Who knew a pineapple could transform the image of a city, not just visually but culturally. My husband and I recently took a trip to Charleston and learned all about how the pineapple is the symbol of hospitality and the origin of how that symbol came to be. We learned so much history on so many levels, we certainly enjoyed our trip! Once I got home, I thought about the things that stick out to me the most. And if I had to describe Charleston in just six images, how would I do that? Well, this is how…
Tag: architecture
You can fly!
Balancing architecture and animation as Peter Pan flies past Big Ben, this sketch aims to show this illustrative contrast. It’s incredible how Disney can incorporate two contrasting subjects (orthogonal crisp real-world architecture and the softness of Disney animation) into one beautiful story layout. Therefore the sketch is simple, composed of lines and shading, but the style of sketching purposefully represents the contrast between the architecture and animation.
“Ghost Church” Temple of Santiago, Mexico
This is an incredible story of a 400-year old church that has emerged from the waters in southern Mexico due to a drought. Despite the incredible architecture and massive size, the church never fulfilled it’s original intent to stand as a populated center for gathering in Chiapas. But the church has stood the test of time, and the test of the flowing waters for hundreds of years. This story is captivating to me, the church may not have received much popularity when it was built in the 1500s, but now it has made it’s way to the top of the news reports as the “Ghost Church” that “emerges eerily from the water.” What an absolutely incredible story about architecture and the history it holds and the story it continues to write throughout time.
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/10/18/mexico-drought-church-reservoir-chiapas_n_8325036.html
I chose to sketch the “Ghost Church” because the story fascinated me so much I wanted to learn more about the building. For me, hand drawing is the best means of observation and the best way to appreciate the story and the architecture.
Meet Me In St. Louis
Symmetry. Not what it seems.
Today I’m in St. Louis and wanted to visit Washington University. I’ve seen pictures of the campus on the internet, but wanted to catch a glimpse for myself…the architecture is absolutely beautiful. I had to sit down and whip out a piece of paper to sketch. Again, all I had with me was a hotel pen and scrap paper.
I had 20 minutes before I had to leave, so I sat on bench and gazed upon Brookings Hall. A reason I love sketching and stand behind it’s analytics value, is because the hand can catch what the eye overlooks. I spent the first few minutes looking upon Brookings Hall and snapping some photos for my personal keepsakes, and I still overlooked some details that I did not notice until I started sketching. And my sketch shows this eye-error and sketch-discovery. Makes me question, how much of a site do we intake/observe by just looking and taking pictures?
At a glance, the entire building looks symmetrical. So as I sketched, I assumed the building was symmetrical, but there is one window out of place. I assumed what my eye did not see and sketched the tower windows to be symmetrical, but the left tower’s middle row of windows is asymmetrical to the right tower. So as you can see in my sketch, the left tower has two windows in the middle row; showing the error window and the window that is to be true. I’m happy I came across this mistake and glad the discovery is illustrated in my sketch, because it further taught me the relationship between the hand and the eye. Sketching can be so valuable to studying a building and the beauty. To me, the break in symmetry adds a beautiful element, that I am pleased to have discovered.
Megan Carpenter 