Inside My Sketchbook: Florence

My time in Florence was so relaxed and reflective. I had lots of time to walk around the city and sketch, which I hadn’t done yet during my month of travels. I will be taking an architectural watercolor class at school this semester, so I thought I should start brushing up my skills [no pun intended]! I also was in need of a watercolor sketchbook, and found this beautiful one at the San Lorenzo leather market. It has a Harry Potter vibe that I’m kinda digging alot. While I need to keep practicing, I was really happy with the amount of sketching I actually did, so let’s take a peek into my book today.

First, is this baby. I honestly can’t remember the last time I sat down and did a detailed architectural drawing. The journaling class I took last semester was more focused on urban spaces, and not as much so on buildings, so this was a new little challenge. I sat on the steps of the Capella de Medici scrawling away at this for over an hour, and was pretty pleased with my patience.

Another little visit I took was to the Boboli Gardens behind Palazzo Pitti [the royal palace]. It was very rainy while I was there, but afterwards I ducked into a cool café to dry off. I pulled out my map of the gardens to make a more diagrammatic drawing of my experience there. That’s also when I realized I didn’t actually see all of the gardens…oops.

A trip to Florence wouldn’t be complete without a drawing of the Ponte Vecchio. As an attempt to make mine less typical, I decided to stick with only one color story for the sketch. When you look out at the skyline of Florence, the most dominant color is yellow, so I figured that was a nice nod to the tradition of the city.

As mentioned before, I spent a lot of type analyzing Copenhagen’s public spaces in my urban journaling class last semester. I really enjoy it, so I don’t plan on stopping. This was my observation of Piazza della Republica at 5:19 PM, complete with little symbols and all. Yes, let’s just admit it, I’m a nerd.

One of my favorite buildings in Florence was the Instituto Degli Innocenti, part of which was designed by Brunelleschi. This is where abandoned babies were left to be cared for when it was first constructed, so it is adorned with ceramics of infants on the front facade. I had seen a [too expensive] vintage postcard earlier in the week of a picture of one of the ceramics, so I decided to paint it for myself instead.

Finally, I’ve saved the worst for last. Ha! It’s no secret that I’m not that great at drawing people. I was actually pretty hesitant to make an attempt at a statue, but my friend Steph encouraging me on this day. We hung out in the loggia of Piazza Signoria while I sketched “Rape of the Sabine Woman.” I guess it came out better than I expected, and a I threw the Palazzo Vecchio in the background for a little context. I definitely need to keep practicing though…

What have you been sketching lately? Or perhaps now you’re motivated to start? I’d love to know! Thanks for stopping by, x. Paige

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