I was planning to go and do some drawings yesterday and today. But somehow I ended up in a wrestling match with my blog and the blogger template. I’d been wanting a new simpler template for quite sometime and yesterday I decided to do just that. Well…what I thought was a simple thing turned to be the complete opposite. In 2 days I’ve learned more HTML, PHP, and CSS stuffs than I wanted to. In the end I still had to almost manually do everything despite the claim from some resources that it can be done this way or that way. Since I did it in what I think the simplest direct way, I am pretty sure that this blog page source is quite primitive to some experts out there. But hey, when I looked for some help on the W3C website, I couldn’t find any. That’s because their website bores me to death and is very difficult to read for a non-geek reader. It was frustrating. Luckily, despite all the difficulties, I still managed to get it done my way and in a look that I like. After that I still needed to do some chores, which means that I couldn’t do any sketching. But…the cleaning gave great reward. I found my old Europe Study sketchbooks and journals. Looking back at my first drawings brought back wonderful memories. I have scanned several pencil sketches and I plan to do so with the inked journal entries.
The following sketches are only a selection of pencil sketches done in may/june/july 1996. They are in chronological order, starting with my very first pencil sketch of the Europe trip.
NOTE: Click to enlarge.
This is the first pencil sketch that I made on that trip. It is of Rue de Alexander in Versailles, France. The sketch was made on May 31, 1996. You can see that the lines are still very dark and there is almost no contrast or focus. |
 Chateau de Chambord, France in early June 1996. My professor helped me a bit with styling, contrast, and finding a focal point. |
 Petit Trianon’s Hamlet in Versailles, France. Sketch was made on June 14, 1996. |
 I am not sure where I made this. This seems to be out of sequence. It could be that I drew this as an exercise based on a pencil drawing technique book and following their examples. Sketch was made sometime in June 1996. |
 A church in Barcelona, Spain. Sometime in July 1996. |
 The Duomo, Florence, Italy. July 1996. |
Somewhere in Rome. Sometime in July 1996. This is the last pencil sketch in my sketchbook for the Europe trip 1996. |
I loved seeing these, Evy! They are especially apt as I spent the afternoon drawing a couple of buildings on the campus of the university in my town. I’m going to post a sequence of these drawings to show improvement— as soon as there IS some ;D. But architectural sketches are your metier and I am so happy to have these to look at!
Thank you Laura! I am looking forward to your posts with your architectural sketches. And I am sure that you WILL have improvement. As they say, practice makes perfect. That’s what I went through as well.
I agree. CSS can ruin my day very quickly too.
Its no fun even using a html editor.
humpfff..
opps, forgot to log out of other blog.. This is Aaron the Truck Driver
Evy, these are beautiful. There is a lot that can be learned by looking at your drawings!
Evy, thanks for sharing your travelogue! Your mastery of architecture and details awes and inspires me. Not to mention such an interesting trip.
Teri