National Gallery of Ireland

This is a building that I've been longing to sketch for a good while now. But the old wing of the National Gallery of Ireland was behind scaffolding and closed to the public for a few years and it only reopened in the summer (I sketched a little section of the façade then). And I really didn't have the skills to tackle that simple but complicated façade.

Last Sunday, I was actually going to go inside, as it was cold and a bit drizzly. But as I walked in, a security guard stopped me and told me that my backpack and "this item" would have to be left at the cloakroom. Well, yeah. I don't travel light. But I find a backpack easier on my body than a shoulder bag. And the item in question was just my three-legged stool, neatly wrapped in its little sleeve and carried over my shoulder. Did he think it was a gun? Or simply that I could damage valuable paintings just out of clumsiness? The latter is more likely in my case, it has to be said. So, I decided to stay outside. The rain soon stopped. I was well wrapped up. And I got engrossed in my sketching. The said security guard did feel bad, by the way (I think so anyway!). He brought me a sketching stool about ten minutes later. The guards in the National Gallery are very nice! But anyway, that's how I was still sketching outside in mid-November!

So I felt a real sense of achievement when I actually managed to sketch the whole building! Thank you Security Guard for not letting me in. And Thank you Liz Steel for a wonderful SketchingNowBuildings course, which is really helping me on my journey! I am not yet able to sketch at the speed I would like. But I am finally achieving a better sense of proportions in my architectural sketches. I'm not there yet, but I feel I am making progress!

And not only that, but I did manage to fit the full building on the page! Something that you may remember is not my strong suit.
I still have a lot to learn, even at this level. But in my mind, my goals are 1. to sketch looser (but still accurate!) and 2. add people. So it's going to be a long journey!

This is the finished sketch - an extra half hour at home was all I needed to finish the details and add more colour and shading.

This is how far I got on the day  - about an hour and a half of sketching time.