Monday, June 3, 2013

Sketchbook - Lafayette Ave.


My friend Christina and I walked a loop around Clifton starting at Mt. Storm Park and ending on Lafayette Ave. last week.  This house caught our eye and Christina aptly named it the Edward Gorey house.  I love the widow's walk and the shape of the central tower structure.  I also really liked the way the upper dormer windows jut out of the house.

From my exhaustive 60 second google search I think the architecture would be classified as a Victorian Second Empire.  One of the main characteristics is the mansard roof which is means it has 2 slopes on each side, the first slope being barely visible from the ground and the second slope being very steep.  Other characteristics include dormer windows, rounded cornices, brackets beneath the eaves, patterned slate on the roof, wrought iron cresting, and a central tower.  So this house seemed to fit that description.  If anyone out there knows about these things, correct me if I'm wrong.

When I opened this image in Photoshop I liked seeing the close-up details in the image above.  As you can see below my overall composition was a little lacking.  I was originally only going to draw the main house but in the end I added the structure to the right that appeared to be a later addition to the house.  I wished I hadn't but as I always say "that's why they call it a sketchbook".  It's the place to make mistakes and learn from them.



1 comment:

kelly said...

I love the sketch! I think it looks great... my girlfriend from Pennsylvania, Jen, introduced me to Edward Gorey. We try to duplicate his envelopes when sending letters to each other, quiet the imagination he had~