SCALE . UNITY . SECTION . BOUNDARIES . VIGNETTES

This week, we focused heavily on using our drawings to communicate. We drew many vignettes, architectural drawings, and quick sketches to hone our communication skills through visuals.



S C A L E
This week we worked on scale through our wall models for studio. It took me many tries to get the scale of my wall and artifact to work well together. I ended up making three different walls. Though I was able to achieve a good scale for my wall, I still struggled to create a scale model of my artifact that was effective. "The complete harmonization of proportioned parts in the finished building is especially remarkable […]" (Roth 236). This quote from Roth was especially important this week to me because we learned how the scale of an object can determine whether a piece of work is successful or not. We also learned about the Egyptian pyramids, which were heavily based on scale.



We practiced the scale of body parts based on the artist's view.




Scale figures are important for communicating the size of an element in relation to a person.



U N I T Y
Unity became very important this week in History as we learned about Egypt. As we look at Egyptian history over time, there is a very strong sense of unity in the design. “Once the forms of Egyptian religion, literature, art, and architecture had been defined… they changed very little for almost three thousand years” (Roth 191). I found this so interesting because the Egyptians really found what worked and they stuck with it. Not only did the Egyptians have a formula for design, it was innovative and architecturally advanced. The architecture became this way based on limited materials and technologies.




S E C T I O N
The Pat’s chair sections we did this week were much easier than I expected. I think I was terrified at the thought of trying to cut something in half in my mind and then draw it correctly. Surprisingly, it came easy for me!

We also practiced section drawing by researching many different wall types and learning how they were constructed.




B O U N D A R I E S
Lately we have been learning about boundaries and lack thereof, not only in studio and drawing, but in history as well. I began to think of boundaries not only about as a visual barrier, but as a societal one as well. This stuck out for me when we learned about Egypt because their hierarchal boundaries were so strong they showed up in the architecture. “Egyptian society was highly stratified. At the top of the hierarchical scale was the pharaoh, or king, whose powers were divine and who represented God on earth,” (Blakemore 3). I saw this hierarchy when we learned about the “Tomb and the Temple”. (The Tomb of Queen Hatshepsut, Temple of Amon) Another example is furniture, which was slightly different from the architecture yet still reflected social hierarchy. "Appropriate to royalty is the Golden Throne of Tutankhamen, on which materials and design details exemplify royal status in life (Blakemore 19).



V I G N E T T E S
We have been doing vignettes ALL WEEK!!!! But I don’t mind very much because I enjoy doing them and I am determined to get better with both my drawing skills and water color techniques. I recently began thinking about vignettes as a lack of boundary. I love how they just continue and fade out, leaving the imagination to finish the scene. I enjoyed the Drink & Draw exercise this week because it took me out of my comfort zone and forced me to draw what I really saw.



Overall, I found this week very interesting on a history level. History seemed to tie in very well with the rest of our classes based on what we have been doing in our other classes. It was interesting that everything I learned could be connected in some way. I am excited to see what next week will bring!