Cincinnati House Sketch

This house sketch came about because of the generosity of my neighbor.  In August of 2020 I noticed my neighbor (whose name is also Vanessa) was giving away an incredible "bird"chair on Facebook and I was lucky enough to be the first one to scoop it up.  The front of the chair needed a repair in its carving and I did an extremely long blog post about the chair carving here.  Several months later Vanessa (neighbor) saw another house sketch I did and offered to purchase one.  But I have always wanted to sketch her house and a trade seemed like the perfect solution to repay her for the lovely chair.

"The miracle is this: the more we share the more we have." — Leonard Nimoy.

Vanessa's house is a perfect example of the stunning architecture in our neighborhood.  Each house is an eclectic mix of the differing architectural styles of the day.  One thing I love about this house in particular is the curving slopes of the roof gables and dormers.  In addition the house has actual curved glass windows and I love all the square muntins.  I was lucky enough to get a tour of the interior and it is also quite stunning with beautiful dark wood work and lots of arts and crafts touches everywhere. 

Below you can see my initial black and white drawing.

Sometimes when I am starting these house sketches I want to stop at certain points and not go any further because I like the drawing as is.  Below you can see one of these points.  I liked the sketch with just the green on the magnolia tree.

“A single act of kindness throws out roots in all directions, and the roots spring up and make new trees.” 
— Amelia Earhart

Here is another place where I thought about stopping.  Sometimes I like the rather flat look of a drawing before I add the more three-dimensional shading.  I guess it is the printmaker in me.

As I was going along I tried to take photos fairly often.  However, the last day I worked on it I forgot to take progress pictures.  Here is a video showing the process from start to finish with a rather large jump in progress between the last two photos.  I still thought it was a fun video, so turn your volume on!

Sometimes the timing of things works out perfectly.  I had mostly finished the sketch and was going to putz about on it for a few days.  But I happened to notice on Facebook that it was my neighbor's birthday.  I put the finishing touches on, framed it, and dropped it off at her house all in one day.  I think the universe decided it was time to be done.  Happy Birthday Vanessa and thank you again for the chair!   

"How do we change the world? One random act of kindness at a time." — Morgan Freeman