After my amazing week in the Heidelberg region (see here, here, and here), I headed to Dresden with Esther. We both love sketching complex buildings, so the Baroque architecture of Dresden was perfect for us.

We only stayed for two nights (1.5 days), but as there is so much to sketch in a small area, we both did a lot of sketching! As a result, I filled 18 double-page spreads during our time.

Here are the highlights…

Tuesday afternoon: The classic view of the Frauenkirche didn’t have the right lighting so we didn’t stop to sketch it.

But we found a cafe with a better view and I did a number of versions.

I filmed the process of doing these sketches and these are included in My Germany Update 2 video inside my Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon.

End of the day sketch!

Wednesday morning: Starting with a fun mixed media sketch of the cathedral. This is another sketch that I filmed  for my Sketching Adventure Community on Patreon and this can also be found in My Germany Update 2 video there. 

The temperature was rising and although we wanted to sketch the city skyline from the bridge it was just too hot to be in the sun. So we set ourselves a 10 minute timer to see how much we could get done.

Two versions of the Frauenkirche…

… and then we needed a cafe break with a bit more sketching. The sketch on the right was done using my ‘7 lines’ technique from my Travel Sketching course.

We decided to go inside the Frauenkirche but had to wait for opening hours. So we sketched while we were waiting.

I didn’t really like the inside of the Frauenkirche but it was fun to do an experimental version with Neocolors and my Pilot Parallel Pen.

Two very neat sketches from the comfort of a cafe table.

The last Baroque sketch from our visit to Dresden was the over-the-top Zwinger Palace. This was one of the most complicated buildings I’ve ever drawn and being tired after a long hot day of sketching made it harder to understand what I was looking at at times. Just limiting myself to ink and graphite was a good decision.

What a fun 1.5 days we had in Dresden. Next stop Berlin!