Part 2 How to draw and paint buildings and populated urban scenes with confidence, by Rebecca de Mendonça

by Rebecca de Mendonça

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

■ How to create a threedimensional effect

■ Introduce figures into your scenes and landscapes

■ Understand simple perspective rules and eye level

In last month’s article about drawing street scenes in pastels, we looked at simple rules of perspective to sketch buildings, and how to mix media to make our lives a little easier. This month we are looking at how to put people into street scenes to bring them to life, and how to use pastels to create effects of light and atmosphere.

Use light for atmosphere

So now we can really enjoy using light to create atmosphere. The trick with this is to ensure your darks are dark enough to make the light bright and exciting. Another top tip: do not worry about the details!

With many of my atmospheric street scenes, I make a very loose sketch to position the buildings and note my perspective points then I immediately start to pastel in the light. The light is so important to the success of the picture that it needs to go in first, with everything else then being added around it. In fact, many other elements of the picture, such as individual buildings, all merge together as areas of similar tone.