Tuesday, January 17, 2012

Railways and Bridges


 Joburg Sketchers ventured into the city on Saturday - well, the gateway to the city - where the fairly new Nelson Mandela bridge spans the railway lines, connecting Braamfontein and the Northern suburbs to Newtown, Johannesburg central and the South. We parked in the grounds of the Holy Trinity Catholic church, which Barbara and I tried sketching while waiting for everyone to arrive (right), which was the start of a challenging few hours drawing architecture and lots and lots of lines!


We worked our way towards the bridge, some of us getting very successful sketches along the way. I had a huge truck obstruct my first view of the bridge so only really got to work again once we were on it. Looking down, the converging and swerving lines of the railways and trains, the bridges and highways, the verticals, diagonals, horizontals and criss-crosses were so intricate it was almost impossible to see what was what and I kept swopping implements to try and capture it all. Then a quick look up and a half-hearted, not very hopeful attempt to get that soaring perspective above me (left).
We then decided to look for a more distant viewpoint, eventually landing up on the 4th floor of a parking garage, where we had a panoramic view of the bridge, the railways and part of the city. I managed to stick to just one drawing tool this time - my aquabrush filled with Ecoline watercolour.
You can see everyone else's sketches here on Facebook, and Cathy, Barbara and John's posts on their blogs.
Here are five versions of the same scene, from slightly different angles on the bridge, from left to right, Barbara, John, Anni, me and Cathy Giordini-Bricka - I love seeing the different treatments!

14 comments:

Sadami said...

Hi,Cath,
Really, really lovely sketch! I like them all.
Cheers,Sadami

Joan Sandford-Cook said...

You are a great bunch of artists. Such an interesting subject.

Bev said...

Great sketches! I love looking at other peoples sketches they are always have an immediacy about them, no pretensions or fiddling about. Great!

John Philip said...

The comparisons are fun!

laura said...

I like seeing all the different versions--the best reason for taking classes and working with others.
Your sketches are great--such complicated subjects!

Ginny Stiles said...

Your sketches make me want to get out en plein air...it's been a long time. I love trains (as my husband is a model train builder). Thanks for the delightful motivation. Hello from Central Florida, USA

Ginny Stiles said...

ps...am absolutely so pleased to find my blog among your "favorites". THANK YOU!

Liz Steel said...

these are great Cathy!!!! BTW it is very hard to sketch architecture with paint only and no guidelines!

vivien said...

excellent sketches! and really tough, complex scenes

RH Carpenter said...

These are fantastic! I never could handle all that perspective and those lines and vanishing points and...but glad you can and that your group of sketchers do it like old hands!! Thanks for sharing :)

Laura Frankstone said...

These are so dynamic and strong... very impressive, Cathy! I've loved using my waterbrush pens filled with inks, so I really relate to your method here. Now I'm going to check out the rest of your group's sketches.

Unknown said...

What fabulous results from a challenging day.

Cathy said...

I hadn't seen that you had compared our 5 versions! What agreat idea!!

Sydney said...

these are beyond fantastic... you are so good!

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