It is useful to get to know an area before starting
to draw; note-taking can help to save frustration later
on. What you will need to jot down are the best times to
draw with regard to the angle of light and levels of
activity, the position of terminating buildings (to
provide visual stops to the gridiron layout) and places
where greenery can soften the harsh lines of the
drawing. If your sketch focuses exclusively upon the
perpendicular lines of modern office buildings, then
noting the best times for lighting effects could prove
useful, as well as recording how such buildings relate to
the street.
Tone, line and texture are useful techniques to exploit
in such drawings. The rectilinear nature of modern streets
and the canyon-like edges formed by modern buildings
are best rendered in Conté, crayon, pen or soft pencil.
Where a particular building or tree stands in contrast to
the remainder of the scene, it can be drawn in a different
material, thereby adding complexity to the sketch.PROPORTIONAL SYSTEMS
Many of our urban environments have evolved under the
influence of building codes or planning regulations. Much
of the New Town of Edinburgh grew up under a rule
limiting buildings to three storeys, and the same was true
of the Bloomsbury area of London. In many Victorian
cities the buildings could not be higher than the width of
the streets they faced because of the restrictions placed
on them by the Municipal Building Acts. The effect was to
lead to a certain monotony of layout, particularly in
working-class districts, where ‘mean houses faced mean
streets’.21.9
The silhouette of the Merchant
City is as distinctive as its ground
plan. Here the City Chambers and
the tower of Hutcheson’s Hospital
are shown as viewed from an
apartment in Ingram Square.186 Understanding architecture through drawing