Written by Decided to mix things up a bit and try a close-up doodlewash of Château de Chambord. Philippe and I toured this amazing château on our last trip to France. It’s the most recognizable châteaux in the world because of its very distinctive French Renaissance architecture which blends traditional French medieval forms with classical Renaissance structures. Which translates to, something super hard to sketch!!
We took a lot of photos while we were there and many of them were closeups as a distant shot doesn’t really do it justice because of the many intricate details. I wanted to get the idea of intricacies across, but many of the details are missing here as it that would have taken hours and I have trouble spending more than an hour on a doodlewash. Dastardly short attention span. I wanted to try something with fewer colors, and this one relies heavily on my fave Quinacridone Gold along with Cobalt Blue and Cobalt Turquoise. I little Cadmium Orange was added to make the large window pop and some Indigo was added to deepen the shadows.
One of the coolest parts of the Château de Chambord is the stunning double helix open staircase. The two helices ascend the three floors without ever meeting, cleverly illuminated from above by a sort of light house effect at the château’s highest point. There are rumors that Leonardo da Vinci may have designed the staircase, but these have not been confirmed. Since I’m a da Vinci fanboy, I’m going to go ahead and believe the rumors, because it makes it even cooler!
I love the buildings you do. They are great.
Thanks Kirk!! I appreciate that…love drawing buildings for some reason, but need to branch out to other things probably. Hehe