My first studio project, a front elevation of the Plymouth Congregational Church in Miami, Florida. The assignment was to measure the building ourselves on site with a tape measure. We sketched out and dimensioned plans, details, and elevations on graph paper, and then transferred them to a 24x36 vellum with pencil. This is the final ink on mylar.

There was one other student doing this very elevation, and he chose to render the oolitic limestone structure with a lot of stippling, which I thought overwhelmed an otherwise graceful building. While he did capture the rough texture nicely, he spent less time on capturing the proportions and subtle details throughout the church.

Even though the mass of the building is heavy, the details seem light in comparison. I chose to emphasize my correct forms and curvatures and downplay the stonework (there were four students doing other parts of the church, I figured the stones would be well represented).

I did the silhouette in a heavier lineweight for my pencil draft, but I brought it down slightly for the ink according to my professor's advice. In the end my drawing was more accurate, but I wish I'd given it a little more contrast with the bolder lineweights. Any suggestions?