Rome III
Rome offers an enormous amount of nice spots to draw, and no matter where you go you´ll find something inspiring. It would be perfectly possible to draw something in one spot, then just walk around the next corner to find your next subject, turn another corner to draw something new, and so on. It never ends.
Of course, with limited time, you have to choose. I liked the ghetto a lot, because of it´s sometimes very odd angles and rugged textures that seem to surprise you everywhere.
I sat down on a doorstep to draw this, a very narrow part of a house that really intrigued me. I just love the funny way this was built, with the tiny supports under every floor (click to see the image bigger if you can´t see them). And who lives behind that striped curtain up there? It would be really interesting to see the interior of this building…
10 x 20 cm, Lamy Safari with Noodler´s Lexington grey ink and watercolours on Fabriano Rosapina paper (part of sketchbook page).
Beautiful, Nina. You have so wonderfully captured sunlight and shadow along with really great details in the buildings.
Your drawings and narrative almost make me feel like I’m there. Thanks for sharing your wonderful trip with us! nancy
Hi Nina, love this one, you always get your perspective right, I love drawing buildings but find perspective so hard to get right.
Nina,
You have captured one of the things that I love about Rome – the other is all the layers of significant architecture… oh! and of course the Borromini buildings!!
Look more to seeing more Rome sketches…
Hi!
As lovely as always!
Just one question – where do you find that papaer in a sketchbook? Or have you done it yourself?
/rolf
Thank you, Rolf! I bind most of my sketchbooks myself, so I buy the paper in big sheets and cut it to the size I want. Fabriano Rosapina is really a printing paper, but it works pretty well for drawing and watercolours as well. The surface is a bit more porous than Arches Satinée or Fabriano Artistico hot press which I usually use, so I find I sometimes have to use a bit more colour because it “sinks in” a little into the paper.
Wonderful composition in this delightful watercolour, Nina. The ghetto is my favourite area too but I’m afraid my sketches were much more ’sketchy’
Brava to you.
This is a fascinating and intriguing sketch–thanks for showing me the building through your eyes.
I love the way the format matches the subject – great sketch.
This is my favorite so far of the Rome sketches! It is beautifully composed and the type of scene I would choose to draw. Unfortunately in my area I have the exact opposite…I can walk for hours and not find a scene that interests me!
Beautifully done. T?hanks for sharing a little bit of Rome with us.
Beautiful sketches!! I love how you use color, too.
Absolutely wonderful, I love the details!
Lovely drawing. I am longing to get back to Rome to draw. I used to walk to the ghetto on my mornings off. It was a villgey atmosphere back then & I hope it is still the same.
Yet another awesome post. This trip to Rome is generating a lot of “wonders” on your webpage
Your eye for composition is astounding. This is excellent!
I sosooo love your picture. My youngest son spent a semester in Rome studying at Loyola of Chicago’s campus. We spent a week with him, and I had been for a week previously. Your work is beautiful and reminds me of so many happy memories and pictures my son and I painted together. Keep it up. I am new at blogging, having started mine not long ago. Come over anytime and have a peek.
Hej Nina – jag har nog aldrig kommenterat här, men jag har följt din blogg (och även dina bilder på Urban Sketchers, det var därifrån jag hittade hit!) ett tag nu och bara måste säga något…! Jag tycker att dina bilder är så vackra, och det spelar ingen roll vad du gör. Det är vackert, äkta och fruktansvärt inspirerande – även för mig som knappt vet hur man håller i en pensel (fast förstöker lära mig lite på gamla dar!).
Bara så du vet. Nu ser jag att alla andra kommenterat på engelska, men jag hoppas att svenska funkar också…!
Svenska funkar givetvis jättebra! Och tack, vad kul att du gillar mina bilder, och väldigt roligt om de inspirerar! : )
I find your drawings so amazingly good!!!!!!!! so precise but not stiff, and with a lot of humor in them as well. Love them!
congratulations!
I can explain the weird architecture
(thanks to your detailed drawing)
See the little windows on the right? Those above the supports? Those are usually toilets, the supports have built-in pipes.
When they brought running water to old buildings they usually put the pipes outside on the ground floor or on the balconies, then they built small toilets at the end of the balcony (still outside the flat).
After a while they built walls on the balcony and made it part of the flat itself, connecting the toilet as well.
Oh wow, that is interesting! Thanks for explaining, I had no idea that´s how they did it. It makes sense, it really looks like the building was added to, a little bit at a time. I noticed that the wall textures were different everywhere, probably from the many steps in adding to this building.
I’m really enjoying these sketches. You’re right, so many different angles and interesting things to see. Beautiful sketches as always.
Visst blir man lite anti mot allt det tillrättalagda byggandet och alla regler i Sverige när man ser spännande miljöer som den här?
Jättefin bild, du är så himla …seende