presentation time rolls around [again!]

Our first design board we've ever created was presented today. The class was divided into groups and each group was assigned a building on campus to study and then create drawings and diagrams of. The selected building for my group was the Moore Humanities and Research Administration building on Spring Garden. We were required to include three perspective drawings from each group member [=15 total], five drawings of architectural details, three diagrams, and one statement about the building. We selected a muted color scheme of pale turquoise, light and dark grey, and a muted orange. Our drawings were black and white, and we chose to mat a few of them in black.

Our group entered the presentation room feeling confident; we seemed to have an overall feeling of contentment with our process and final result. That remained so until I spoke last during our turn, and coined a new phrase, "linear line". You never know what you'll get during presentation day, except the guarantee that I will say something completely silly out of nervousness!


l-r: Lauren, Liz, Hannah, Brittany, Meg

architectural statement, anyone?

From a kiwi... to drawing patterns... to many horrendous iterations of objects... to this:

25 [+] scale figures

["diaper duty"]

Our assignment was to draw 25 scale figures of our own creation, having been inspired by our research. I liked trying to imagine people in various states of walking, sitting, and standing.
Lying down was the most difficult position for me to figure out, since my little people are minimal in body parts. I like the style I ended up with, and think it will continue to get better.

drinking and drawing assignment

[beardy]

[bearded guy in chair]

[guy at the counter]

[girl in chair]

Technically I wasn't drinking anything... perhaps I should have been!
This was the first time I had ever been in a public (non-UNCG) place to draw my surroundings. It felt a little weird at first, and Barnes & Noble was very crowded at the time so I had no place to sit for a while. I dreaded going out and doing this assignment all week, and was scolding myself once I got started because I actually enjoyed it. It would be great fun to do this often if I were especially skilled in drawing. Practice must be the way to get there!

a few books go a long way

Here are a couple of treasured books from my childhood whose images have had a great influence on me; I don't know that they inspired me to draw, but they certainly stirred my imagination.
When I outgrew the books, my parents saved them for me and amazingly they survived a fire at their house a few years ago. My poor 'Morris' book looks about a hundred years old! I certainly enjoyed it for a long time, and now I read it to my children.


above: Morris's Disappearing Bag, by Rosemary Wells; 1975, The Dial Press, NY.


above: Jack Kent's Hop Skip and Jump Book, A First Book of Action Words; 1974, Random House, NY.


Here is a book that I gave to my kids titled "Olivia and the Missing Toy", by Ian Falconer. The Olivia series is beautifully illustrated in greyscale with random splashes of color. Perhaps the frugal use of color is what really makes the images pop.
Falconer's use of shadow and contrast is exquisite. I think this is the book that my kids will remember from their own childhood.



above: Olivia and the Missing Toy, by Ian Falconer; 2003, Atheneum Books for Young Readers.

Moore Building final drawings

These are the final three drawings based on other illustrator's works:

inspiration...

above: illustration by bill jehle; found at www.asai.org




above: excerpt from Tom Porter and Sue Goodman's Manual of Graphic Techniques 2 for Architects, Graphic Designers and Artists, published in 1982



above: sketch by Tadao Ando.




above: "Cambridge XI", by Jim Butler.



above: axonometric illustration by ykbk.

a pinch of color

We were asked to create representations of several types of organization in architecture (grid, radial, linear, centralized, and clustered) for Patrick's Design History I class. Here are a few of what I came up with.

Markers = fun!!!!

2 x 4

The assignment: using an 18" long common pine 2x4, and making at least six cuts into it, create a system that uses no adhesives or fasteners. And most importantly, create no waste! (use every piece of the board).

My first idea was to create a basket-woven type of piece... but the pieces I cut ended up being too thin or too thick. Using the thick pieces as the support structure/grid, I cut small slits into them to hold the other thinner pieces. What I loved about the thin ones were the feathering effects the bandsaw created inadvertently. Rather than label these as mistakes and start over, I really wanted to incorporate them into the "system" and utilize them as the featured component. A significant concept of my project was that I insisted that nothing be measured. Given such minimal parameters for the project, I really enjoyed this idea and the feeling of freedom that came from not measuring. I'll have plenty of time for that later, I'm sure!