An architect’s sketchbook

Architect PETER ANDREWS works in Windmill Street, Millers Point, and has been wandering around our headland to draw delightful pen and watercolour sketches.

My sketches are drawn quickly—five minutes or less. I like to work quickly because it keeps me from getting bogged down in detail or overthinking things. They are drawn mostly en plein air, outdoors, and mostly in black ink although some are coloured later with pencils or tinted inks. If I choose to subsequently colour an initial sketch, it takes more time, but is good therapy in the evening.

I draw mainly in small Moleskine sketchbooks because these can be carried in my pocket. Otherwise I might draw on anything that is handy—napkins or cardboard packaging. I often use a double-page landscape format to provide a greater field of view. This allows some freedom to distort a scene and create more of a sense of space or immediacy.

Peter’s Walsh Bay sketches are downloadable from Flickr.