Visual Language Place 3 - Salford Quays

The last place I visited was Salford Quays. In college last year, we were given a project on this area and I found it really interesting so I went and had a look for myself. Immediately I was overwhelmed with the size of the buildings and how gorgeous they were. I know Salford has a bad reputation, so I couldn't see it looking so elite that this particular area - Salford Quays. I think the main aim of my drawing here is to encapsulate just how large and grande these buildings actually are.

Quick thumbnails for Salford

Then I went on to actually drawing them:

                                        

I started off with this statue outside of the Lowry Theatre which I thought would be great to draw via etching. I got such a good response from the Set, Series, Sequence brief when I used this technique but it takes so long to do as it is literally just a bunch of fine short lines. However I really like the outcome of the statue and it goes to show the longer and harder you work on something, the better it will be. I even feel like the drawing illustrated the material of the statue because it is so dark and has a lot of depth. So I really liked this piece.

I then went ahead and drew another building which I have no idea what is for. I don't actually think you can go inside this building however I wanted to emulate standing right in front of the centre of the building and looking up to the sky. I think I did this alright, as the building gets smaller the more you look up, but it may have been more interesting. This building really makes you feel extremely tiny, so I tried to capture this aspect in pencil form. There was literally nothing in the background of this building except the sky since I was looking up, however the sky was just clear grey so I couldn't even add texture to it, but I think it could have benefitted from something in the background nonetheless.

I then tried out making this apartment building look like it could actually be an architecture plan of some sort. I initially just drew the whole thing out in a very fine liner, but then thought it would look more effective with a thicker line around the outside. I've never done this before, so I could have potentially ruined the image and had to start again, but I think it looks fine. I like it a lot better than it just all being in fine liner, and I also like that there is no shadow this time, because there is enough line detail to compensate.

This building was particularly interesting to look at due to the windows all being different shadows of black/navy. I did these with pen, but then for the dark black areas used acrylic paint just to make it look extremely bold, because that what it was amongst the whole of the Quays. It stood out because it's colour was so do dark and fascinating. I've never seen a building like this one before so I had to draw it. I also drew this from far away which I wanted to try and replicate, hence why it looks so small, but the buildings beside it are slightly popping out.

Then finally, since the whole of the Quays buildings are rather dark and neutral, especially this area where MediaCity is and the BBC studios, I thought I would still draw the buildings as they look, however put an almost neon effect on them by using neon pencil crayons. I love how each building contrasts each other because in reality it is hard to differentiate which building is which and you really have to look at them because they are all made of glass. And they are all beautiful so I still used how they look for example the designs of the glass, however I just made them look extremely vibrant like the people who pass through them.

Overall, I really enjoyed this project though I had difficulty with some of the drawings. Sometimes they would go wrong and I would start again and it would then go wrong AGAIN, so I had to try a different building completely. Observational drawing is quite hard I have found but with practice gets a lot better. I think I have been able to use a mixture of colour and techniques as well as materials and styles. I also found that I have pushed myself out of my comfort zone, not only drawing sketches in public but also drawing in styles that I normally wouldn't gravitate to. I also haven't done observational drawing in such a long time, I am used to digital drawing, so I think this brief was well worth it.