Thursday, June 5, 2008
AMERICA, the beautiful
Okay so I am back from Barcelona, and have been adjusting to life back in the states for about 3 weeks now, and my quest to learn about sketching and architecture is not over. Although not required for class anymore I am still interested in upkeeping this blog as a personal journey of my final years as a student. With 3 weeks gone by, and only a little sketching done, I hope to pick up a pen soon and 'hit the books' so to say. Keep checking back for updates and scans of my current work.
Tuesday, April 15, 2008
I thought picture books were for children?
With only two weeks left to sketch, I am a little disappointed that my time in Barcelona is coming to a close. For the second time in two weeks I am finally started to feel like my sketching is accomplishing what 'I thought' it was accomplishing from day one. Although this is not my closing post, I did learn a lot today, and over the course of the past three months which I would like to discuss. I started this blog topic in an attempt to possible learn more about sketching. Since I have a strong background in art I was always though that sketching was a visual representation of what you see. Which it still is, but what I have learned that in order to dissect a structure, or piece of architecture analytically, you need to look beyond what it looks like from that angle at that time, because what I failed to realized is that every great piece of architecture that I might experience in my lifetime, will not be a planned field trip as a part of a class, and it may not be something that is a precedent for a project. You may just be passing by, or on a leisurely stroll. Either way there is most likely going to have a time limit on how long you can view the space. And although I enjoy relaxing with my pencil and sketching a perspective of the area or landscape with full tonal value, when I only have a few minutes or even an hour to get the big idea, that type of sketching may not be appropriate and a picture could serve the same purpose. The type of representational analytical sketching which I have adapted and am finally starting to perfect has been more helpful over the past few weeks. Getting down guidelines and basic page layout helps to tell a story or narrate the space you are observing.
Today we did an exercise, much like the last one, where we were instructed to create a narrative through composition. And just like our last assignment we had a time limit. We were given the urban renewal area of Barcelona near Santa Catarina Maria Market, which was a new urban plan to open up the city and link the Villa Citadel to another older part of the city. The space was rejuvenated by the refurbishing of the Market and an addition of newer modern housing for the area. In looking at the given site I noted what was most interesting to me. The joining of the old to the new was the most interesting. I started with a plan at the urban scale with the insertion of the new buildings, and then I looked at the massing of the new block like shapes that seemed to be stacked on top of one another, with a facade that matched exactly with the old fabric on the one side. So I procceded with an axon, which could use a little more work, but I wanted to show the layers of the new modern forms, with the boxes and then the older fabric in which the new form was attached to. I really think in a city with as much history as Barcelona the fusion of the new and the old is very important.
Again, with every day that passes, although the excitement of returning home to the states is still there, it is bittersweet. With everything that I have learned over the past few months, I am sad to see this experience coming to an end. I will upload this sketchbook page shortly.
ADIOS
Today we did an exercise, much like the last one, where we were instructed to create a narrative through composition. And just like our last assignment we had a time limit. We were given the urban renewal area of Barcelona near Santa Catarina Maria Market, which was a new urban plan to open up the city and link the Villa Citadel to another older part of the city. The space was rejuvenated by the refurbishing of the Market and an addition of newer modern housing for the area. In looking at the given site I noted what was most interesting to me. The joining of the old to the new was the most interesting. I started with a plan at the urban scale with the insertion of the new buildings, and then I looked at the massing of the new block like shapes that seemed to be stacked on top of one another, with a facade that matched exactly with the old fabric on the one side. So I procceded with an axon, which could use a little more work, but I wanted to show the layers of the new modern forms, with the boxes and then the older fabric in which the new form was attached to. I really think in a city with as much history as Barcelona the fusion of the new and the old is very important.
Again, with every day that passes, although the excitement of returning home to the states is still there, it is bittersweet. With everything that I have learned over the past few months, I am sad to see this experience coming to an end. I will upload this sketchbook page shortly.
ADIOS
Monday, April 14, 2008
My run in with the 'Holy Family'
Okay, so today was the most amazing day I have had since I have been here. We got a private tour of the Sagrada Familia!!!! in english the Holy Family. And for those of you that don't know that is one of Antonio Gaudi's most famous work in the world. The Sagrada Familia towers over Barcelona's skyline, with only eight of its tweleve bell towers complete. The tour was given to us by the current head Architect on the project. Not his workers, the architect himself, and it was one of the most amazing things ever. Usually most tourist get to walk through the part of the church that is not covered in scafulding, but we got the behind the scenes tour. We started off in the main Naive of the church, and then got to ride the elevator to the highest completed point on the church, which is only about half as high as the finished structure will be. With hard hats and all we were allowed to explore, with some limitations the areas which are currently underconstruction. At some points we were visiting parts of the church that upon completion will still not be viewed or touched by people. I will say, that the ride up to the top of the Sagrada Familia made me very nervous and almost sick to my stomach, but after arriving at the top I was so excited to be there I forgot all about being just short of 100 meters in the air. So we went to La Sagrada Familia, with the current architect on the job and got a behind the scenes tour. Could you ask for anything more.
Thursday, April 10, 2008
2 hours and a full page later....
Okay so in sketching class yesterday we did an exercise which I feel I have learned the most from. We were given a site (COAC), and we were told to sketch anything we wanted, but we had to tell a story through our sketches, but they needed to be analytical. We had to compose a page, guidelines only, which contained the significant ideas of the architecture on both the architectural and urban scale. So I did just that. I looked at the overall plan in relation to the section of the building. I also looked at the volumetiric forms of the building. The challenge of this exercise was not gathering the information. It was the time frame in which we were given. We had 45 minutes to look at everything as a whole, and get it all down on the page. This is very challanging because as a perfectionist I have a hard time getting things down in a limited amount of time, but much to my surprise I got the section, plan, and most of the axon finished in that time.... (not finished yet) thats all for now
Tuesday, April 1, 2008
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Dying Easter Eggs..... shades of brown :-(
Easter weekend and Laura came to visit oh and the kids from Rome and Gavin and I meet Laura's friend Lisa, who is studying in Barcelona. So exciting! It was a full house all weekend, which was great! So I got to take Laura to see all of the typical BCN sites, the port, the beach, the fish, Gaudi's architecture, and of course the night life! Oh and I also set out this weekend to paint Easter eggs, but was very disappointed to find out that white eggs were difficult to find in Barcelona. :-( very sad. so instead I decided to practice my watercolors and make them look like eggs. It's almost the same, only not quite as delicious. But there is no need to hard boil them either, so it has its positive aspects.
Anyways, so staying on topic with the sketching. I painted eggs into my sketchbook! It was fun and festive, although not analytical, but good practice none the less!
More soon, time for church
Anyways, so staying on topic with the sketching. I painted eggs into my sketchbook! It was fun and festive, although not analytical, but good practice none the less!
More soon, time for church
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
The Orange Moon
So this week in sketching class we were introduced to watercolor!!! I was definitly a little excited. We also practiced a variety of pen techniques and tonal value, which was very helpful. Although there are still some things that don't seem to be clear, but I am working on it. To start we did a series of to
nal values with primary colors, red, blue and yellow for those that may not remember from elementray art class. Then we practiced different techniques for mixing water colors, which I really enjoyed. Although I am very pround of my skills when it comes to art, watercolor is something I have always struggled with. It is one of those things that requires patience, and that is a quality that I am severly lacking. The layering techniques that we used were mixed in the palete, wet on dry and wet on wet. The best results in my mind were the pre-mixed or the wet on dry. After our experimentation with color we took a step back and started to use grey scale. We were instructed to draw an orange. First in grey scale then in color. As I started to do my oranges my acrylic painting skills came into play and I try to make the tome blend from one to another all at once without letting anything dry. This technique did not work so well, my
orange ended up looking like a moon, which i guess you could say is what I was going for, but it wasn't. My second attempt, still in grey scale was a little better, but still did not resemble an orange. I tried to layer my tones instead of blending while wet, because blending while wet seemed to rip up my paper and just got the entire drawing way to wet. My third try, which was color started to get better. I now layer correctly, but I needed to get the tones and the shadows on the orange correct. My last attemp finally looked like a recognizable orange. It took me the longest to do, but I layed everything one tone at a time, and once I put the second tone down it enevitably blended into the tone on the underside.
nal values with primary colors, red, blue and yellow for those that may not remember from elementray art class. Then we practiced different techniques for mixing water colors, which I really enjoyed. Although I am very pround of my skills when it comes to art, watercolor is something I have always struggled with. It is one of those things that requires patience, and that is a quality that I am severly lacking. The layering techniques that we used were mixed in the palete, wet on dry and wet on wet. The best results in my mind were the pre-mixed or the wet on dry. After our experimentation with color we took a step back and started to use grey scale. We were instructed to draw an orange. First in grey scale then in color. As I started to do my oranges my acrylic painting skills came into play and I try to make the tome blend from one to another all at once without letting anything dry. This technique did not work so well, my
orange ended up looking like a moon, which i guess you could say is what I was going for, but it wasn't. My second attempt, still in grey scale was a little better, but still did not resemble an orange. I tried to layer my tones instead of blending while wet, because blending while wet seemed to rip up my paper and just got the entire drawing way to wet. My third try, which was color started to get better. I now layer correctly, but I needed to get the tones and the shadows on the orange correct. My last attemp finally looked like a recognizable orange. It took me the longest to do, but I layed everything one tone at a time, and once I put the second tone down it enevitably blended into the tone on the underside.This week we also worked with Ink in an attempt to get better with toning in pen. We started with a series of lines at different weights and different techniques. The lines were then combined, some closer together and some farther apart to create and allusion of different tones. The third step is direction was added to the strokes of the lines, which added to the darkness of the tone. The more directions overlaping one another the darker the tone got.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
Back to reality...if you can even call it reality?
So I'm now back from my spring break adventures and there is a lot that I need to blog about! We got our next projects this week, and we also got grades. Which were not great, but I guess if they were perfect, I wouldn't have any room for improvement, and living up to perfection is very hard. But we will see how it goes from here. Back to Project 3, it is an intensive 2 week site analysis in groups, where we have to go out and get information, which is avaliable, but not always easy to get. Once the information is obtained we are being asked to produce a graphic representation of the information that we uncovered. So today I called the Architect who is currently building on the open plot that is next to our studio. Jessie got me his name and number from MBM Architects, the firm that rents us our studio space. I set up a meeting for me and two other group members tomorrow at 5pm, where he will be able to give us the necessary information for our analysis, which is fantastic. Hopefully he will be able to help us a lot with elevations and zoning, because so far that seems to be the most difficult information to find. I am really looking forward to our meeting with him tomorrow.
As far as my sketchbook goes, I had a meeting with Christy today, and she had some very good feedback which I will now need to take and start to impliment into my sketching. Over the past few weeks I have been exploring my stlye of sketching, and analytical sketching as a whole, but now after exploration Christy would like me to focus myself in on a style that I have developed which describes my own personal experience, and try to make my sketchbook consitate. So that is my new goal. Along with exploration of architectural concepts in my sketchbook I now will need to focus my sketching on my personal style and technique of sketching that way my sketchbook is more cohesive and blends better.
Until next time :-)
As far as my sketchbook goes, I had a meeting with Christy today, and she had some very good feedback which I will now need to take and start to impliment into my sketching. Over the past few weeks I have been exploring my stlye of sketching, and analytical sketching as a whole, but now after exploration Christy would like me to focus myself in on a style that I have developed which describes my own personal experience, and try to make my sketchbook consitate. So that is my new goal. Along with exploration of architectural concepts in my sketchbook I now will need to focus my sketching on my personal style and technique of sketching that way my sketchbook is more cohesive and blends better.
Until next time :-)
Monday, March 10, 2008
My Polish Adventures
So after my trip to wonderful warm and sunny Greece, I decided to venture into the snowy fridged Polish Countryside to visit a friend in Poznan. Poznan being a smaller city in Poland we decided to venture east to Warsaw, Poland and west to Berlin, Germany!!!! Fantastic and interesting trips to both. More updates on Poland soon!!!!
:-)
:-)
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
All I know is that I know nothing
¨All I know is that I know nothing¨ - Socrates
Greece... well what can I saw it is pretty much an absolutely fantastic place. I have been spending the past few days in Athens seeing all the typical sights, meeting some very friendly people, having a blast with good friends, and most of all sketching my butt off!!!!!! Which I am actually starting to enjoy a lot more :-) Through my studies in Barcelona and abroad I am trying to examine my sketching techniques and build upon the skills that I currently have. It has been a constant struggle for me, such a stubborn person, to change her ways and look at another persons point of view. But I have been talking with some other students, from the Rome Program that have a slightly different perspective on things, and I have been forcing myself to look deeper into what I am doing. Athens has been an adventure from the start!!!! With the delay of my flight in the Barcelona airport to kick off what turned out to be an awesome trip. Being an architecture student stuck in an airport for an extra two hours, what could I possibly do with all that time? The only thing I had on me was a bag of clothes, a sketchbook, and some pens....oh that's right SKETCH! So that is what I did.
My first set of sketches on this trip I tried to completely abandon almost everything I have ever known about sketching. I wanted to start with basic shapes, and leave out all the pretty tones in order to examine the airport. I also wanted to try to portray a feeling with my sketch, which I am noticing is hard, unless you draw a pretty picture, which is what I am trying not to do. I noticed a lot of things about the airport that I thought would be interesting to analyse, and after much consideration I decided on connection. I started to contemplate drawing types which might be good for describing a connection between the frame of the wall and the glass, and I thought an exploded axon would be an interesting way to describe it. As my sketchbook page started to come together I thought that some tome would help the sketches become more clearly read, because the lines were a bit confusing. Slowly I added in a few tones, trying not to over due it and create another pretty picture. Itś very interesting to me that something I have done for ages could be so hard, so far I think the way you tone an analytical sketch could make the sketch more readable or a lot more confusing. I think my page turned out okay, but again I am still getting used to this style of drawing it is not something I particularly like, or would do in my free time, but I am starting to see some benefits of it. I feel as though I will not be satisfied with my sketches until I can analytically sketch as well as a draw what I see. When drawings are concerned I like perfecting and at this point in the words of my good friend Howra, I think my sketches are only ¨satisfactory¨. As soon as I get back to school I will be posting all my sketches, so that people can better understand what I am talking about.
Adios for now!
Greece... well what can I saw it is pretty much an absolutely fantastic place. I have been spending the past few days in Athens seeing all the typical sights, meeting some very friendly people, having a blast with good friends, and most of all sketching my butt off!!!!!! Which I am actually starting to enjoy a lot more :-) Through my studies in Barcelona and abroad I am trying to examine my sketching techniques and build upon the skills that I currently have. It has been a constant struggle for me, such a stubborn person, to change her ways and look at another persons point of view. But I have been talking with some other students, from the Rome Program that have a slightly different perspective on things, and I have been forcing myself to look deeper into what I am doing. Athens has been an adventure from the start!!!! With the delay of my flight in the Barcelona airport to kick off what turned out to be an awesome trip. Being an architecture student stuck in an airport for an extra two hours, what could I possibly do with all that time? The only thing I had on me was a bag of clothes, a sketchbook, and some pens....oh that's right SKETCH! So that is what I did.
My first set of sketches on this trip I tried to completely abandon almost everything I have ever known about sketching. I wanted to start with basic shapes, and leave out all the pretty tones in order to examine the airport. I also wanted to try to portray a feeling with my sketch, which I am noticing is hard, unless you draw a pretty picture, which is what I am trying not to do. I noticed a lot of things about the airport that I thought would be interesting to analyse, and after much consideration I decided on connection. I started to contemplate drawing types which might be good for describing a connection between the frame of the wall and the glass, and I thought an exploded axon would be an interesting way to describe it. As my sketchbook page started to come together I thought that some tome would help the sketches become more clearly read, because the lines were a bit confusing. Slowly I added in a few tones, trying not to over due it and create another pretty picture. Itś very interesting to me that something I have done for ages could be so hard, so far I think the way you tone an analytical sketch could make the sketch more readable or a lot more confusing. I think my page turned out okay, but again I am still getting used to this style of drawing it is not something I particularly like, or would do in my free time, but I am starting to see some benefits of it. I feel as though I will not be satisfied with my sketches until I can analytically sketch as well as a draw what I see. When drawings are concerned I like perfecting and at this point in the words of my good friend Howra, I think my sketches are only ¨satisfactory¨. As soon as I get back to school I will be posting all my sketches, so that people can better understand what I am talking about.
Adios for now!
Friday, February 29, 2008
Up, up and away I go!
So I know I haven't been blogging a lot, but I am about to leave on my Grand Spring Break adventure into Europe!!!! Iam very excited about the plans that I have. I will be off to Athens, Greece for a 4 day adventure with some of the "Rome Kids" Catherine, Josh and Marissa to name a few. And the usual "Barcelona Kids" will be there as well. On my trip I am hoping to look at sketching with an analitical twist. I want to examine the things we learned about in history class ( ie the acropolis) and see if I can graphically represent them analytically and experiencially. Which I guess is the challenge I will be faceing for the duration of the semester. Besides the obvious site seeing I am interested in getting a different prospective on things with different people surrounding me. After my four day adventure to Athens, I will be venturing to Poland, Poznan to be exact. Although the intention of this second journey was primarily to see one of my best friends, I am hoping to explore the city with her. Laura just arrieved in Poland a few weeks ago, so I will be fun to explore the city and the urban fabric together. I will be documenting my trip both with sketching and in a journal, which I will be posting soon after my return in about 10 days!!! The goal is to have developed as an architectural thinker, and to have a little fun with some good friends along the way!!!
Unitl next time!
Unitl next time!
Monday, February 25, 2008
Seeing Clearly
Like I have said before, Christy asked us to focus our blogs on something particular that we would like to learn or study during our time in Barcelona. I have decided, like I said before that I want to focus on the development and challenges that come with sketching analytically and clearly! In all my posts up until this one, I have really only discussed my adventures while here in Europe, but from this point on, I will be focused on examining my sketches and looking at ways for improvement or change. I will however still be writing a bit about my adventures so that I can keep my family at home updated on my travels. Hopefully my new approach to sketching will help me to learn even more about myself and improve my skills as a analytical thinker!
Stay tuned for more!!! :-)
Stay tuned for more!!! :-)
Thursday, February 21, 2008
Good friends and fun celebration!
Gavin is here and wants to see it all in one weekend!!! wow so can I just say she is a little ambitious!!! Although we did tackle the Sagrada Famila, Barcelona Pavillion, Port Olympic, Las Ramblas and the Picasso Museum (Gavins Choice)
Ohh and did I mention Irene turned vienteuno!!!! 21!!! YEAH
Ill fill you in on all the details soon!
Ohh and did I mention Irene turned vienteuno!!!! 21!!! YEAH
Ill fill you in on all the details soon!
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
Sevilla
Calatrava, Cathedrals and Carriage Rides with Howra!!!!! Sounds like fun right?
check back soon!! more to come!
check back soon!! more to come!
Monday, February 18, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Friday, February 15, 2008
Madrid
Madrid can be described in a few words..... cold.... rainy.... Dali.... the Superbowl
I promise I have pictures and more to come.... stay tuned!
I promise I have pictures and more to come.... stay tuned!
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Espana... the beginning
Hola mis amigos! I have been in Spain since January 10th and I have been at a loss for what to write about in my blog. So this morning when Christy emailed us about how she would like us to blog I was actually quite relieved. So I have decided to dedicate my blog to my sketchbook. It may sound a little weird, but after I explain I think you might get a better sense of what I am talking about. But before I get into that, I need to at least document something of my trip so that my family at home can read something that they might be interested in. Cause although my life might revolve around architecture, I know there's does not! So like I said before I have been in Spain since January 10th. And I guess I will try to take you on a week by week and hopefully post some picture so that you can see where I have been! So I guess I can start off with the day I left Philly, :-( which was a sad day because I realized I will not be able to eat a philly cheesesteak for 4 months. I don't know if I am going to be able to handle that, but I guess I will manage cause I mean Spain couldn't have any food which I was going to like. So anyways, my flight to Paris was nice and easy. I pretty much slept the entire way which was fantastic. My favorite part about the flight was after we landed in Charles DeGual Airport I meet the cutest little Spanish girl ever!!!! ohh yeah and the airport had a pretty interesting structure too.
When I landed in BARCELONA I spent my first hour in Spain was spent waiting in the airport for the rest of the group, so that I didn't have to venture into the city alone... :-) I will venture on a plane ride across the Atlantic, but I am to afraid to get a cab by myself. Oh well, it was cheaper the way I did it anyway. We all meet in studio, and then we got to go back to our apartments to get settled in a get ready for what would be our first and only group dinner since we have been in Spain.
Our apartments in Barcelona are split into three. There is the guys apartment, the girls apartment and then there is mine, Gran Via. They are pretty much self explanatory, and the reason our apartment is not named by sex is because there are both girls and guys. I live with Emma, PJ and Nick and the situation is very nice. We each have our own bedrooms and space to spread out, with a nice sized kitchen and living space. Ohh and there is not dryer!!! They do not exist in Spain, unless you want to pay extra for them. So I have to hang dry my clothes, which you wouldn't think would be that difficult, but when doing laundry you have to allot for dry time, which is something I am not used to. Our apartment is located in one of the major roads in Barcelona, which is really convenient, but it is a few blocks away from the old city, which is where we usually venture for our sketching adventures and general exploration of the city.
When I landed in BARCELONA I spent my first hour in Spain was spent waiting in the airport for the rest of the group, so that I didn't have to venture into the city alone... :-) I will venture on a plane ride across the Atlantic, but I am to afraid to get a cab by myself. Oh well, it was cheaper the way I did it anyway. We all meet in studio, and then we got to go back to our apartments to get settled in a get ready for what would be our first and only group dinner since we have been in Spain.
Our apartments in Barcelona are split into three. There is the guys apartment, the girls apartment and then there is mine, Gran Via. They are pretty much self explanatory, and the reason our apartment is not named by sex is because there are both girls and guys. I live with Emma, PJ and Nick and the situation is very nice. We each have our own bedrooms and space to spread out, with a nice sized kitchen and living space. Ohh and there is not dryer!!! They do not exist in Spain, unless you want to pay extra for them. So I have to hang dry my clothes, which you wouldn't think would be that difficult, but when doing laundry you have to allot for dry time, which is something I am not used to. Our apartment is located in one of the major roads in Barcelona, which is really convenient, but it is a few blocks away from the old city, which is where we usually venture for our sketching adventures and general exploration of the city.
We also went to see the Frank Gehry's Barcelona Fish at Port Olympico!!! Which was really cool! On our way to see the fish we saw the Natural Gas Building which was also amazing, talk about really cool cantalever!
As far as school goes we have been pretty busy, although I think it feels like a lot more work than it actually is. In studio we have been working with paint!!! Which is exciting for me because I love painting! Although we have been using them to create a reverse figure ground, so its a little different than painting a picture but still a lot of fun. The painting is what our first project consisted of. We had to design a city plan and a network, with a river that we had to accommodate and a few buildings that were also mandatory in the plan. I will post pictures of the projects soon. As far as the rest of my classes they are going well, Spanish is fun and our professor is the cutest little man ever! History/theory is also a very fun class, our professor Cecila is an architect in Barcelona. Work was pretty easy for the first few weeks as we all tried to figure out this new city that we were living in. Our first field trip took us to Madrid and then to the south of Spain. We ventured though Cordoba, Granada and Sevilla. Posts of our field trips will be up asap!!!
that's all for now folks!
that's all for now folks!
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
better late than never :-)
Hi Mom, cause I know you will be reading this the secocnd it gets posted :-) I apoligize for not starting this sooner, but we just got home from the most amazing trip to the south of spain!!!! I have a lot to update everyone on, but at the moment I dont have a whole lot of time. So this is just to say hi and let everyone know, my mother especially that I am alive!!! Okay well that it for now!!!!
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