This article is about Philadelphia skyline #038Z Charcoal Drawing with FDR Park, which is for sale at discount with prints by artist Stephen F. Condren, BFA-SAIC, of Condren Galleries, a Fine Arts Gallery, offering JPEG & PDF scans. This article is about my charcoal pencil drawing of the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, skyline.
Philadelphia Skyline Charcoal Drawing with FDR Park #803. The following are important characteristics of the work of art:
- The drawing is done with charcoal pencil.
- The focus of the drawing is the dominion of the skyscrapers over the scene.
- The use of soft and light tones in the shading and shadowing of the drawing.
This drawing is done with soft leaded charcoal pencils that have been sharpened with a simple small artist’s sharpener that I keep with my drawing supplies. I have used charcoal rather than regular studio drawing pencils because of the soft line that is leaves with morsels of charcoal crumbs which can be seen close up. Also, the line is darker than that of standard lead pencils.
The focus of the drawing is of course, the skyscrapers of downtown Philadelphia. Here we see a strongly gather cluster of buildings juxtaposed with one another to form an elegant and gracious city scene.
Below in FDR Park, the Classical gazebo can be clearly seen, nestled in with the trees and landscape. In this drawing I have made a point not to intensify the shade and shadows around the gazebo because any darkness in that peripheral area will take away from the main focus of the drawing with are the towering skyscrapers. Rather, I have nicely shaded the gazebo in a tonal range that compliments the large trees to the left side and center of the drawing. In that way I have balance the “table” so to speak that this cityscape had a firm platform to that it can rest upon.