Sketchbook: A Castle Takes Shape

Pencil on paper

I am not an architect. If I tried to build a house, it would probably look like it was designed by a brain-damaged child of M.C. Escher and Frank Lloyd Wright. And I would probably forget something crucial like plumbing, or doors.

I don't have to be an architect to draw a comic strip castle, but I do need some sense of its size and scale, what rooms go where, and how it looks at different angles. I've made a few rough sketches of the Castle and didn't like any of them. Looking for inspiration, I turned to architecture books and photographs of real castles...and was sorely disappointed. The stark beauty of Europe's great stone fortresses didn't match what I had in mind for the Castle. Castle Whatsitsname has no need of thick stone walls. It is a place of mystery, and its protection is far more subtle.

I grew up in a city full of Victorian mansions, and I've had plenty of dreams about wandering through great big houses. I'm not much for drawing buildings, but I love exploring them. Creating this castle is a different kind of exploration, and like those dreams, I keep searching for something in a strange old place. This is the first sketch of the Castle that I've really been happy with, and I think it worked because I tossed out my preconceptions and tried to capture the feeling from those dreams - of twisting corridors, staircases, odd angles and gables and turrets.

Funnily enough, once I had a handle on the feeling, thinking about the purpose of the rooms inside the towers helped me figure out where other towers should go - almost like a real architect.

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