Design Is In The Details: My Photorealistic Drawings Of Famous European Buildings

I am trying to keep the art of architectural drawing alive as computers are taking over our architectural offices! Very beautiful architectural designs can be made on the computer but they are a completely different art form to the traditional intricate drawings using pencil and paper.

I work solely in pencil, and as you can imagine these detailed drawings take days to complete. People often ask me how I have the patience and I think that if you are interested in your subject matter then it is an absolute pleasure, not a chore!

More info: Instagram

This is a beautiful piece of 19th Century British architecture in the heart of Oxford. As soon as I saw the intricate detail of the sculpted facade I immediately wanted to rush to my studio and do a realistic drawing of it.

This pencil drawing took 4 days (very long days!)

I live in cloudy, cold Scotland so when I go abroad I am struck by the dramatic effects of strong sunlight. I recently went to Venice and wanted to capture in this black and white drawing the beautiful strong shadows created on this building on a clear hot summer's day.

I gave myself the challenge of drawing the Duomo in Milan as I wanted to test my ability at drawing in detail at such a large scale (90cm x 90cm). This ended up being more a test of my patience as it took almost two weeks of continuous drawing! Once my realistic artwork was finished, I was completely in awe of the craftsmanship and skill that went into sculpting and designing this magnificent facade.

I visited Florence four years ago and observed the dominance and scale of the Duomo in its setting. The street surrounding this inspiring building are narrow and only a few storeys high, the Duomo therefore can be seen from all around the city and acts as a beacon to draw you into the centre. I particularly love the randomness of the silhouetted roofscape which gives an indication of the historic buildings they represent.

In this drawing I wanted to capture St Pauls Cathedral in its setting in the ancient heart of London. It lies just west of the old city centre where the roads are narrow and compact and then suddenly it opens out and you get views down the street to Christopher Wren's iconic dome.

In this drawing of the Hofburg Palace I wanted to show the contrast between the clean bright stone facade and the rich darkness of the arch.

I pieced together different buildings from Canterbury to create this fictional street elevation.

This is a commission I did for a family of their five different houses they have lived all joined up in row to create a fictional street; a trip down memory lane!