Entry 16: Architecture study: St Mary's abbey

This final entry (a bit of a bonus one) is my study of the ruins of St Mary's abbey in the city of York. This study was the first one I made outside class and I had to push myself to work speedily. Here on location I had no teachers pushing me and reminding me to work within certain times. There for I set the alarm on my phone to force my self to work rather quick and efficiently.

The first piece was made in 15 minutes and shows one of the windows of the ruins. Behind one can see another window of the opposite wall. The aim here for me was to capture the arch of the window, the stone work and the overall texture of this grand ruin (a ruin that also Turner have done studies of).

I made some more studies of the window, here paying more attention to the shadows and the window arches visible through the front window arch. Overall this sketch is decant, but not excellent. I did not work all over the sketch and there is only parts with shadows and values on it.

The final study of the ruin was of one of the old gates to the abbey. I was captured by the beautiful stonewall and the way it end up in a messy hard edge at the top of the still standing wall. The study was made in 15 minutes and is rather well done. The details are there, also the shading and the proper measuring. The 15 minutes was well divided between all the different elements and it came together in a fairly good sketch.