Extended drawing - fourth module - 2D/3D

We had been asked to bring small boxes, and with them to make "a spaceship", in which architectural-scale models (1/50th and 1/100th) would be used to manipulate space, and lighting would be used to enhance or create moods and environments. Photography could be used to create sources for future work or work in its own right. 

My model - in its "photo booth" -

Using photography -

Manipulating space (my only interior - I rather misunderstood this project) -

Creating mood (while juggling the camera and the light, my finger slipped and this photo was taken by chance!) -

 More of the noir -

At the end of the evening, an assembly of models -

In the second session we were introduced to architectural drawing systems (parallel motion drawing - ie, lines don't recede to a point, as in perspective) to support drawing of spaces by imagination -

For some time after the class I went around telling people this strange-looking semi-perspective was called axiomatic drawing - but actually it's called axonometric drawing, and looks distorted but is good for showing as much as possible of the inside of a room. And in looking up the link I find that what I ended up doing is actually isometric drawing!

Using triangular graph paper was a blessed relief after trying to draw - from imagination based on faulty recollection - the domed ceiling of a chapel built in the 1470s in Florence I'd happened to see in a book that morning. (Looking for it on the internet, later, turned up all sorts of wonderful architectural spaces with domes and columns ... something for another day.* Another source, of course, is Piranesi's amazing drawings/engravings.)

The 2D representation I'd seen (photographed pointing straight up) would look very different in 3D, sideways on, but I wasn't sure quite how to put this into "a transparent box" and after a few frustrating minutes, quite quickly moved on to putting pyramids onto graph paper -

After happy hours of moving the boxes and their enclosed pyramids around to enhance the aesthetics of the composition, it was finally possible to ink in the shapes, and to draw a floor plan (on square graph paper) ... only to find that several bases overlapped. Never mind! - you wouldn't know that from the overview; nor would you be aware of the  "plazas" in this "city" -

The tops of the "transparent boxes" in which the pyramids were contained were inscribed into the paper, and the whole sheet rubbed with graphite; those lines were very faint and needed careful thickening with a sliver of eraser, and then some heavy use of the eraser elsewhere -

The spaces between the pyramids got lost during the rearrangements, so I set out to make a drawing with some of those spaces, printing out triangular paper (eg here) and laying on some tracing paper -

Again, lot of erasure -

The "see through" shape shows an earlier version of the floor plan, which is somewhat confusing if you don't know about the history of erasure and repositioning. Hmm, an accidental palimpsest (or is that a tautology?).

Next I wanted to retain the floor plan, or have it somewhat revealed in the final version. At first the grid sat uneasily with the sloping lines -

Later, the bases of the pyramids are only just there, thanks to the dramatic lighting -

What do you think of the open space leading inward? And can you spot the deliberate(?!) mistake?


*Especially the Pazzi Chapel in Florence, eg here.

(via)

Another possibility for the second week was to develop patterns, eg for wallpaper for the inside of the "spaceship" - here are some starting points - Tongan tapa cloth patterns; inuit art patterns; african art patterns; native american patterns. Lots and LOTS of inspiration there!