10-Minute Drawing Challenge - Prompt # 9 - Building

Hancock Shaker Village is a working farm and a living museum of Shaker life in Western Massachusetts. On site, there are animals, historical buildings, old farm equipment, and live demonstrations of woodworking and other Shaker crafts set in a bucolic landscape—in short, it’s a sketcher’s paradise.

For my birthday last month, I spent the afternoon sketching at Shaker Village. I had just gotten a new cross-body bag that I wanted to try out, and I was really excited to get to sketch some of my favorite subjects on location—animals and old buildings!

Our first stop was the Round Stone Barn. I already knew I wanted to sketch this building—I just had to get warmed up first. We walked inside and scoped out some farm animals—goats, sheep, cows, and pigs. One of the pigs was named Cayenne, and she really caught my eye.

I pulled out my sketchbook and dove right in with ink. Cayenne was resting, so she was an easy subject to warm up with. I focused on her face, then made sweeping strokes with my pen to indicate her body and limbs. Then, I returned to her face to add some details before she moved. I wanted the viewer’s eye to be drawn to her face, so that’s where I concentrated the details. I added some quick scribbles to indicate the texture of the ground, then stopped. I was in a cramped space with lots of kids running around—I wanted to add color, but I could tell it wasn’t going to end well if I got my watercolors out, so I decided to wait until later.

We ventured outside and continued our stroll. There was a beautiful chicken coop towards the end of the property that was drawing me in. There were lots of chickens running around, and a pigpen nearby that Sam wanted to photograph. I planted myself in front of the coop and started to sketch.

I started with the shape of the building, leaving some white space for the fences and ramp. I sketched those in, and also added some quick shapes to indicate the chickens that were running around in front. After adding texture to the building, I squiggled in some quick lines to suggest the landscape and grass. There was some negative space below my sketch of Cayenne, so I added some more quick chicken shapes below her to fill out the sketchbook spread. Since I hadn’t added color to the Cayenne sketch yet, I decided to leave the coop black and white for now, as well. I was really happy with the ink drawing, so I wasn’t even sure that I’d want to add color later.

I felt good and warmed up at this point, but didn’t want to rush into my drawing of the Stone Barn quite yet. Sam and I made our rounds of the Shaker Village, and I kept myself open to inspiration, but nothing else called to me until we made our way back to the barn.

The Round Stone Barn is a fairly complex subject, and I wanted to do this sketch for Prompt #9 in the 10-minute Sketching Challenge, so I decided to simplify it by diving in with color first. This way, I could get down the basic shapes without worrying about the details, and then go from there.

For sketching with watercolor on location, I like to get into a squat and put my palette on the ground in front of me. This way, I’m not juggling too many things in my hands, and I can focus on holding my sketchbook and painting.

I used my waterbrush to lay down the shape of the barn in watercolor, leaving white space for the windows. I added a block of green for the foreground grass, and then started adding details with watercolor pencils while the paint was still wet. A scribble for the background trees, some grassy strokes in the foreground, and stone texture for the barn. I added some darks to the windows, and went back in with more watercolor for the sky and foliage.

Once the sketch was complete, Sam and I were both tuckered out—it was getting hot in the afternoon sun—and we started heading back towards the entrance. Sam wanted to stop in the gift shop on our way out, so I had time for one more sketch! There was a patch of sunflowers near the gift shop, and I decided to sketch a drooping sunflower that stood out to me. I only had time for an ink sketch, but that was fine—I already had a couple of sketches that I’d be adding watercolor to later, and I enjoy saving some sketching “leftovers” for myself. This way, I don’t have to think about what to sketch later—I already have something planned!

All in all, a successful day out sketching! I kept my supplies very simple for this trip, packing only my A4 sketchbook, a watercolor palette, some watercolor pencils, and a waterbrush. Okay, I also packed a pencil sharpener, some clips, and a cloth to wipe my brush. It all fit nicely inside my new Tom Bihn cross-body bag, which has vertical pockets so I could stand my pencils up within the bag for easy access.

Keeping it simple is essential when sketching on location. Had I only done one of the sketches, I still would have been happy. I got to slow down and spend time outside with my wife on a beautiful summer day. Sam took a lot of photos with her film camera that I can’t wait to see—I might even add some to this article (with her permission) once they’re developed!

She also took a video over my shoulder of the Stone Barn sketch, which paid subscribers can see below.

As always, thanks for reading, and happy sketching!