My Little Adventure with Polis Drawing
So, I bumped into this thing called ‘polis drawing’ a while back. Wasn’t looking for it, just kinda surfaced while I was killing time online, you know how it is. Looked interesting, these sketches of old-timey cityscapes, kinda Greek-looking places. Reminded me of history books but way less dry. Thought, why not give it a whirl?
First off, I just grabbed some plain paper and a pencil. Nothing fancy. Didn’t really know where to begin. I figured ‘polis’ meant city, probably those ancient Greek ones. So, I tried remembering pictures I’d seen. Lots of columns, open squares, buildings packed together on hills. My first few attempts were, well, let’s just say they weren’t great. Looked more like a kid’s messy drawing of boxes.
Getting into the groove… sort of.
I decided I needed a bit more structure. I started looking up actual layouts of places like Athens or Corinth, not to copy exactly, but just to get the feel. Then I’d try sketching again.
- I’d start by blocking out the main areas. Like, here’s the big open market space, the agora.
- Then maybe a hill nearby with a temple shape on top. Just basic shapes.
- After that, I’d start lightly sketching in some building outlines. Trying to make them look stone, maybe a bit worn down.
- Columns were tricky. Getting them to look round and stand up straight, especially lots of them, took practice. Lots of erasing happened.
I wasn’t aiming for super realistic drawings. More about capturing the atmosphere, that feeling of an old, lived-in city. I used simple shading, just trying to show where the light might be hitting. Sometimes I’d smudge the pencil lead with my finger to make things look softer or older.
Where things got messy.
Perspective was a pain. Making buildings look like they were actually sitting on the ground and going back into the distance? Yeah, that took a lot of trial and error. My early drawings had temples looking like they were floating or about to slide off the page. And keeping the scale consistent? Let’s just say I had some giant doorways next to tiny pillars for a while.
It wasn’t about becoming a master artist overnight. It was more about the process. Sitting down, pencil in hand, trying to pull this image out of my head or from those references. It was actually pretty calming, even when I was struggling with getting a roof angle right.
So, after a few weeks of fiddling around with it on and off, do I have amazing polis masterpieces? Nah. Just a sketchbook with a bunch of attempts, some better than others. But it was fun. It’s like any hobby, right? You try something new, you fumble around, you learn a little bit, and maybe you make something kinda cool along the way. Or maybe you just enjoy the fumbling. Either way, it’s time spent doing something different.
