Abbeydale Anniversary

This weekend marks the second anniversary of Nan and Tom's move to Abbeydale, their home in the nearby hamlet of Carlisle. Each occasion has been celebrated with a large party and last year Nan requested I paint a portrait of their house to use for the invitation.

Because I did not trust that my drawing skills were up to the task, I printed out an outline of the house using a photoediting program, reinforced some of the lines and then painted it in watercolour. The flowers were quite lost so I repainted them in acrylic for a bit of added punch. All in all I was quite happy with it.

This time around, Kate had found a pretty card showing a bird's eye view of a street in Stratford and requested that I try and replicate something similar for this year.

It was a bit of a struggle at first, I can't deny it. Trying to morph a satellite view of the property with my own photo references to get the desired perspective (streetview is not available for Carlise on google maps as of yet LOL). After trying to get it right for a few hours and not succeeding I did the smart thing and stepped away for a few hours. Had lunch, had a nap and came back to my drawing with renewed enthusiasm. Always a good idea.

This is done in a more illustrative style, with less attention to detail and accuracy than the picture above. Of course, this is not the final version of the painting as is typical for me once I felt it was done I signed it, matted it and wrapped it before I remembered to scan it! Duh. Oh well. The changes made were minimal so no one will know that but me and I can live with that.

The land was such a blank canvas when Tom and Nan bought the property that it will be fun to document the changes they make over time. It'll also be interesting to see what style and potentially what medium I might render it in as well. This year's was definitely influenced by my time spent at Sketchbook Skool. Who knows what might be influencing me next year.