Attempting Notre-Dame de Paris

I've been so busy with work till now, I haven't been able to get back to posting some more sketches from the summer!

I tried to sketch the exterior of Notre Dame many times, as it was literally a five minute walk from the Cité des Arts where I was living. I could hear the bells chime many times throughout the day, and it was one of the greatest pleasures of being in Paris.  The cornerstone of the cathedral was placed in 1163, and there is a medallion in the paving marking kilometre zero, the official center of the city of Paris--very cool.

I never was very successful in capturing the exterior of this building in a sketch.  
For one, the proportions are very difficult to get correct.
For two, there are these darn bleachers for tourists right in front of the building, so you can never stand back far enough to get a good view of the front, western facade.  So I tried slightly different angles from the edges. 
For three, I was sometimes harassed while I was sitting and drawing.  Ah well--the lot of the single female traveling alone!

Here are three different attempts...

Notre Dame from Ile Saint Louis

I had a headache today, but this afternoon, I made myself go out to sketch, as there are only 3 days left in Paris.   Tons of tourists out, but the quai across from Notre Dame was surprisingly empty.  I was also surprised to feel Fall in the air!!  The wind has changed, it's cooler here.  

Notre Dame from Ile Saint Louis. Aug 8

Put down the brush!

I'm off to Versailles today for what is likely the last time of this trip.  I have been granted permission to sketch inside (!) and I'll also be meeting one of the staff architects for lunchtime sketching (thank you so much, Ruaidhri!)

But while slurping down my morning muesli, I thought I'd post an older sketch.  My challenges in painting are 1--values, figuring out how to translate a pencil value study into color and 2--which colors to use for shade and shadow in different situations.  Watercolor is SOOOOO hard!

Here you see my dilemma in practice--the photo from the site, then how I overworked the sketch trying to get a value I liked on the Seine wall below the cathedral.  I hope to try this view again and get it right before leaving.  It's only about a 5 minute walk from here...

Hard to know when to stop, especially when trying to figure out values.  I hope to redo this sketch next week~~

Notre Dame

Yesterday, it started to rain again while I was walking 
to buy watercolor paper near the Pantheon.  So, I 
made a left turn and joined the long lines to enter 
Notre Dame.  Walked around the entire interior, 
then found a spot to sit.  Listened to mass in 
French while drawing.

I did the complete line drawing in the cathedral, 
but it was too dark to paint it there. And since 
today it poured like cats and dogs, I was able 
to stay inside and work on several sketches, 
including this one.  This is such a big Parisian icon,
I felt some pressure to do a good job...

Click on the image to see it better.

Notre Dame. detail. June 12