Arlington House dominates the landscape in Margate and is one of the first things that greets you as you drive into the town. Most people see it as an ugly eyesore, yet it is an architectural gem. Each flat has a sea view through clever design elements yet it's start grey mass is all that people see. I wanted to create a drawing that would help people look at it differently.

I did lots of work with figuring out perspectives and working out proportions both vertically and horizontally. With such a complex drawing, I started with a grid on cartridge paper to give me a chance to get the composition correct.

The initial sketches became much more like a technical drawing and lost some of the hand drawn quality I was striving for. I added some colour at end of this initial sketch just to see if the complementary colours I chose would work. Overall, I was happy with it at this stage and was ready to go again.

I noticed that there was an issue with first drawing. I had 17 floors on the left hand side but only 14 on the right. I lost something in the perspective. So I went again, this time numbering as I went.

I then took my drawing to the light table to re-sketch again but this time on hot-pressed watercolour paper. Using a Polychromos Warm Grey 1 pencil, I traced the technical drawing I had made.