Sketches

What I have learned from my studio class

RUS104 is a mandatory, studio class for Housing, Building and planning students. This class comprises lots of practical, hands-on drawing, building skills required for an architecture student. 

I have to say that a good, 4 months of going through this course has enabled me to think about art in a more creative and out of the box manner. I have to admit I had not paid too much attention to art appreciation in the last decade or so as I was busy chasing my ambition in the corporate world. To me, the first year of architecture school has a heavy emphasis on art appreciation - how to sketch, draw, paint with watercolor, shading , etc. which is why I relate my experience from this class to art appreciation frequently.

That said,the weekly project showcase session (sharing of students' work) and interaction with the lecturers gave me a perspective of the type of work that people here of this generation admires or appreciates, which is contemporary, modern art or architecture. I, of course, had a hard time accepting this as fact since I have a strong preference towards traditional, organic elements fused with contemporary style. That may be because having been away from this country for a long time has allowed me to appreciate the beautiful, intrinsic, traditional art from this region better. Part of the reason of choosing to study architecture in this part of the world is so I can have a piece of the "Malaysiana", South East Asian influence in my future "art" work. I really hope that my peer and lecturers will learn to understand that I am not merely choosing "old" designs because I'm "old" but to know that there's gems in the rich, traditional South East Asian architecture and artwork. Do not lose touch with it! 

Lastly, now that I'm a more mature student, I have to say my art appreciation and design influence is heavily governed by my logic, practicality and definitely business sense. It was hard to let my ideas fly wild like most other students did without compartmentalizing it into my reality thinking box. I would always go, "seriously, you wouldn't want that for your house?" Or "you would have to pay me thousands of $ to like what you proposed and preached." But lots of times I've learnt to bite my tongue and try to see it from others' perspective. I learnt to be a kid who dreams without boundaries and learnt to dream like an academia. Till one day, my mentor, who has worked and taught as an architect gave this piece of advice to me - this is your time to go wild with your designs. You don't get to do too much of that in the real world. I can accept this for now.

We will see what the next step brings...

Sketches from when I was a kid

My interest with buildings and architecture started when I received my first box of Lego. Lego was the only toy my parents would buy for me when I was a kid. No dolls. Just Lego. As such, I have a room full of Legos. I remember having a permanent Lego city, complete with a police station, a fire station, houses, railroad and great infrastructure. Besides reading my favorite stories by Enid Blyton when I was a kid, I also enjoyed reading architecture and interior design magazines that my parents would buy to guide them in decorating their house.

Below are examples of sketches I found, drawn when I was a kid when I wasn't paying attention in class.

Imposed Project 5: A comfortable Chair

In group of 3, students are required to produce a structural model of a wooden L-shape seating object that combines a table and chair(s) (students are free to design and decide the form of each chair/sofa/table/desk). 

The purpose of this assignment is 

§To improve students’ ability in applying suitable elements and principles of design in producing a functional structure.

To expose the students to the challenges of designing a small structure that is a result of a connection or combination of two or more objects.

To improve students’ skills in developing and communicating the ideas through conceptual scale model making.

To enhance students’ ability in designing a creative form of object and space with the understanding of human physiology, ergonomic and comfort factors based on basic technical knowledge

The Mod Kinabalu Bench is designed based on traditional Malay design, modern curves and ecodesign concepts. We wanted to integrate the landscape design into our bench design. The landscape design consist of a tropical water fountain surrounded by clean-cut, carved stone wall embossed with a tropical floral print stone. We used the sleek, modern tropical feel and elements from the landscape as the basis for our bench design. 

Design and form 

The backrest has a  gradual upward slop with Malay traditional square design, decorated with vines on tie/rod wires that reflects the green Kinabalu mountain. To give it a modern and sleek look, we created a free-form, curved seat that resemble the curves of a mountain. We incorporated concrete armrest and a concrete side table to tie with the concrete/stone landscape. The concrete is a good contrast in terms of form, color and material against the wooden bench and wood color. Since the side table concrete may be too heavy for the bench we decided have it from the ground up. The higher height of the side table will give the bench an elevated look in the middle.

Material

We incorporated mainly local renewable material such as teak and concrete and local plant. 

We chose teak timber, with dark stain finish for the seat and back rest. Tie/rod is used to support the vines. The side table and arm rest is made out of concrete. 

Structure

The bench dimension is 2.5m x 2m x1.2m. It is based on a rectangular structure frame of a bench. Trusses are used to sustain the curved seat.

Imposed Project 4

Natural and Man-made structures

More painting…. 

wakaf

Imposed Project 3: Trees

Wham - lots of coloring, sketching techniques to learn in such a short amount of time. Next the class was asked to pick a tree in campus and sketch with the various techniques taught. I guess I have a barrier to overcome first, drawing with perspectives. I am caught unprepared. So I reached out to my aunt and my architecture friend and they both recommended that I "draw on the right side of the brain". It is a method promoted by Betty Edwards, first published in 1979. My key takeaway after reading this book is to draw naively like a child, without logic. Guide your pen to what you see. No questioning why. It is definitely a challenge for me, especially with my highly, logical brain.

I have paired my 4 year old's son's drawing next to mine. He copied what I drew. 

To create tonal values, I read Design Drawing by Francis DK Ching. In his book, he emphasized techniques for hatching, crosshatching, scribbling, stippling. I really hope that I can sketch so well that someday I can trick people into walking into a door when it is a wall. 

Along the same subject, on the next day, the students were asked to draw "life" portraits. This time, students were timed with 10 min frame, down to 7min frame and … 1 min frame. I tried my best to keep what Betty Edwards mentioned in her book. Much better this time. In fact, my work was selected as "special mention" on the student website. I was surprised how the longer minute work I drew did not get selected but the lesser minute frames were better and were selected. Maybe I drew well under intense pressure relative to other students in the class. Thanks to my corporate work training. 

7 minute drawing

5 minute drawing

3 minute drawing

1 minute drawing

7 minute drawing (selected)

5 minute drawing (selected)

3 minute drawing (selected)

1 minute drawing (selected)

Imposed Project 2: Watercolor painting

My new mental block - I am bad at painting. Truly, I have not held a paint brush for a long time now. Maybe to paint my house but not to paint a painting for a school project. 

Today, the class was asked to paint with watercolor method. All I remember of it was to use lots of water and blend the colors. And remember the shadings. Keep in mind where the light is coming from. 

In less than 30minutes, this was what I put together: 

I made a mistake coloring the sky and it turned out uneven. Maybe it will be better next time.