Once again, I have completed yet another One Line Drawing, this time of the Roman Colosseum. I’m not sure if this was my most ambitious one yet – because the Leaning Tower of Pisa was quite difficult as well, but for sure this was a great challenge. Unlike the repeated patterns of the Leaning Towers arches, the Colosseum’s arches are in ruins, broken, and falling apart. This means that not only does their perspective angle change, but so does their actual structure. We have three different views of them, the exterior completed arch with facade built around it . . . the inner hallway archway, and the imprinted arch left on the inside ring of the Colosseum.

When you actually sit back and look at the Colosseum you begin to notice just how it was built. It is made up of three rings that steadily grow taller and taller. On the inner-most ring you can see that the arches have been dismantelled and all that remain are the shadows of where the arches used to be, as well as the holes where wooden support beams once would have held up the structure.

THE ROMAN COLOSSEUM – Another ambitious one line drawing, it is interesting to see the details that make up the three inner rings of the Colosseum. While drawing these buildings you really begin to notice how they were built and other details you’ve never noticed before.

Whenever I draw something of historical origin I always become interested in learning a little bit about it. I’ve read much about the Colosseum many times before – because it is a cool structure, but this time I wanted to see if it was ever restored. Over time the Colosseum began to be dismantelled and the pieces were used to build other buildings around the area. But if you notice, the edges of the rings are all smooth, and so I thought that someone must have taken the time to fix the building up a bit. It turns out that this happened in the 1700’s when people became more in tune with classical buildings once again.

I actually had to restart this drawing after already being a third of the way through. It wasn’t that my first attempt was bad, it looks quite good, actually. But it was a little smaller and I also drew pillars and walls that lead into the dark shades arches, and it just looked too busy. I wasn’t sure that people would understand what I was attempting to do, and I thought I could do a better job. So I restarted and came up with a different way of drawing the shadows. Hopefully you think that it was the right thing to do and that it turned out to be a success.