This presentational technique is perfect to show flow. I first did this as part of my observationals for my architecture project. I was inspired by this concertina street by Polly Fern as you can see how the buildings flow and create a whole street when expanded.

My school and the Barbican Centre were the subjects of my concertina sketchbooks, so on one side I did the Art Deco features of my school and on the other side was the Brutalist architecture of the Barbican. I wanted to create a contrast between the two architectural styles and I think I achieved that well with the different architectural styles on each style.

I took Polly Fern’s idea of doing individual sketches on each page and translated it into my own style. In my sketchbook, I folded the paper up in order to create a pocket so I could put in my written tags and pictures in it.

I collaged different architectural features seen at my school with building materials. I then pasted pictures into the drawings to make it look like the picture extends off the drawing or added extra pictures to create a pattern. In the Barbican, I approached things a little differently. I extended photos with sketch instead of using photos to extend sketches.

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I then proceeded on to creating another concertina sketchbook but focusing on textures of building materials. I haven’t actually finished this sketchbook but I hope to in the future. In this sketchbook, I investigated different mediums such as oil pastel, masking tape, collaging of paper and pen and water drawings.

On the brick drawing, I used different shades of red, orange and browns. I love the texture that the oil pastels gave and I love the vividness of the drawing. I used this technique for the wood observational, but instead, I used masking tape to create a 3D effect and used oil pastels on top. I also collaged brown paper as well to add more texture. The pen and water technique was perfect to illustrate the flint bricks. It had the purple-grey quality flint has, but I also used more brown paper to portray the lighter parts of the flint.

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I hope this post helps you to improve your presentational techniques. The concertina sketchbook is great to portray journeys, evolution and to combine drawings together.