I always enjoy drawing buildings, but, sometimes, as in this case, the main body of the castle wall, wasn’t particularly interesting, so, I took the liberty of  adding two towers in the background, each with a conical roof.   This gave more depth and dimension to the actual entrance and, it gave the illustration, ink on paper, more for the viewer to focus upon and to digest.

       This type of “improvement” if you like, can be applied to many situations.   You do NOT always have to draw exactly what is in front of you.   If a view looks better without that hump of land in the middle of it, exclude it.   If you feel a tree could be “moved aside” in your work, then move (or remove) it.         Art is the artist’s viewpoint: it is not (unless you wish it to be) a photograph.    Do not be afraid to enhance your work, if you see fit.      But please, please, avoid drawing or painting, what you think a work should depict. This latter particularly applies to landscape artists who have a predeliction for illustrating all hills and mountains as enormous spiked edifices and all water (river, lake, pond, even the sea) as being flat calm……

       Be flexible  yet  imaginative in your  artwork.    You are the judge of the final drawing or painting should look like.   And on that last point, I appeal AGAIN, to all artists to remember to take a break and stand well back from your work, at least every 20 minutes.   Otherwise you will will plough on regardless, often with quite disasterous results……..