A Veduta Sketch of London on a sunny day

We're having a novelty week this week - hot sunny weather, blue skies and very little cloud.  It makes a change.

It is of course all due to end on Friday in time for the Olympics Opening Ceremony!

In the meanwhile, here's the view over the rooftops of the National Portrait Gallery and National Gallery last Sunday afternoon from the Portrait Restaurant on the Third Floor of the National Portrait Gallery.  I'd just attended a "Next Generation" session with teenagers and was in need of a cup of Earl Grey!

View from Portrait Restaurant 22 July 2012 3.30pm
pen and ink and coloured pencils in Moleskine Sketchbook

In this "veduta" sketch you can see - from the left:

• the clock tower housing Big Ben - now renamed the Elizabeth Tower (to celebrate the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II)
• Portcullis House with the very prominent chimneys (which houses the offices of members of Parliament)
• Whitehall - the centre of government in the UK
• the Victoria Tower - at the other end of the Houses of Parliament
• Westminster Abbey where Kings and Queens are crowned and future monarchs are often married
• Nelson's Column in Trafalgar Square - which also houses the Countdown Clock for the Olympics
• Millbank Tower near to Tate Britain
• the central dome of the National Gallery

Note:  A veduta is a view painting which were popularised by Canaletto and others.  I'm particularly partial to drawing views and vistas and hence I'm going to use "veduta sketch" to indicate a sketch of a complex view.