View over River, Amsterdam

 

A view of Cathedral Tower, Amsterdam, December 2014

 

Watercolour on Board

 

www.nickhirst.co.uk

Street in Amsterdam Canal District

 

 

 

Old Street near Cathedral in Amsterdam

December 2014

 

Watercolour and Pencil on board

 

www.nickhirst.co.uk

Church Window, Wet Afternoon, Amsterdam

Church Window, Amsterdam

 

 

A very wet afternoon in Amsterdam December 2014

 

Watercolour Sketchbook

 

www.nickhirst.co.uk

Roof Structure, Amsterdam Townhouse, Sunhead 1617

Study of Roof Structure, Amsterdam Townhouse Sunhead 1617

 

 

This sketch shows the roof structure behind a gable of an Amsterdam townhouse. Many of the townhouses are built with front façade leaning out over the street by a few degrees, so that furniture can be winched up to the windows more easily. The winch is fixed to an extension of the ridge beam of the roof behind, which projects through the façade. This is the 'Tulip Room at Sunhead 1617, a small hotel in the UNESCO world heritage area.

 

Watercolour sketchbook.

 

www.nickhirst.co.uk

 

African Community Centre at Night

African Community Centre at Night

 

This image was drawn digitally over a watercolour base layer, with the aim of communicating the influence of a community health orientated community centre operating into the evening.

 

Watercolour, Digital Drawing and Photoshop.

 

www.nickhirst.co.uk



Proposed Health Clinics, Sub-Saharan Africa

Proposed Health Clinics, Sub-Saharan Africa

 

Drawn to describe a concept for a local health clinic compound.

Drawn on a Wacom Cintiq tablet in Photoshop.

www.nickhirst.co.uk

Hospital and Health Masterplan in Africa

 

Proposed Hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa

 

 

 

This drawing was prepared on a tablet, working over a watercolour base layer.

 

Watercolour and Photoshop

Temple at Kamakura, nr. Tokyo, Japan

Temple at Kamakura

A quick sketch made whilst on a short visit to the temples at Kamakura Japan.

Very simple colours intended to highlight the national identity.

Pen and Tablet

View over Tokyo, Japan

Tokyo, Japan

A very quick pen sketch from the aircraft window of the first glimpse of Mt Fuji, as I left Tokyo after 2 days of blizzards and wading through snow in the city in February 2014.

Coloured on the tablet on return.

Early Morning in Bath, England

A Series of 4 sketches made a couple of weekends ago of in central Bath.

 

South Wing of Bath Abbey, Evening

 

This drawing was made to try and capture the light inside the building reflecting around the nave internally, and compare it to the cold November evening outside. Drawn with a carpenter's pencil, on mounting board, and completed with a few washes back home.

 

Watercolour on Board

 

 

 

 

East Front, Bath Abbey

 

Having trained at Bath, I have drawn this elevation many times. I much prefer trying to get the facade of the abbey off-centre these drawings - perfectly symmetrical is quite tricky to get to work nicely I've found.

 

Watercolour on Board.

 

 

Trim Bridge, Bath

 

I particularly like the lines of the pavements in this view, and the the way in which they step upwards through the arch.

 

York Terrace, Looking down to the Abbey

 

This sketch took longer to draw than the others, and required more concentration. The changes in level and ledges in the street are difficult to join up convincingly, although a little exaggeration helps the picturesqueness of the view. 

 

Carpenter's Pencil on Board

 

8/11/2013

Kon Ombo, Nile Valley, Egypt

 

 

The temple at Kom-Ombo, Egypt. The boat arrived early in the morning and we were on the site for sunrise. The maze of columns and beams when viewed from below were memorable - the reason for selecting this unorthodox view.

 

Watercolour on Mounting Board



 NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

Abu Simbel, Egypt

 

A short flight from Aswan in Egypt, South over the desert following the tourist trail, takes one to Abu Simbel, where some enormous stone sculpture, threatened with destruction during the creation of the Aswan Dam, were moved to safety on higher ground.

 

This sketch was made very quickly in one of the few patches of shade, close to the main entrance to the complex. As usual I was out numbered by hundreds of photographers!

 

Watercolour and Pencil on Mounting Board.

 

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

 



Nevsky Prospect, St Petersburg, Russia

 

The original pencil sketch was done in -9 deg one evening in St Petersburg. In that temperature the 10 minutes it took was almost too long without gloves. I then scanned the pencil sketch and coloured the image in photoshop, under the pencil layer in 'multiply' mode, when back home.

The light was added either under or over the drawing layer depending on the effect needed. This was a very satisfying way of getting a solidly coloured sketch quite efficiently. The second view above was done the same way. The fascination with this view was the half-frozen river channel, with snow and ice lying on it.

Pencil and Photoshop.

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

Battersea Power Station, Turbine Hall, London

A second drawing of Battersea Power Station - this time a view of the main turbine hall.

Watercolour on Mounting Board.

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

Battersea Power Station, London

This painting was made from sketches and photographs after a quick tour around Battersea Power Station courtesy of Treasury Holdings.

 

The Power Station is a fantastic building - arguably more interesting as a relic than either in its original use, or in its new form as the site is redeveloped in the years to come. 

 

Watercolour on Mounting Board.

 

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

 

Woodland

This quick sketch was drawn on a Wacom Cintiq tablet, as one of the first times I had used it. Having always worked in watercolour, building a drawing from light washes to darker shadows, and finally highlights, drawing straight into the computer, I have found that the computer allows for much more freedom in building a drawing.

However I have found that this freedom can make drawing and colouring more difficult, as the instant choice of any brush size, degree of opacity, texture and colour, when all thrown together, can quickly over-power the image. So I tend to try and restrain the palette, as in this case.

This drawing became the cover of a children's story, set in dis-orientating dense woodland.

PShop and Wacom Cintiq

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

Equestrian Statue, Kremlin, Moscow

During a 48hr business trip to Moscow, I was able to visit Red Square & The Kremlin very briefly. This sketch was made at about 2am, after a dinner, in about -5 deg.

The lighting was great, with both a good moon, and a strong spotlights.

Painted in the Winsor & Newton colour - Neutral Tint over a quick pencil sketch, on HP 140lb watercolour paper.

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

Main Amphitheatre, Leptis Magna, Libya

Whilst working in Libya in 2009, I was able to spend a few hours at Leptis Magna, on the coast of Libya, about 2 hours from Tripoli. The project on which we had been appointed , was the development of a first phase of infrstructure to support a growth in tourism in Eastern Libya.

This site, along with two others in Libya, is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and would be a principal attraction to most tourists visiting the country. The site is enormous, and some of the extant remains are stunning - its hard to now how, or where to start drawing them from to get a sense of the scale.

This viewpoint appealed because of the backdrop of the Mediterranean, and the fact that whilst drawing, it was possible to sit in the shade from this position.

Watercolour on Mounting Board

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

The View from the Rockerfeller, NY

A sunny evening enjoying the view from the bar at the top of the Rockerfeller Tower in NY. Having only made it to New York once on a flying visit for work, I did this quick sketch using a Wacom tablet in Photoshop, when i got back, using a very simple pencil sketch with a few notes scribbled on it.

Whilst I could get close to this effect in watercolour and gouache (eventually), from experience it would lack the vibrancy, and range of contrast that drawing in pure colour on a screen has.

I love the fact that images can be produced so quickly using a stylus and tablet - with a full range of colour. I am waiting for a truly usable, portable solution so that its possible to draw in this medium from life, and not from a desk, but I've yet to find it.

Wacom Cintiq and PShop.

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk

Borough Market, London SE1

A drawing of the interior of Borough Market before the alterations that have been recently completed.

The roof was usefully translucent, and the open space between the market pitch cages allowed for a long enough foreground to let the watercolour run freely, and hint at reflections.

The picture relies on the strength of the contrast between the silhouetted entrance to the 'shed' set against the sunlit buildings beyond.

Watercolour on Mounting Board.

NH www.nickhirst.co.uk