Architecture & Structure

About this coloring page

Buildings give a colourist something that abstract patterns cannot: perspective, weight, and the pleasure of a straight line drawn well. This section works mostly in elevations and looking-up views, because both are flat enough to color without fighting the drawing. There is a canal-house elevation with its hoisting beam and stepped gable, an Art Nouveau stairwell from a Brussels townhouse with the ironwork uncoiling up the well, a Gothic vault seen from directly beneath, the lantern room of a lighthouse with its lens rings, the arch sequence of a storm surge barrier, a Bruges beguinage courtyard in flat afternoon light. Two sheets are closer to reference plates than pictures: a page of Flemish, English and stretcher brick bonds, and a Westland greenhouse reduced to its glazing grid. Those are oddly satisfying to color precisely because the repetition lets you decide the rhythm rather than follow one. All buildings are either historic, publicly visible or drawn as generic types of their style — no named contemporary work is reproduced. Expect the highest line density on the site. A fine pencil, a ruler for reassurance, and good light. Several sheets take longer than the mandalas.