Drawings: Blitzed Building

Pencil on Cartridge Paper

I created this drawing of a building, completely ruined after a World War Two air raid, from an old photograph recording the event. I thought it was interesting how although totally gutted and ruined inside, the defining feature of it is not the burnt out remains but the tower and the entranceway that still stand proud and defiant. In the photograph I drew this from, there is no background, due to the smoke and dust from the collapsed building, leaving the building looking like it had been drawn onto a bare canvas, feeling lonely and forgotten.

I employed the use of several grades of pencil, specifically a 2H, HB, 2B and in just a few places a 6B. I concentrated most of the detailed drawing techniques on the tower and doorway, leaving the ruined part of the building a little bit more vague. I left the background almost totally blank, much like the photograph where all you could see was the dust, I think it captured the forsaken feel of the place quite well.

Paintings: Remembrance

Acrylic on A3 Cartridge Paper

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row,
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.



John McCrae.