Orientalism" where designers and artists evoke the "exotic" world of the nations that were being colonized by "Westerners" at that time in the 19th century. I remember when I did visit Istanbul I was fascinated by the old apartment houses and palaces in the city, because I thought it looked so much like my native Boston, Massachusetts. What was Boston doing on the Bosporus? Or rather, what was Istanbul doing on Newbury Street? It was all about cultural inspiration. Fantasy architecture is also indebted to the Exotic Turkish Domes, above which dragons or magic-users fly.
Originally brown tech pen ink on sketchbook page, grayscaled in Photoshop, about 3" x 5". June 12, 2015.
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