Landscape Drawing - Modern Architecture - The Green Staircase

This piece took 30 minutes to sketch and a further 30 minutes to shade. Equipment used was a 4H pencil and charcoal sticks.

This piece has a strong presence of dark, tonal colours that show depth. The only source of light was the outside sunlight. The direct light caused a soft shadow to be casted. This shadow helped contribute to the depth of the stairs. This creates the illusion of depth as we can see that the stairs feels like its descending.

As the lighting was the most important element in this piece, the direct lighting of the overhead lights also created a sharp shadow, but due to the angle of the lights, the shadows were casted very small and more towards the inwards bend of the stairs. The outside sunlight helped diffuse the larger shadows which gave it more depth.

The vanishing point is slightly harder to find since the angle of the piece is offset. The piece itself is soft as the charcoal has a soft brittle texture which creates quite a nice effect. There is also a nice element of contrast. The white areas show light being directly illuminated onto that surface, whilst the darker surfaces show light being shadowed, and this effect creates depth as both work hand in hand.