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
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
allantadams.bsky.social
Reminded on FB of the lunch breaks I got some practice drawing the view from the office window. Several breaks used wisely for each drawing of Garforth House & Micklegate, York.

#illustration #drawing
#ArtShare
Pen sketch of a large town house and garden seen through winter trees, smaller houses to the right and a modern office building to the left. Pencil drawing of a small brick building looking squeezed between a large Georgian house and later building works spiral staircase.
November 17, 2025 at 6:13 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Goodramgate & Monk Bar, York. Buildings of the 14th, 17th & 18th centuries, most of them cloaked in later fabric, including a former coaching inn that ran coaches to Malton & Pickering.

#VernacularArchitecture
#pencil #drawing
#ArtYear
Pencil drawing of three-storey buildings with shops on the ground floor, a medieval city gate with a decorative facade and a number of people walking and cycling in the street.
November 17, 2025 at 1:56 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
On a school trip with my local junior school to the National Railway Museum, York. A good way to keep the 7 year olds amused: sketch the Channel Tunnel loco while having lunch. As the kids suggested I added a bit of colour later.

#NationalRailwayMuseum
#sketchbook #PenArt
Pen sketch in a pocket sketchbook of an electric locomotive in a museum. It carried the red and blue stripes and letters in a circle along with the title CHANNEL TUNNEL on the side.
November 16, 2025 at 3:20 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
York Mister from Precentor's Court, York. The drawing is 9 years old today. Stepping from the Snicket by the Hole in the Wall pub & you are presented with this view.

#YorkMinster
#pencil #drawing
#ArtYear
Pencil drawing of a narrow street lined with three-storey brick buildings with a view of cathedral towers and west front looming over trees.
November 16, 2025 at 9:13 AM
Reposted by Allan T Adams
mmandersonart.com
#BlueSkyArtShow This #bright and vibrant macaw was done in soft pastels. This colorful parrot is a favorite of my recent works. Prints & cards featuring my artwork may be found at links in my profile. #birds #PastelArt #art
Soft pastel art depicting a parrot with red feathers on its head fading to yellow and green below. The bird is in profile facing right on a blue and green mottled backdrop. The light colored eye is surrounded by very pale pink feathers.
November 15, 2025 at 4:50 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
Reminded of this detail of people outside a shop in Shambles, York. Not everyone spies the cat climbing up the wall.

#pencil #drawing #ShamblesYork
#ArtShare
Detail of a pencil drawing which shows people outside a shop doorway. An ornamental cat can be seen on the wall above them.
November 15, 2025 at 8:13 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
In the late 18th century the old Ouse Bridge in York was sometimes compared to the Ponte Vecchio in Florence. I drew them both back in 2023.

#ArchitecturalIllustration
#pencil #drawing
Pencil drawing, based on 18th century paintings and drawings, of an old river bridge with buildings on the bridge. In the foreground is a group of people and goods being unloaded from a boat onto a quayside. Pencil drawing of a bridge lined with buildings.
November 15, 2025 at 2:41 PM
allantadams.bsky.social
The Old Watchtower and the Ferry Hut, Alnmouth. The former harbour master's office & lookout, where we stayed. A ferry used to take people across the R. Aln. The hut is now a tiny museum.

#Alnmouth #Northumberland
#PenArt #sketchbook #drawing
Pen sketch of a two-storey building with external steps to what is now the kitchen and living room. The two round-arched windows light a lower room that gives access to a paved patio area. There is a wind vane on the roof in the form of a serpent. Watercolour sketch of wooden hut with boats in the background.
November 14, 2025 at 8:46 PM