The Colosseum, Rome
1912
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
1912
From the collection of Victoria and Albert Museum
This drawing shows a dark, scratchy scene of a big, old Roman building with arches and crumbling walls. Two shadowy figures stand in the foreground, half-lit by a faint glow from the structure behind them. The lines are thick and tangled, making everything look rough and uneven. The artist used tiny, overlapping lines to build up the dark areas, giving it a textured, almost chaotic feel. This isn’t a smooth sketch—it’s more like a storm of marks on paper. Next, check out cross-hatching to see how artists create depth with lines like this.
