Shadowing Practice: making architecture art - Learn English Speaking with Video

I want to make another mini-series, but this time about architecture.

And why not make it something that feels closer to home?

The plan is to make nine mini-artworks, size A5.

Together they make one big panel house.

By panel house I mean these old-school, social, modernism type of houses.

And separately each little art piece should stand alone on its own.

Similar to my last project, but this time the paper is a little bigger.

That's the idea, so let's get to work.

Well, before we actually get to drawing on the A5s, I need to actually figure out how I want to execute this.

Do I want the windows to be tiny and focus more on the colors of the building, or do I want them to be big so you can see inside them?

So I made many sketches in order to figure out what do I actually want to achieve.

Plus, testing out what kind of colors do I want to use and what kind of medium do I want to use.

So I was thinking whether or not I should paint it instead of color it with water markers,

because I wanted to add more texture to the end result.

And with paint you can add a lot of texture, but it's kind of annoying.

I want to be more precise and I think doing something like this could be more what I'm looking for.

Coloring it with markers and then adding some pencil.

So I So I think we found it, I hope.

Maybe I'll change my mind in two days.

Now that I have an idea of how I want it to look like, time to plan things out.

Since I want this building to be connected to each other, I have to plan things out.

How many windows will be where, what's the height of the walls, what's the height of the windows, where does the building connect, stuff like that.

Now I have some other idea of what I want it to look like, which is something along the lines of this.

It's time to plan out how I want it to look like, right?

Does that make sense?

So I outlined the little papers that I was planning to use, sketched out like this, but then I thought it was way too big.

And I did it again.

And then I landed on making them smaller.

Not too small, I think.

But since I want it to be a connected art piece, I needed to plan out exactly what I want each paper to have.

And I knew that I wanted one of the papers to have an entrance, or maybe two of them because i do love entrances in these buildings

but yeah what do i do after

that how many balconies do i want how many windows do i want

and how wide are the windows because this paper is what um where is it it is it doesn't say

It is 10.5 by 15 centimeters.

So how do I put this into there?

So I kind of planned it here somewhat, planned it all out.

Then I did it again with a more cohesive spread.

So here we have the entrance, then we have some balconies.

And then we have the four balconies, but it's divided into two papers, so it doesn't seem overwhelming.

So I think this looks great.

So I started making them, like outlining them with a pencil.

I did four of them, and I think they look quite cute.

If you can see, it's a very light pencil.

But then I had the intuition to test something, which is the markers themselves, because I was afraid that they're going to bleed, and I was right.

This is a permanent marker, which I won't use, but you can see here the blue and the black water-based markers do come through.

So I don't think this is a reliable paper to make art on, to sketch sure, but not to make something that I am making right now.

From my previous works as well, this was made with ink, and you can kind of see see it through it.

So I have to do something about that.

There's a couple of options.

I could get new papers, which I don't really feel like doing, and I would still need to test them.

Or I could go back to this little notebook that I used for my first art piece or art project,

because I know what to expect from it and it is a little bit heavier than the other one

And the A5 it's 170 grams, this is 185 grams, even though the difference Doesn't seem like a lot.

It's enough to make a difference.

Does that make sense?

So I think I'm gonna switch to making these again.

So before the plan was nine A5s and now we're switching to 12 9x9s centimeters that is.

Kind of what I did last time but this time it's higher rather than wider.

It's the same principle though, everything together needs to make one big building.

Two days ago I finished the first step which is sketching the outlines and I think they look quite nice.

So now it's time to make little outlines

because I have all the pencil outlines and now it's time to outline it with a pen.

I have an example of how I want it to look like, a little test and it's always good to make tests.

Look at how many I have.

This is exciting.

I'm excited to start.

I think I'll start with number one.

Now it's time to make my dreams into reality.

Putting my pen on this paper makes it feel more permanent.

I guess because it is.

It took me around two days to draw everything with a pencil

and it took me the whole day to outline my pencil sketches with the pen for all of the mini artworks.

Honestly didn't expect it to take so long.

Even though I first outlined every single one of these squares and then I put color on it,

I want to introduce each little fragment to you because each of them have a little theme.

So I'm gonna go one by one showing you what the themes are.

This one is the first one of the bunch.

It's located on the top left corner and I called it spooked.

Anything abandoned or spooky went here.

So we have a little ghost, a witch's pot, cracked walls, two cats, hockey sticks.

Okay, some of the things weren't that scary, but I didn't want to make it super scary.

Just a little spooked.

And here we have the first one.

Oops, I think it looks cute, right?

Just like most of these panel house buildings that I'm referencing from,

I am making my little building mainly grey but with a pop of blue for the balconies.

And the inside of the windows are gonna be pink and dark pink.

Our second fragment of the day, which is right below number two, is called the creative travel.

So I imagined people that are creative and like to travel live here.

So they either play some kind of musical instrument

or express their creativity otherwise or they like traveling to different countries or different ships.

I wanted there to be a bit of a balance between windows

that are cluttered with stuff and windows that just have curtains, because honestly most of the people that live in these buildings will have their windows covered,

or you'll see just some random storage in the balconies.

Unlike in countries like the Netherlands, where you can see exactly what show are they watching.

Number three is cute storage.

Basically anything that is cute goes here and also some storage.

As I just mentioned before, storage is a big part of balconies.

100

We don't really use them to relax

101

because most of the year it's kind of depressing and there's also nothing really to look outside at.

102

So we put our stuff there like a bike, broken tv, random boxes, laundry if it's summertime

103

and a lot of people also make them into mini botanical gardens

104

but that's also usually in summertime the balconies are not that well isolated number four.

105

This is the bottom left corner, so this is the bottom of the building.

106

Most buildings, most older apartments that are located at the bottom of a building have fences?

107

I don't know how to call them.

108

My dad told me that in the Soviet times, oftentimes, the first floor apartments were

109

robbed so therefore they have fences on them

110

and a lot of the fences have really nice

111

and intricate designs on them which is kind of cool

112

and most of them don't match it's a unique design well i don't know how unique it is

113

but each apartment and or even each window has a different design usually

114

but this fragment of the art piece is called old school

115

so it has a lot of or a few old school stuff like an old TV, a satellite dish, a skeleton and some pickles.

116

Number 5 We're going back to the top of the building, this time the middle section of the building.

117

Calm and cozy is the name.

118

Simple but effective.

119

Anything calm or cozy goes here.

120

We have some painting stuff, some cozy nooks, plants, cats, books, cute curtains, stuffed animals and so on.

121

What's also special about this middle section of the building is that there's a staircase hallway thing in the middle.

122

You know, for you to get into your apartment you need to get up the stairs.

123

And since at the bottom floor there's gonna be an entrance, the rest of the middle section has to be the staircase thing.

124

That's how it usually is.

125

So if you're wondering why are there small windows, that's the reason.

126

Right below number 5 we have number 6, which is hobby.

127

So anything that could be a hobby, playing the guitar, fishing, coffee, lamps, birds, dogs, is in this section.

128

Maybe you have noticed that many of these sections have animals in them.

129

More specifically, maybe cats.

130

More cats than dogs.

131

Or if it is a dog, it's a little dog.

132

I mean, that's how it usually is, I think, in these apartments.

133

There will always be a cat looking out somewhere in the distance.

134

Or maybe it's chilling around the neighborhood if it's an outdoor cat.

135

There's always some cats roaming around the streets.

136

Some of them have owners and some of them might not.

137

So that's why I want to include some animal in most of these.

138

I think all of them should have some animal.

139

At number seven we have sports.

140

Anything related to sports.

141

Skiing, rowing, tennis, trophies, gym equipment, dogs

142

and we also have some birds on the ledges of the

143

building these birds are undoubtedly seagulls for some reason we have

144

so many seagulls here and they're so chunky like they're

145

so big they're bigger than some chickens out there i was

146

actually recently attacked by a seagull i don't know why it

147

had beef with me i just walked by it it was screaming

148

and then it started flying over me that was fun

149

but to be honest most of the times they're quite chill i don't know what was up with that one But yes, a few of these pieces will have seagulls on them.

150

Seagulls?

151

More like apartment gulls.

152

Am I right?

153

Number 8 on the board, we have Entrance.

154

This is the entrance of the building, so I decided to name it Entrance and have things that are related to an entrance in it,

155

like signs, statues, mosaics, champagne, hedges, cats, as they greet you.

156

And of course, since it is the bottom of the building, we again have our fences on windows and balconies to protect from the thieves.

157

And to add something more, you know what I mean?

158

Since this is the bottom of the building, the only way from here is up.

159

So this one is the top right corner of the building.

160

I think this is one of my favourite ones, if I'm allowed to be biased, because this one is a party.

161

Or should I say party because it's with an exclamation mark at the end.

162

But anything related to a party is here.

163

A disco ball, drinks, karaoke machine, two cats, we have it all.

164

I think growing up in an apartment building is not that bad, mainly because you get used to the sounds of your neighbors.

165

I don't remember any neighbor having like a crazy party

166

but even though the walls are pretty thick you can still hear things

167

but I'm really not that bothered by them and usually I'm pretty good at ignoring that.

168

At number 10 we have the beach.

169

I actually do not like the beach.

170

I don't know why but I do like the aesthetic of the beach.

171

The beach balls, the jet skis, the little drinks, sand castles, seagulls, well actually seagulls are not that fun on the beach.

172

Ice cream, I actually don't really like ice cream.

173

Boats.

174

Boats kind of freak me out, I guess.

175

Hmm, this is starting to make sense.

176

But hey, I do enjoy drawing them.

177

And I do like that one Nicki Minaj song about the beach.

178

But what else can you find on the beach but plants and animals, which is the next theme of the next fragment.

179

We have, of course, some birds, some spiders, some plants, a little dog, a cat tower, and a snake.

180

Overall, I wanted to keep it realistic.

181

I could have added, like, a giraffe or an elephant but they are too high maintenance to keep them in your apartment.

182

Last but not least, we have outdoor.

183

Stuff that might be meant to be outdoor is indoor.

184

Or I guess things that you could do outdoor or bring them with you, you know.

185

We have a barbecue grill, a bike, archery stuff, bird houses, and we have an outdoor cat.

186

And you can see it's an outdoor cat because it has little stairs.

187

And again, this is the bottom of the building, so we yet again, yet again and again and again, have fences on windows.

188

No offense, but we have a fence on our windows, because we don't trust you.

189

That's probably what they said back in the day.

190

I have completed the coloring with markers.

191

All of my little.. little.. arts.

192

Look how many are there.

193

I don't feel too confident about how it turned out,

194

But I think what could help and what I plan to do also is adding some pencils, adding some details with pencils.

195

I'm not too too sure what to do with the ledges because I don't want them to be white.

196

I want the windows to be white for sure.

197

The ledges I thought to make them grey as well, but I think then they will disappear.

198

So maybe I can do something with the pencils.

199

Yeah, now I'm gonna just detail the all of the detail time,

200

the most fun time when you have everything almost completed but you just add some finishing touches.

201

In my case, it's with some pencil,

202

more pen to add like marks and scuffs because usually these buildings are a bit under maintained or I don't know.

203

I think they're decently maintained but they do have some cracks and crannies, nooks and crannies.

204

And then also adding my, of course, silver pen.

205

I don't know why I like it so much, the silver I mean, but it really adds something to it.

206

I like that it reflects light so nicely.

207

Of course after this I varnished these pieces because I am selling them on my coffee page for 15 euros plus shipping,

208

so if you want to get one go grab one, would be really cool if you do, and if you don't that's also totally fine.

209

Of course limited quantity only these 12 pieces but I'll stop yapping

210

and I'll show you this is the before and this is the final result.

211

I'm happy with the result and how they turned out in the end.

212

I like that each little piece has its own story

213

and character and I feel like it captured the energy of these panel houses pretty well.

📺 Same Channel

what 600 days of art progress looks like

University StudentsBusiness English+2

why you need a mini creative project

University StudentsBusiness English+1

✨ Recommend Video

188 sentences

Inside an Architect Couple’s Small Family Home, Milan 41sqm/441sqft

University StudentsBusiness English+2

27 sentences

A Dream Job

High School StudentsUniversity Students+3

225 sentences

HOW I CREATE A THOUGHTFUL AND COZY HOME || DECORATE WITH ME || EASY HOME DECORATING IDEAS AND TIPS

University StudentsBusiness English+2

208 sentences

This Property Measurement Changes Everything | Architect Visit York Project Pt 4

University StudentsBusiness English+1

93 sentences

how I journal to have my life together (simple & efficient)

University StudentsBusiness English+2

131 sentences

How to Find Yourself Again

University StudentsBusiness English+2

17 sentences

AI - House Room Part 3

High School StudentsUniversity Students+3

174 sentences

WHAT'S ON MY iPAD 2025 | fav apps, cozy games, planning & digital art

University StudentsBusiness English+2

What is the Shadowing Technique?

Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.

Shadowing technique: read the full step-by-step guide →

Shadowing Practice: making architecture art - Learn English Speaking with Video

what 600 days of art progress looks like

why you need a mini creative project

Inside an Architect Couple’s Small Family Home, Milan 41sqm/441sqft

A Dream Job

HOW I CREATE A THOUGHTFUL AND COZY HOME || DECORATE WITH ME || EASY HOME DECORATING IDEAS AND TIPS

This Forces You To Speak Coherently On YouTube

A Sunday Reset Home for the Summer from Oxford

everything changes in the first days of fall 🍂 self-employed artist diaries

This Property Measurement Changes Everything | Architect Visit York Project Pt 4

how I journal to have my life together (simple & efficient)

How to Find Yourself Again

AI - House Room Part 3

WHAT'S ON MY iPAD 2025 | fav apps, cozy games, planning & digital art

About This Lesson

Key Vocabulary & Phrases

Practice Tips for Shadowing

What is the Shadowing Technique?