Friday, June 29, 2007

Barfüsserplatz, Basel, Swizerland

I just finished this watercolor, pen and ink drawing. I am very happy with how this turned out. Click on the picture to see the detail.
The name of this city square is "Barfüsserplatz" and it means the "Bare foot place". Why is it named that? I just learned that it is named after an order of monks who lived here and had made a vow of poverty. We go to this place a lot when we go to Basel, but we have not gone barefoot yet.
I love the old buildings that surround this major tram stop. To see a live webcam picture of Barfüsserplatz go to: http://www.basel.ch/en/virtual_basel/webcam That's a cool shot.

My drawing is pretty large: 13.5 x 7.5 inches or 34x19 cm.

The process went like this...
1. Take a digital photo of the platz - in fact, several.
2. Print up the best one at home on heavier than normal paper.
3. Lay out the drawing on a large sheet of watercolor paper with pencil.
4. Make a full pencil drawing of the subject with all parts: every window, shutter, gable, trams, people, etc..
5. Watercolor all of the buildings, trams, foreground - everything except the sky.
6. Highlight everything with Rapidograph pens - 0.25, + 0.35 in waterproof black ink.
7. Watercolor the sky.
8. Make last accent details with the fine rapidograph pen, making accents of the tiles, shading, etc..
9. Make a digital scan of the drawing for my blog.
10. Put it in a frame. Done.

How much do you think the original could sell for? I am always baffled what to ask for one of drawings if I were to sell them. The truth is I really don't know if I could part with them. An art teacher at Black Forest Academy once told me that in art school a student has to learn how to draw and then throw away their work. This is done in order that the student loses their attachment to their work so that later they can sell their work to others. That would be hard for me to do. I get such an attachment to my drawings that I find it extremely hard to think about giving away or selling my stuff. Any suggestions out there? If somewhere offered me enough money I think I could lose my attachments :-). TS

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