Not every day is sunny and warm in Spain and they do occasionally have the odd rainy day or week – just not as often as England. We had a couple of rainy days on our holiday but not so much as to dampen our spirits. On a rainy afternoon I took a walk and revisited a semi derelict row of houses not too far from the Marina Station in search of inspiration.

Over the years these houses have slowly decayed but from the perspective of an urban-sketcher they make great material. For this drawing I did two separate sketches of two adjacent houses to fit my sketchbook. Later, when back in the UK, I scanned these and then with some additional drawing joined the two sketches and added a little watercolour.

Here is an initial view of these two houses with blocks of flats behind.

And my initial sketches…

You can probably see the difference between the blue skies of the first photo and the rather grey, wet ones with my sketchbook. At least in Spain the rain is not generally too cold!

However with my sketchbook turning a bit mushy I decided to call it a day.

A couple of days later I returned to do the second part of this sketch. Here is a split view of the two houses.

And here is my second sketch

This is my initial combined drawing, back in the UK.

Here is my drawing enhanced – with added and thickened line and watercolour added.