Stairway of Rocamadour, France

Again, another drawing based on a photo in Eyewitness Travel Guides‘ “Dordogne & Southwest France.”

I wanted to draw this photo eve since I first laid my eyes on it. It looked deceitfully easy, but perspective actually played an even bigger role here. However, I didn’t want to do a pencil layout like my last one; its perspective was more-or-less correct, but the drawing was sterile. It was a technical milestone for me, but somehow I just couldn’t get excited about it.

Because of its tricky perspective, I started my first attempt from the railing and then everything else except the stairway. Shortly after I noticed that the drawing just didn’t feel right, but I wasn’t sure why. David suggested to practice the stairway on scratch paper before plugging it in… That was it! The stairway was the protagonist, but instead of drawing it first, I did it last. The order didn’t seem like a big deal, but in this case it was absolutely crucial. I forced it to fit in the space left by the lesser others, so no matter how much effort I put in, it couldn’t be saved.

Starting from another piece of paper, I drew the giant stairway first. Immediately I noticed the difference: I was much happier, and the drawing felt “right” even though the stairway was the only thing on the paper. From there, I started working my way around it. Of course I continued messing up the perspective here and there, but over all I was pleased with it.

Whew, it’s quite a relief that this one doesn’t feel like an architectural drawing…