Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Amanda Billberg's Final Sketches

These two are sketches of the Providence Family Medicine Building on south Grand Avenue across from Manito Park. Captured at approximately 9pm, natural lighting glowed on the west-facing facade, accenting the landcaping. In the black-and-white version I was concerned with catching subtle value changes of the structure through lighting and materials. In the rendered version I used markers to capture the brilliance of the foliage against the neutral structure.


 The Japanese Gardens at Manito Park have a beautiful Japanese lantern which served as the subject for this sketch. Rough in texture, I was drawn to the natural contrast between the stone and the surrounding softness of plants. In the pen drawing I got caught up in detail, shadowing, and texture. The rendered version was an experiment with watercolor. It is fascinating to see how the mood of a composition can change with the addition of three simple colors.
This is a view of a portion of my parents' home from the back, showing the addition (on the right). I was sitting slightly uphill from the base of the structure, encapsulated with trees. I found this sketch difficult simply because I often found myself sketching what I knew instead of what I saw. This piece did have an element of fun, as shadows from the trees danced on the roof while the evening sunlight cast sharp shadows. The technique I tried to employ was to use contour lines as a framing technique.
This apartment/condominium building can be found when looking north across the river from Riverfront Park. I found this structure to be particularly beautiful. With such a simple structure of brick, concrete, and metal, shadow-play instantly adds character, dressing it up in a way that cannot be otherwise achieved architecturally.

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