Here's a drawing you may have seen here recently. Read on for a more in-depth look at my technique....

This drawing was made during a visit to the fishing village of Honfleur popular with tourists. Finding a spot to park myself with so many people about wasn't easy. I ended up having to crouch with my back to the harbour wall with my pad on my knees to stop it from blowing away. the pen I had with me was of a broad felt nib type but sufficiently hard to enable me to produce fine lines when using light strokes. In fact a pen of this sort allows a wide range of line thicknesses depending on your stroke...

I began by sketching the scene in light pencil (which I rubbed out later). This meant I could concentrate afterwards on filling in now that the bones were in place. As you can see the result is like a pattern of abstract dots and dashes. The horizontal lines represent brickwork. The aim was to be as economical as possible with the line to acieve the maximum results. You may notice that only the shadows are drawn (such as window reveals) and sunlit areas are left blank. Look at the dormer windows on the close-up below.

Notice how all the shading goes in the same direction. It is very important to decide on the direction of shading for each object in the compostion, as it has a real effect on the end result and

unifies the drawing. In this example, these rooves are in the background. The shadows are beginning to merge into one another and form abstract shapes. It was important that they be treated, therefore in a similar fashion. The horizontal direction of the hatching was an obvious choice : it represents the brickwork coursing, slate roofing etc.

This view shows the quayside cafés. From this close-up it's almost impossible to tell what it is. It would have been pretty impossible to depict this scene exactly, and it would have been counter-productive. Visually the cafés are not the main focus of the drawing, but they do provide an interesting counterpoint to the main part of the drawing above. It was necessary, therefore, to give only an impression of activity, and light and dark shapes. It's fun to try and represent something in an abstract way - to leave the rest to the imagination. It can be more powerful, and is certainly less time consuming :)