Black and White and Painted Versions of Raised Tiles from Porto, Portugal

I finished painted the raised yellow and white tiles I saw in Porto, but I find that I need to work on my grime technique. Because the tiles are raised and have various nooks and crannies and are outside, they get dirty in the crevices. It’s darker than the shadows but not quite like I painted. Who would have thought painting dirt and grime would be a technique to master?!

Blue and White Floral Tiles from Porto, Portugal

I took hundreds of photographs of tiles when I was in Portugal this summer. I was entranced by the variety and color and surprise of them. I hadn’t realized that tiles could be used on the outside of buildings and was fascinated to see that all over Porto and Lisbon. Because they were on the outside of buildings it was much easier to take pictures of the sheer variety. I have begun to draw out some of these tile patterns. I thought it would be interesting to see the black and white drawing of just one tile and then have a group of four of them painted to get an idea of a pattern that can be created with that just one tile rotated.

Sketch of Tile Detail and on Location

This is the latest pair of sketches I finished of some tiles that I found when I was visiting the National Tile Museum in Lisbon, Portugal and the detail of those tiles.