Welcome to Drawing the Detail, the archive of Drawing the Street.
My name is Ronnie Cruwys. I trained as a conservation architect but I’m now working as a traditional artist, using pen and ink to draw full length streets in some of the more overlooked parts of our towns.
Full length drawings of all the streets drawn so far (approaching fifty in 2019) can be seen on my main website, ‘Drawing the Street‘ but this blog is a means of sharing what I discover about the individual buildings and from people telling me about their history.
I intend that this blog becomes a complete archive of all the buildings I draw.
I would particularly welcome any historical facts or insights that you may have on the buildings which I can include on the blog as a public record. Please get in touch, email below.
My original street drawings can be over 2 metres long. Each drawing is professionally scanned to make high resolution limited edition prints and images for my main website but here on this blog, I show the individual buildings so I can share some of the detail that I love to include on my drawings.
If you want to know more about what’s new on the drawing board, please have a look at my other blog Drawing the Street, where I post monthly updates. Hope you enjoy the drawings and thanks for reading.
Ronnie
RonnieCruwys@drawingthestreet.co.uk
Drawing the Detail 
Hello.
My name is Nathan w. Smith, I am the gentleman in the Mr. Dicks picture, in Church Street Newcastle.
We love the picture, and we were wondering how we could go about buying a print and getting a copy of the photo too.
Thanks so much for immortalising me, it’s lovely.
Nathan.
Hi Nathan, you have made my day! I love that photo of you smiling out of the window! it felt quite a loss to see the shop had gone…you were the only life on the whole street! It is quite funny and I am sure you will believe me but I was just thinking of Church Street today. I actually still have the framed print from the library exhibition – lets say £30 which is pretty much cost. Please just drop me an email at ronniecruwys@drawingthestreet.co.uk and we can sort it out and I can email you a copy of the photo. I am so pleased you got in touch 🙂 Ronnie.
Hi Ronnie, from Canada’s west coast. Your work is an inspiration!
b
Hi William,
How lovely to hear from you from all the way over there! Thanks so much for your kind words. Hearing things like this adds zest to my day. Thanks again, Ronnie
Very pleased to find your site and your wonderful drawings. I was on the top deck of a bus on the Holloway Road admiring Bathurst Mansions. Googling to find out more about the building, I fell on to your site.
Thanks so much Seamus! Thats great to hear. Send my best wishes to the old Holloway Road and all who pass along her today! Ronnie
I love your drawings. Interestingly in the 1960s the camera club of Lanark photographed the majority of the buildings around the centre of the town and Lanark Museum now has this collection in their archive.
Hello Bill, delighted to hear from you and thanks for the kind words, also for the tip about the photo archive. I will definitely go and check it out! Ronnie
I found you commenting on a blog by a Norwegian artist named Kim.
You have a respectable talent for detailed work, even if it’s a bit relaxed and watercolor-ed. And, you have a pleasant, enchanting face, as well; a lovely smile. ‘Can’t go wrong with all of that. 🙂
I’m not much of an architecture guy, though I do enjoy crudely attempting to draw creative houses and buildings…sometimes really fantasy-oriented structures with limited detail. And, I tend to lose focus when considering the history of each building/dwelling, temple, etc. [I’m more of a loose, sweeping history of an ancient culture person, more interested in the ways, myths and souvenirs of the culture.] But, I approve your quality of work.
I’ll keep an eye out for you. 🙂 Stay in touch if you’re curious.
Hi writingbolt,
Thank you for your thoughtful and kind comment! Big smile back at you! 😉
Ronnie
Keep smiling. The coming winter won’t be so dreadful if you do. 🙂