With a nice sunny lunchtime in prospect I wandered down to the Barber Surgeons Garden next to the Barbican Estate. It's a rather delightful, secluded spot perfect for lounging about and observing the 13th-century bastions. Here I picked out a comfortable patch of grass and, with the sun on my back, I spent some time sketching out this defensive structure:
Originally I'd thought to frame this ruin within a wider setting formed from the pillars and walkways around it but when I roughly drew this out the balance was all wrong; the picture had no focus. So I began a second sketch much more tightly focused on the ruined tower and this seemed much more effective. Now the ancient wall took pride of place and I could focus on its shapes and curves. The only tricky bits involved dealing with the very deep shadows cast by the midday sun and deciding on how much texture I had time to include:
What I do like is that the walls are balanced and have roughly the correct level of bulk; also, I think, there's the sense that these have a level of structure without it being depicted in detail. I don't know if the texture of the shadow and floor really work but I figured that it was worth trying some different effects. Fortunately there are lots of Roman walls around here so I should have lots of material to practice on.