Another Town Hall sketch

May 26, 2023 | 4 Comments


This is my third sketch of the Sydney Town Hall so far this year. Back in February, I did an ink drawing of one part of the southern facade (see here) and a few weeks ago I did a version from a nearby cafe (included in this article). Last week I managed to see an empty bench just outside the entrance where I could sketch and do a multiple-layered sketch.

I spent 30 seconds drawing a few rough pencil guidelines and then I started adding some loose strokes with my Neocolor II. Next, I decided to build up the sketch with lots of coloured pencil lines (using my three favourite Bruynzeel Design pencils).

The final layer was watercolour which was added directly after I took this photo.


This was what my sketch looked like at the 30-minute mark when the rain started. I don’t think I’ll add anything more to it. 🙂

At the moment my mind is full of everything related to my Teacups course (which starts next week!) so I’m not really focusing on my other sketching at the moment. Doing this relaxing sketch was a great way to think about something else!

4 Comments

  • Jamie C says:

    Looks like a great subject to take a mental break on! So colorful and lively!

  • Linda Perkins says:

    Beautiful! May I ask what your three favorite pencils are that you used here? How long did it take you, start to finish? I am just beginning to try put urban sketching and this is just lovely.

    • Liz Steel says:

      Hi Linda – as mentioned in the article this took my 30 minutes (most people would take 2 or 3 x the time!) I rely on my many years of sketching, my architectural training and years of specifically developing quick sketching skills in order to be able to do this so quickly and yet still relatively accurate.

      My three favourite CPs are Bruynzeel Design pencils – 27,77 and 50 (I’ve just added that into the article as well)

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