Mark has taken an almost abstract approach to his view of New York’s famous bridge (above). The well-expressed water and boat in the foreground are set against a highly evocative smudged city skyline. What particularly interests me is his choice to highlight along the bridge using a citrus lime color. It’s an inspired touch that helps brings the sketch to life.
Above is an equally captivating sketch of the bridge by Parisian urban sketcher and keen travel sketcher, Delphine Priollaud-Stoclet. The structural cables of the bridge draw us right into the scene, where the high-rise backdrop of the Manhattan skyline then provides the main focal point.
This is an evocative, delicately handled watercolor—and look, no pencil or draft sketch marks! Mia has gone straight in with the watercolor. Her wet-on-wet approach has diffused the paint, creating both “dried” and “blurred” edges, which tell the story without the underlying framework of a drawing. The bright yellow yacht and complementary bits of yellow on the bridge are nice touches and, as with Mark’s sketch opposite, help to enliven the whole scene.
James chose a park bench in Brooklyn Bridge Park as the vantage point for this striking view. His sketch balances the massive forms of the bridge architecture with the detail of the stonework and the view beyond to the Manhattan Bridge and the Empire State. A quick twenty-minute pencil outline of the major forms was followed by permanent ink with a fountain pen. When adding watercolor, he intensified the color of the bridge column to better complement the blue sky.