Memorial Day Weekend Road Trip

One extra day off the work week?  Oh my gosh, what to do! We quickly hatched a plan to do a one day road trip visiting the small towns of St. Peter, Mankato, and Janesville in pursuit of Coffee, Beer, Wine, and a Waterfall. I was eager to bust out my sketchbook on this outing and test my travel sketching skills. To my disappointment, those with me were not nearly as eager to sit and wait for me to finish my sketch.  Thus, this sketch was done roughly half on site, and half staring at a photograph on my iphone.  The sketch on the left hand side was our first stop at a local coffee shop in St. Peter, and the fermenters on the right are at a brewery in Mankato. I had visions of doing a sketch collage of every place we stopped at, perhaps a bit ambitious, but I am glad nonetheless that these still made it into my sketchbook.

Media:  Micron Pen, Watercolor Crayon, and Graphite

Below are some process photos:

Looking back, the woman in front is what I probably spent the most time sketching, while the man kept shifting and moving - being difficult. This half of the sketch I focused on being more "freeform" while the fermenters I drew in elevation with drafting lines etc. are more "architectural" in nature.

HVAC - an ode to Building Systems

In an attempt to actually "draw" what is on my mind, perhaps this is an ode to the extent that studying for the ARE's are consuming my life right now. Yes, not surprisingly Building Systems is my next test in June. As much as this test looks at the technical aspect of these systems, I can't help but look at these like a fun 3D maze that winds and intertwines itself around my building designs.

This drawing was done by documenting an older building and looking at all of the different systems that had built up over time in layers. The drawing tools used were Micron Pen and watercolor pencil.  The dark black came about by dipping the pencil in water first, and then drawing on the paper with it wet.  The effect was immediate - no need to build up colors to get a dark black, but drawing in this way did lend itself to a certain lack of control for better or worse.  The black dries up quickly and you can feel your pencil stop sliding on the paper and suddenly act more "crayon-like"



Sketching Sweeney's

Since I don't have the time right now to get back into the screenprinting studio (darn ARE's are consuming WAY TOO MUCH of my time) I've been looking to "Urban Sketching" to fill that creative artistic void that I love so much about architecture. Looking back, I've always kept a sketchbook at my side throughout different point in my life, observing the world around me.

Last weekend, as cold and dreary and miserable as it was, we (Chris and myself) took some time to walk over to Sweeney's for an afternoon beverage. I have to admit, this does happen to be one of our favorite places around the cities for a quick gathering with new beers as they become available. Plus, getting to know the wait-staff does make for a friendly conversation.