Here are some drawings I did from photos I’ve taken of places near, or near-ish, to my house. I did the drawings in pen and ink in my 8″ x 8″ sketchbook in April 2020.
Top row: Rockledge, PA, near Rockledge Park; center of town looking on to Butler Avenue, Ambler, PA.
Bottom row: City, Allentown, PA; Keswick Avenue, Glenside, PA.
Claudia McGill and Her Art World 
Love these, Claudia!
Thank you. I like drawing buildings. And the even the most ordinary site has so many interesting details. I enjoy going slowly over the structure and noticing them, as you must do when you are drawing!
I think you make quite ‘ordinary’ landscapes (from a photography point of view) look really fresh and interesting. I don’t think I could see the potential in the images that you obviously can.
Thank you. I think it comes from the fact that these pictures are of places I either know well or else know the general area well, so context to me is important (I don’t like doing photos I don’t care about the subject, never have). And I just really really like looking at all kinds of buildings, and have patience for a building where maybe not so much other subjects like flowers or landscapes. I also really like cars, machines, people if they are doing something, and furniture. But once again I think the key is, have an attachment of some sort to the image and you will always put something of yourself into it, I think.
I’ve always liked the details pen and ink give. Colour sometimes distracts. These are lovely.
Thank you. I’ve been too impatient in the past to do pen and ink, and I don’t know what has changed, but over the past couple of years I find it more and more relaxing to work slowly and gently with the pen, and to do the details. I agree, I love the black and white, with no color, and the challenge of making things make sense in the images just with pen marks.
Nice photos and sketches, you have a very distinctive drawing style!
Thank you. I like drawing, I’m self-taught, and I try to draw what I see but it sometimes gets away from me and does what it wants! I also have some eyesight issues and shaky hands – makes things interesting! I enjoy using a fine pen and taking my time with a picture – I think when you have drawn something, you really know it.
Art making the mundane beautiful and interesting. And, Ambler quietly melancholy.
All of these places are very familiar to me and drawing them makes me pay attention to the details in a way a photo just doesn’t. And Ambler, you are right – the moment caught has its own personality and the scene changes with the time passing, I think that is interesting about drawing, also – you catch that fleeting mood, maybe.
Oh, not maybe, but definitely. And, it is something an artist can catch in a way that a lens usually doesn’t capture.