Allan T Adams
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allantadams.bsky.social
Allan T Adams
@allantadams.bsky.social
1.5K followers 430 following 1.7K posts
A semi-retired architectural illustrator, drawing buildings & old stuff to relieve stress. Illustration, art, archaeology, conservation, reading. FSA, Fellow Society of Architectural Illustrators (FSAI). No NFTs.
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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · Mar 25
An introduction as I have a number of new followers on Bluesky. I used to record historic buildings and illustrated their development and former use for a living.

I still draw old buildings & other things to promote understanding, particularly of the past & often of subjects in York, England.
A group of pictures from the recent career of an architectural illustrator. Top row, left to right: timber framed building, Halifax bomber, detail of a window. Middle row: using colour pencils, a man sketching while standing up, drawing a busy town street. Bottom row: a doorway, a man drawing on a mountain top, colour pencil drawing of roof tiles. Text and illustrations of a man drawing an archaeological plan and a house with a field boundary wall. Text from a newsletter with pictures of a man sitting drawing in a bathroom, some iron railings, a man drawing by a window and a cutaway drawing of a farmhouse and barn with weavers in the house.
allantadams.bsky.social
The Teddy Bear Shop, 13 Stonegate, York. A 15th century core, 17th century extension, 18th/19th century changes including a fine Regency Period shop front. And teddy bears.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtShare
A very large teddy bear stands by the doorway of a shop. Pencil drawing of a three-storey building with shops on the grind floor. Originally overhanging upper floors have been altered giving the building an unexpected external appearance. Pencil sketch of a carved figure in the form of a bare-breasted woman on a corner post supporting an overhanging upper floor of a timber framed building.
November 28, 2025 at 3:24 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Around this time of year in 2016 a former pupil at the school where my wife worked & I still volunteer asked if "he could drop in". A lovely surprise when an RAF Puma helicopter landed on the school field. I sketched it from a snapshot, coloured later to serve as a thank you card.

#drawing
Pencil and watercolour sketch of a helicopter on a school field with houses in the background. Pencil sketch of a helicopter on a school field with houses in the background.
November 28, 2025 at 11:01 AM
Reposted by Allan T Adams
neilmatheson66.bsky.social
"The Badger's winter stores" illustration by Arthur Rackham for Wind in the Willows by Kenneth Grahame. (1940)
November 27, 2025 at 1:54 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
I expect most people only noticed the giant teddy bear or the carved corner post rather than the #ADoorableThursday window at The Teddy Bear Shop on Stonegate, York.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtShare
Pencil drawing of a shop doorway. The glass of the window over the door includes the words Teddy Bear Shop Est 1990. A very large teddy bear stands to the right of the door, partly covered by a piece of paper.
November 27, 2025 at 6:08 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
As it's #ADoorableThursday here is the entrance to Garforth House, Micklegate, York with a fine set of lamp holders for the dark nights ahead.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtYear
Pencil drawing of wrought iron lamp holders and railings outside a doorway with a pediment door case.
November 27, 2025 at 6:34 AM
allantadams.bsky.social
Always pleasing to see a Victor Ambrus reconstruction drawing.
durotrigesdig.bsky.social Durotriges Dig @durotrigesdig.bsky.social · 2d
To celebrate #HillfortsWednesday, here's a fantastic recreation of the ramparts of Cadbury Castle in #Somerset under construction in the Iron Age, painted by the late great Victor Ambrus 🤩

From the cover of *Drawing Somerset's Past* published by #HistoryPress and @museumofsomerset.bsky.social
Reconstruction watercolour painting showing Iron Age people completing the palisade topped ramparts to a hillfort with thatched roundhouses behind (to the right)
November 26, 2025 at 9:57 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
A view of Micklegate, York. Recently published in the book "Micklegate; York's Great Street" by the Clement Hall History Group.

#MicklegateYork
#ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtShare
Pencil drawing of an almost deserted street. The street has three storey buildings built on a hill.
November 26, 2025 at 8:05 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Sometimes a change can be good. A while back I drew these RAF tankers, a Bedford QL (Imperial War Museum, Duxford) & AEC Matador (Yorkshire Air Museum).

#pencil
#drawing
Pencil drawing of a Second World War airfield refuelling tanker in front of some large wooden doors. Pencil drawing of a six-wheeled airfield tanker vehicle from the rear.
November 26, 2025 at 4:58 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
It was recently suggested I should do more figure drawing then these studies turn up when looking for something else. It's from the early 1980s when I was building a portfolio to be an illustrator, before I got the opportunity to become an architectural illustrator.
A sheet of pencil studies of young women in various poses.
November 25, 2025 at 8:35 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Something niggled me about the building in the foreground of this drawing. Turns out I had made the same mistake as the 19th century artist & not drawn in the joists holding up the projecting upper floor. Only All Saints Church, Pavement, York survives.
Pencil drawing of a group of people sitting on barrels in front of a timber framed building with a projecting upper floor. Open doors reveal it was used as a store for hay or straw. Another building is joined to it on the left. In the background is the lantern tower of a church. Pencil drawing of a timber framed building with people sitting on barrels in the foreground and a church tower in the background. A pencil being used to sketch an outline of ancient buildings, including a church tower.
November 25, 2025 at 6:23 AM
allantadams.bsky.social
As we headed into a 2nd wave of Covid in 2020, drawing York Minster seemed to offer a way of keeping steady, a little less worried. I added some pigeons (doves?) to show a bit of life.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#Pencil #drawing
#ArtShare
A cathedral looms over three and four storey buildings and their backyards. A detail of a drawing of a cathedral tower and a dense group of city centre buildings. Some pigeons on a roof add a sign of life. Close up of a pencil drawing of a cathedral with a central tower peeping between two closer towers.
November 24, 2025 at 6:33 AM
allantadams.bsky.social
Such words help me to keep going and encourage others, especially children, to read and draw.
November 23, 2025 at 1:59 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Early on 29th April 1942 York suffered an air raid. The railway station was damaged, the 15th Guildhall & St Martins Church were destroyed. Many were made homeless. A replica Hurricane was used to commemorate Lt Mahe, Free French air force, who tried to stop the raid. From my archive.

#drawing
Pencil drawing of a Hawker Hurricane aeroplane in a city square which is surrounded by leafless trees and three-storey buildings. A church tower can be seen in the background.
November 23, 2025 at 1:54 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Carved details from York Minster Chapter House. Completed in the 1280s, the chapter house has a collection of sometimes life-like characters. I drew a few over lunch breaks from snapshots taken when working on a book about the place.

#StoneworkSunday
#ArchitecturalIllustration #drawing
#ArtYear
Pencil and watercolour sketch of a medieval carving depicting a piglet and child's head nestled between the arches of a cathedral chapter house. Pencil and watercolour sketch of a carved detail of a woman wearing a wimple, a medieval form of head dress. Pencil and watercolour sketch of a beast over a crowned head.
November 23, 2025 at 9:51 AM
Reposted by Allan T Adams
kpw1453.bsky.social
An 8th century stone fragment which formed part of a saint’s shrine. The fragment was found at Jedburgh Abbey in the Scottish Borders. 📸 My own. #SundayStonework #JedburghAbbey
November 23, 2025 at 7:58 AM
allantadams.bsky.social
"At the sign of the York Ghost Merchants". A view of Shambles & the end of Little Shambles before the crowds of the Christmas market arrived.

#ShamblesYork #ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtShare
Pencil drawing of a narrow street with timber framed buildings projecting over shops and pavements.
November 22, 2025 at 4:29 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Could that be an observation platform behind the house on Northumberland Street in Alnmouth? I would give views over the River Aln, upstream of the harbour area.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#sketchbook
#drawing
#ArtShare
Pen and watercolour sketch of a building used as an inn, with colour washed yellow walls. The sign reads the Sun Inn at Alnmouth. Behind it a square shaped open fronted structure with a hipped roof is maybe an observation platform on the roof of a house. On the right a stone-built house has an arch over a ground floor window, a doorway and two upper door windows.
November 22, 2025 at 1:27 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
A bit of colour for a Saturday. The Roman column in Minster Yard, York. Part of the headquarters building found under the Minster 1969-71.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#RomanYork
#pencil #drawing
#ArtShare
Colour pencil drawing of a group of people standing to look at a tall column of brick and stone. In the background is a stone building and three-storey brick house.
November 22, 2025 at 8:39 AM
allantadams.bsky.social
The Second World War left its mark on Bamburgh in the form of beach defences, including anti-tank cubes and pillboxes. There are also a number of aeroplane items in the castle museum.

#Sketchbook #drawing #ArtShare
Watercolour sketch of concrete blocks on the edge of a sandy beach, partially blocking a curving pathway climbing through sand dunes. In the background is a row or houses with a church tower just visible between the buildings. Pencil and watercolour sketch of a Second World War pillbox among grass covered sand dunes with a large castle in the background. Pen sketch of a Second World War aircraft gunsight.
November 21, 2025 at 2:00 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Happy 6th birthday to this drawing, 34-41 Shambles, York. The white gable, 35, 36 Shambles, is the Margaret Clitherow, a shrine to a Roman Catholic martyr of the 16th century.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtYear
Pencil drawing of a , narrow, quiet street with small groups of people looking at shops in mostly medieval timber framed buildings.
November 21, 2025 at 11:10 AM
allantadams.bsky.social
As it's #ThrowbackThursday I dug this drawing out of my 'archive'. As a student I experimented with different media. This drawing was done with Quink writing ink. Diluted it gave lovely blue & brown colours. We were encouraged to draw 'everything' & use sketchbooks daily.

#Drawing #art #sketchbook
Pen and ink wash drawing of a young woman's face in profile.
November 20, 2025 at 9:31 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Bits of Bamburgh, Northumberland. The parish church, farm with horse engine house; The Copper Kettle Tea Rooms: a medieval dovecote. Seen from the castle & where we had lunch.

#ArchitecturalIllustration #pen #drawing #watercolour #Sketchbook #ArtYear
Pen and watercolour sketch of a church and other buildings as seen from an upstairs window in Bamburgh Castle. Pen sketch of a pair of single-storey cottages with neo-Tudor window and doorways. Pen sketch of a stone-built, dome-shaped medieval dovecote.
November 20, 2025 at 11:46 AM
allantadams.bsky.social
Bamburgh Castle, Northumberland. An amazing place with a long history. Restored by Lord Armstrong 19th-20th century.

#ArchitecturalIllustration #drawing #PenArt
#sketchbook
#ArtShare
A pen sketch of a castle with a village green in the foreground. The castle is built on an outcrop of rock, with a tall wall encircling the buildings which include a square tower with corner turrets and a mass of domestic buildings supported by towers and buttresses. Pen and watercolour sketch of a castle tower and domestic buildings built on an outcrop of rock. A castle with multiple towers seen from a beach with high sand dunes. Pen sketch of a low-walled terrace with some cannons in front of a castle wall.
November 19, 2025 at 12:23 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
An older drawing perhaps stored in my memory to inspire a study, alongside the news that the lamp had been knocked over. The corner of Minster Gates, York & Minerva guards the books.

#Minerva #bookshop #pencil #drawing #sketchbook
Pencil drawing of lamp post from about 1900 and a shop front of the late 18th century. Above the shop doorway is a carved figure of Minerva, goddess of learning and the theatre. Pencil sketch of a shop window and doorway of the Regency period. Above the shop doorway is a carved figure wearing a helmet resting an arm on a pile of books. Photo of a pencil being used to make a drawing of a shop and lamp post.
November 18, 2025 at 4:01 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Steam locomotives used to be built in York in a group of buildings by the railway station. Drawings from 2016-17.

#ArchitecturalIllustration #sketchbook #drawing #ArtYear
Pencil and watercolour sketch of two buildings formerly amused to build steam engines. In the foreground is a busy car park and in the background part of a railway station roof can be seen. Watercolour of a wall with blocked doorways with a ramp in the foreground protected by railings. The wall is all that remains of a large workshop.
November 18, 2025 at 6:36 AM