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Allan T Adams

@allantadams.bsky.social

1.4K followers 400 following 1.4K 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.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 17m

Thank you. I don't think I will ever be able to stop drawing.

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 18m

Thank you, glad you like the drawings. The bookshop is Minster Gates Bookshop in Minster Gates, York. It's a short street linking Stonegate to the Minster close.

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2h

It's #PortfolioDay. I'm Allan, a sort-of-retired but can't give up drawing. So here are some recent pieces of work showing that I still draw old stuff after a career illustrating old stuff & occasionally doing what I did professionally.

#ArchitecturalIllistration
#drawing #pencil #watercolour

Pencil and watercolour sketch of a three storey house with black and white painted walls, a doorway with slightly projected porch at the head of a stairway and bow window to the principal floor.

Pen drawing of a metal tub on small wheels, from a former copper mine, used as a planter in front of a building with a six-panel door and sixteen-paned window. Metal baskets hold other plants and there is an old weighing machine at the corner of the pavement.

Cutaway drawing of a building used for unloaded railway wagons and transferring lime into horse drawn carts and wagons.

Pen sketch of a bookshop with bookshelves outside under an awning. Another shop next door has a large window filled with a lattice shop display.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 1d

Reminded by FB of my patience being tested in 2021. A nearly finished drawing of the west end of York Minster as seen from the south transept parapet walkway.

#ArchitecturalIllistration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtShare

A pencil being used to complete a drawing of a medieval traceried window. Flying buttresses and a leader roof have already been finished.

Work in progress on a drawing of a cathedral towers and flying buttresses.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 1d

We had a surprise visit to the silver birch tree behind the house this morning. The heron stopped by, causing the crow & magpies to get a bit irritated.

#heron #crow

A heron standing on the upper branches of a silver birch tree on a misty October morning.

A heron on lookout duty at the top of a silver birch tree.

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 1d

It's enough to force cyclists to dismount in shock. 😳

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 1d

I like his work a great deal and was fortunate to see several of his paintings in Leeds a while ago.

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 1d

Thanks for the detail of the men on the quayside. He must have used a tiny brush for the highlights. It looks like he used thin layers of colours to build up the image, rather like watercolour.

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 1d

Another of my favourite artists.

History and Heritage Yorkshire @handhyorkshire.bsky.social · 1d

John Atkinson Grimshaw was a master of moonlit streets and mist-draped docks, a painter who captured the very texture of the Victorian dream. His cityscapes, illuminated by the soft glow of gaslight, startled viewers with their precision and poetry, scenes where realism met reverie. Though

Shadows on the Park Wall, Roundhay, Leeds
John Atkinson Grimshaw (1836–1893)
Leeds Art Gallery Leeds Museums and Galleries

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2d

We have a fuchsia bush heavy with flowers in the garden. Haven't seen so many there before. It was fairly warm in the sunshine this afternoon though.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2d

Trouble is my patience is all used up by my work, & since I had Covid it is less than it used to be. It doesn't extend to using IT or fellow raid users as my dear wife points out. 🙄

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2d

You're probably right about the lack of momentum not filling the chutes. I was amazed at the low altitude that second world war parachutists deployed. Hardly enough time for their chutes to fill before they hit the ground.

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2d

My family used a different form of words:

Patience is a virtue
Possess it if you can
It's seldom in a woman
Never in a man.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2d

St Sampson's Square, York.
A much altered corner of York drawn from a photograph of 1890. The Hand & Heart was later absorbed by the Black Bull, a pub with a music hall. The Mail Coach inn was replaced by the Roman Bath. The pubs have gone but the Minster still peeps over the street corner.

Pencil drawing of old buildings housing public houses on the corner of a York city centre market place. A cathedral tower can be seen in the distance. A drawing done in 2024 from references of 1890 & 1920.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2d

Glad you found them of interest. It must have been hard work handling the balloons, they were pretty bulky especially when filled with gas.

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 2d

I gave a copy of the drawings to a veteran, national serviceman that in return sketched & explained the controls. The paras were sent up in hot air balloon baskets in small groups for the 1st actual drop. 😳

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 3d

I'm not 100% sure but once launched with the winch some balloons may have been tethered to concrete blocks allowing the winch to be used for other balloons. The trucks were used post-war for parachute soldier training.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 3d

The Mansion House, At Helen's Square, York. Commissioned by the Lord Mayor of York in 2018, so he could sell it for charity, at the pencil stage.

#MansionHouseYork
#pencil #drawing
#ArtShare

Pencil drawing of a three storey building in the Classical style.

Pencil drawing of some railings in front of a Classical style building with sken people passing the building.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 3d

Drawing these studies, a year apart, helped me produce this drawing of a barrage balloon launch.

Pencil drawing of a Second World War barrage balloon and balloon winch in action.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 3d

Pleased to hear that it reminds you of good times. 🙂

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 3d

Thank you. 😊

Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 3d

Fordson WOT 1 barrage balloon winch vehicle at the IWM Duxford. Balloon barrages were common during the war to force aircraft to fly higher & thus less accurate when bombing. 1,500 were in use at the height of the Battle of Britain in 1940 & they destroyed 279 flying bombs.

#pencil #drawing

Pencil drawing of a Fordson six-wheeled lorry fitted with a cage over the operator's controls for a winch used to control a gas-filled barrage balloon.

Pencil drawing of a six-wheeled lorry with a folded balloon and cage covered winch equipment. The vehicle is part of a museum collection displayed in a hangar building of 1917-18 with a Belfast truss roof composed of timber framework and laminated beams.

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Reposted by Allan T Adams

Dave Burrows @daveburrows1960.bsky.social · Jun 11

Sea Crossing (pen illustration)

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 4d

Monk Bar, York. The city gate with a vaulted passageway & larger than life statues threatening visitors with rocks from the tops of the towers.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
#ArtYear

Pencil drawing of a medieval gateway. Four storeys high with small towers at the corners topped by statues representing men about to throw stones at attackers.

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Allan T Adams @allantadams.bsky.social · 4d

I am not sure I could improve on nature for the sunset this evening. In the foreground of both pictures is the River Aln at Alnmouth, augmented by a high tide.

#sunset #Alnmouth #Northumberland

Sunset spreads an orange and yellow glow in the sky which is reflected in the water of a high tide in a tidal estuary. Some trees and a river bank are silhouetted against the light.

Trees and an embankment walk thrown into silhouette by an orange glow from a setting sun.

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