Complex Layering
In this sketch the entrance steps and the articulated column of the house are in the fore-ground layer, and are part of the focus of the composition. The elevation of the house is also the focus of the composition, and it is in the middle-ground layer. Notice that the door into the house is part of the virtual surface created by the house elevation, which makes it part of the middle-ground layer.
This view was purposely selected to tell the story of the dramatic entry to the Los Angeles Hollyhock House that was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. You may be interested to know that the sketch started with the house elevation on the left page of my sketchbook. The entrance steps and the corridor to the front door were then sketched after completion of the house elevation, the garden plants and the driveway.
Sketchingjourney's Blog 
Thank you Raymond, Would be nice if you leave a comment on my blog!
Cool. I wasn’t consciously aware of what made this such a dramatic perspective. The explanation of the layers really help to understand the thinking behind the selection of this angle.
Sketch layers is my personal way of looking at a scene before starting to sketch. My thoughs on Complex Layering is to demonstrate that although a “layer” may imply a two dimension “plane” they are instead multi-dimensional and inter-related among themselves. In addition they are all governed by their vanishing points and a common horizon.
I follow your blog closely & find it very institutional, probably from your professional training.
Yes, it’s true to some extent, but it not because of my professional training (as you mention). I have not met an architect whose sketching signature is similar to mine. At architecture school, students are encouraged to sketch like ‘architects’, whatever that means, and often one can not tell whose sketch belongs to whom. My ‘style’ have always been the same since I was a child. Later I will illustrate more complex, detailed sketches.
I like your sketch, very unique. What I meant was the contain of your blog was very educational, one without certain training cannot create such a blog. I even forward your blog to one of my art students who is going to her first year Archtecture at AA in London.
Luckily my ‘training’ began from when I was less than 5 years old! When I first attended kindergarten, Sister Mary Marie, at the Holy Cross Catholic School in Kingston, Jamaica, discovered my sketches and had me draw nursery rhyme sketches on every blackboard in the school! I was propped up on a chair on a table, so I could reach the top of the blackboards!
I would love to hear from your student.