Emma's Blog

The Sagrada Familia

2008-04-23T08:08:00.000-07:00

The post you've all been waiting for!... Or not, but its still a cool post. This is about the Sagrada Familia, Gaudi's masterpeice and famously unfinished church. My teacher Cece who lives here in Barcelona has a lot of connections, and she actually got a private tour for us, which is not exactly easy to do to say the least. It was free of charge, and we were lead around by the current architect, Jordi Bonet, seen on the right. Mr. Bonet is about 80, and he has been the leading architect for like 25 years. You should see him running up scaffolds! He's faster than any of the students or teachers! But anyway, we were given a private tour of the construction site within the church, and we got to climb a bunch of scaffolding in the church, it was really neat. I was in places of the Sagrada Familia that no one will ever be able to go once it is finished. Enjoy the pictures!

From afar, the church is quite visible.

Many many cranes.

The part made since Gaudi's death...

This is the nativity scene that is on the right side of the nave, which Gaudi finished himself in his lifetime. Only another 100 meters up to go :) Oh, and about 10 towers.

When Patrick was here in March I took him to see the church :)

The Passion facade to the left of the nave. Gaudi's theory on his columns, which are not straight up and down was that if a man uses a cane to lean on, he doesn't lean on it when it is straight up and down, he bows it out, so why would you make supports that are straight up and down?

Detail, as you can see, the passion, finished after Gaudi's death, is very different and much more modern in design than the nativity scene.

Some towers, they all say that.

The interior of the nave, looking at the scaffolding

Looking up, notice, the roof is very much unfinished....

Looking out the hole from atop the scaffolding... Part of our private tour :)

Looking down

Unfinished windows, when the church is finished in roughly 2026, these will all be stained glass.

Beautiful.

Stairs cases that are in the towers and all in the church, these ones go to the choir gallery.

A peice of the church hanging up until it is properly mounted.

The main tower... Still needs anotherh undred meters.

Looking down into the nave from the scaffolding on top of the church.

Some rebar for reinforcing cement.

more exposed structure. This is a shape seen all over the church... I think Mr. Bonet called it a hyperparaboloid?

Peices, labeled and ready to be put into place.

Recent sketching...

2008-04-15T10:38:00.000-07:00

There are some sketches i've done recently, some of them in Morocco.

Here in BCN, the Coac, I explored in section, axon, and plan the building, it's orientation, and the idea of floating that completes its design.

The Batha museum in Morocco, which had a beautiful outdoor/indoor courtyard in its center.

Barcelona's weather instition, which is a circulat building, explored in section and plan. A very simple looking building that was surprisingly complex.

A medursa (Sp?) in Morocco that had a great threshhold between sacred and profane.

A garden that was inside an ex governer's palace in Morocco. Explored in plan. the landscaped areas are dark. Patterns are very prominent in Morocco.

The wood museum in Morocco, very beautiful building with a ton of ... wood. Notice how the building's interior might appear to be squared on the inside, when infact, the building is anything but square. This is an infull lot.

Fes, Morocco!

2008-04-06T10:17:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! My class had a trip to Morocco, so here is a series of photos outlining my experience there :)

My hotel room, we lived like princesses hehe.

Me standing on a hill over looking Fes.

The city of satelites.

The Merenid tombs that over look Fes.

Classtime! (Or rather, sketch time!)

The Bab Boujeloud gate into the old city (Medina)

What the average street/walkway in Fes looks like.

One of the gates at the palace.

Check out the timy doors! (Thats me, so you can scale it haha)

The Royal gates, with the guards...

Who are heavily armed.

The Mokri Palace that is being restored.

A bedroom in the Morki Palace.

Some mosaics and designs on the walls.

Yours truly, sketching.

We visited the eremics factory! (Check out all those bowls!)

A manually run pottery wheel (the man's feet spin it)

A man setting up the mosacis for a table... when we asked the tour guide how he knew where to put all the peices, the response was ,"He knows.".

No, he's not hammering it to break it, he chiseling off the top layer of clay of make a design.

I'm converting?

Old school... He's weaving things like the scarf I am wearing above.

Hawra found a friend!

The city of Bhalil. We took a field trip to cities outside Fes for a day to visit Bhalil, Sefrou, and Ifrane, the last of which we visited to see the cedar forest :)

Ladies in Bhalil are very flexible.. here seen washing clothes.

Urchins. They pester you for money. CONSTANTLY.

People in Bhalil live in caves. Here is a really nice cave.

An animal cave where they keep donkies.

Sanitation in Morocco is not like the US... Those are bees.

A waterfall :)

Which flows into the river.

Ok, so I am riding a donkey in a dried up lake. How many people can say that they've done that?

And Peej haha.

The dried up lake with its dunes.

A wild dog in a sand storm in the lake. Don't worry mom, the dogs are friendly, especially since I gave them food.

In the cedar forest there are monkies!

And they will eat out of you hands!

And they know not to eat the orange peels.

Very cute.

And very friendly.

And here is a REALLY cute baby one!

Scales in what used to be a place where caravans would come to the city to sell their goods.

It is now a wood museum (the wood in here is Cedar, which they swear the best treatment for cedar is olive oil!)

Christi, my teacher, looking up (I'm on the roof)

Ther are these strange dove/peacock birds on the roof.

These are dye tubs for leather at the leather working shop.

Some recent work.....

2008-03-25T13:23:00.000-07:00

Hola! This is a post with some of my latest work, which I am no longer embarrassed to post cause my sketches don't suck anymore! I've been working hard on sketching, and it shows (although, you will not see the "before"!), and also this is one of my first attempts at watercoloring... What I watercolored was a facade exploration of layers, enjoy :)

This is an analysis of a facade of an old convent with new built on top of it. I kind of separated the layers that made up the facade, which made for a nice composition.

My sketching from today at the ... Barcelona Cemetary! I know that sounds morbid, but it is really a GORGEOUS cemetary, and a wonderful experience. This drawing is an analysis of a particular peice, a memorial for a) those put to death during the Franco regime, and a corner of it is for the jews in WWII.

This is an analysis I did of a major passeig in Ibiza. I felt compelled to walk through it so I sketching about the impulse.

Ibiza, Spain

2008-03-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

So last weekend I was in Ibiza, Spain, which was BEAUTIFUL! Probably the most beautiful place I've ever been in my life. Anyway, I have some photos here, but I also have a sketch not included because my sketchbook is at my apartment, so I will post that later. It shows a lot of improvement in my sketching abilities, because we just had a review and .. well, you know how school is, there is always room for improvement. Christi lent me a pen until the end of the semester, which was awesome because it is very fine and helps me in drawing SO much! Anyway, enjoy my photos!

Me under a rock bridge by the beach. The salt of the mediterranean ate away at the rock, it was beautiful.

Pat and I on one of the beaches, look how beautiful the water is!

A picture from a beach that we could only get to by climbing down a cliff! It was amazing!

A picture of a flower I found that was growing out of rocks on a cliff.

A hibiscus flower, naturally occuring.

Pretending to be a photographer!

Some graffitti in the city

A picture of the port from the Roman city.

The Roman city (which is built on a large hill/mountain!)

The pedestrian entry to the city.

Pat standing next to one of the massive watchtowers.

On Palm sunday, there was a procession, see "Jesus?

The huge crowd!

The cops in Ibiza look like they drive clown cars, thi si the one that followed the Jesus procession.

Ink exersizes

2008-03-19T08:34:00.000-07:00

These are some excersizes that we've done lately. These were for penwork (to improve our sketching)

This was a collaboration of the exersizes below. We were supposed to take a photograph and then change all of the tones into ink, and draw all of the tones without exterior lines.

This was an exersize that made us practice our toning with ink using different techniques such as stipling, hatching, cross-hatching, and what not.

These exersizes helped us practice our lineweights and linetypes. There are straight lines, "nervous" lines, "chicken scratch" lines, heavy lines, light lines, dotted lines... and more.

Amsterdam

2008-03-18T08:39:00.000-07:00

Hey everyone! Sorry it has taken me so long to update this blog decently, Pat was here over my spring break, and for the weekend afterwards, so I haven't been on my computer much! But this update is about my trip to Amsterdam with Pj, Steve, Gavin, and Pat over spring break. Sure, we could have gone to Greece, but Amsterdam was an absolutely amazing city. It was very clean, and the architecture is like nothing you would ever see in the states (other than the leaning old buildings maybe). It is also a series of islands and canals that form the city. I have included a few of my really quick sketches with this update, so enjoy!

Dam square is at the cener of the city(kind of!) and it is a tremendous square. What you see here is a section sketch showing the proportions of the square along with a slight analysis of the building facades.

This sketch looks at some of the many forms of transportation that the city uses, mostly walking, biking and tram, some cars.

Some of the bikers waiting at a red light (yeah, they are like cars haha)

Bike barking at rush hour... see all the bikes parked next to the canal!

Rush hour next to the Heineken Brewery (brouwerij).

Some of the graffitti, which I am finding is more all of the place in Europe!

This graffitti character is all over Barcelona, I thought it was interesting to find him in Amsterdam.

Pat and I in front of the brewery (it was really cold here!)

Pat, myself, Pj, Steve, and Gavin in a bar.

The picture place for tourists haha. (I AMsterdam)

This building is called "Waag" and it looked like a castle, and stood on a large plot (as you can see) all by itself. The lack of building around it really made it stand out a whole bunch!

New Beginning!

2008-03-11T06:20:00.000-07:00

So I just finished up my Spring break, and my teachers all say that our (as in all of the students here) blogs are not up to snuff! So, from now on, I will be posting more of my work, and less pictures I suppose! I don't have anything to post as of right now, because my sketchbook has been turned in and that was what I was going to post, but expect better posts from now on, starting as soon as I get my sketchbook back :)

Just a little on Spring break, Pj, Steve, Gavin, Pat and I traveled to Holland and were amazed with what we found! In the city of Amsterdam, there are a million bikes, and only 750,000 residents! Apparently bike theft is rampant, but there are very few cars, and everyone rides bikes! All of the bike are stylistically archaic, like from the 50s, but the city was clean, fresh, and beautiful. The buildings all have very strict schemes for their facades and heights. It was really a lovely place.

Anyway, I'll post again soon!

Sevilla!

2008-02-10T10:18:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone!

Don't forget to check out my 3 other post below from my tour of Spain (we went to Madrid, Cordoba, Granada, and Sevilla). This post is of Sevilla, one of the prettiest cities in Spain. The streets are linedwith Orange trees, SO cool! Sevilla is home to the cathedral of Sevilla, and the Real Alcazar (An Islamic Palace).

A street lined with Orange trees! They weren't ripe yet though!

The REAL Aladdin, the movie is fake haha.

One of the main courtyards of the Real Alcazar (reflecting pools are so IN in Islamic design!)

Looking up into a dome in the Alcazar.

The beginning of the gardens, where I spent most of my time.

Another little fountain, with a pathway and an arch.

The organic gardens... with...

PEACOCKS!

The males are soooo beautiful

Look what I found!

Look Mrs. Schultz, Elephant Ears!

The gardens are so beautiful here, and the lighting was always perfect.

This might as well be in Florida haha.

I stuck my camera over top of this hedge maze, pretty neat.

One of many place outside to rest.

The back view of the place above.

The ugliest tree stump ever.

A very strange fountain, with a sculpture underneath...

Of a naked lady holding her breasts...

A spout that became a fountain, and in the pool that it flowed into were...

Mutant Koi fish, with ducks over top.

A part of the geometric gardens.

The Cathedral of Sevilla.

A really sexy gothic buttress.

The outside of the cathedral from like 10 floors up.

Up in the bell towers.

Check it out, largest floor area in the world!

Christopher Colombus' grave!

One of the columns inside the cathedral.

Looking down the nave.

The most majestic altar I have ever seen!

The following are examples of stained glass in the cathedral:

And the following are treasure stored inside the Cathedral:

The first elliptical room built in the Spanish renaissance, and possibly in europe's renaissance:

A view of the dome from the inside

Floor tiles

The key to my heart... mwahahha, look how complex it is!

Granada!

2008-02-10T09:40:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

Don't forget to check out my posts under here for Cordoba and Madrid! The next stop on this southern tour of Spain was Granada, an absolutely amazing city! Granada was built on a moutain, and near other mountains, ther scenery here was absolutely gorgeous. Also, Granada has the last gem of the Shiite family: The Alahambra. The Shiites of Islam helped Christian Spain over throw the rule of another Islamic family, and thus, were allowed to build their palace and remain in Spain in Granada. The Alahambra is a beautiful kingdom, complete with miles of gardens.

I just thought this was funny.

Street lamps in Granada are really nice aren't they? These would be destroyed in America haha.

REAL gypsy territory. I think modern gypsies just mean hippies, because they all wear tie-die and smoke marijuana everywhere! We were eating at a cafe next to where I took this picture, and every table around us was smoking marijuana!

El Gato Negro! Pj and I studied this fellow, he is all over the city, and we don't know what he means, below is his meaning, but I can't read it.

If you know what it says, comment on this post and let me know!

A view of the cathedral from above the city.

Some mountains near the Alahambra

The Alahambra at night.

Inside the Alahambra: The largest courtyard and reflecting pool.

Fishies inside the reflecting pool!

Some examples of Islamic patterns (next five photos)

The Generallife (Garden of Eden??) at the Alahambra

Can you spot what is wrong with this picture...? :)

An overview of the start of the Generallife.

This cyprus tree was so thick that I am pushing back as hard as I can, can you tell??

A fountain under some trees (see context below)

Me and another blonde (a rare thing in Spain!) posing for pictures!

The fountain above as I photographed it.

A set of stairs with a little plaza on the way down, with little streams of water on the side.

A staircase on the way back down the mountain...

...Followed by a walkway...

...Followed by an archway.

A view of Granada from Alcazaba (guard tower) at the Alahambra

Me and Granada from the Alcazaba

More of Grandada

The Sierra Nevada

The DuNgEoN!!!

Me on one of the historic cannons :)

Cordoba!

2008-02-10T09:29:00.001-08:00

Hello everyone!

Don't forget to check out my post below this one on Madrid! Anyway, when we arrived in Codoba, everyone was quite happy to be there, the weather was great, and the city, although smaller feeling than Madrid, was absolutely gorgeous. I don't have too many pictures though, because I wasn't smart enough to take enough, but don't worry, I make up for that with Granada and Sevilla! Anywho, not shown here are the Arab baths (Hamman) that we visited, because pictures were not allowed. They were very cool though, there were three pools inside, a temperately temperatured pool, a very hot one, and a cold one. The way it works is you start in the temperate one, then move to the hot one, which you cannot stay in for more than 5 minutes (it's about 115 F in there!), and then you move to the cold one, which was freezing, but very soothing feeling after the hot one. After a while you get a 10 minutes massage with 3 other people in the same room as the temperate pool. Very cool! One other thing that I do have photographed is the Mezquita/Cordoba Cathedral (??). It's story is that when Spain was ruled by Islam, the Mezquita was built, and once the Islamic rulers fells, the Christians tried to Christianize it. AwKwArD!

The interior of the Mezquita! It's a forest of columns in here. I don't have a picture of the outside... it looks like a huge rock wall... kind of boring. Massive though.

The quibbla wall, that is not pointed at Mecca, I don't remember why though (Not very characteristic though!)

The first christian dome

One of the series that they are still working on.

Madrid!

2008-02-10T08:19:00.001-08:00

Hello Everyone!

I just returned to Barcelona after a week long tour of southern Spain! The first place we went was Madrid. Let's just say that when we left Madrid, no one was sad to leave. The weather while we were there was drearyand rainy, and chilly. There were a few things worth mentioning though! Check em out below :)

This is the metro by our hotel, a super long yellow tunnel, much different from DC huh?

The first day actually wasn't as bad as the second. Here is an example of the roads that I shot while en route to the Plaza Mayor.

This is me and my class in front of the Royal building in the Plaza Mayor.

Here is a street performer! He was really funny (although hard to understand because he only spoke Spanish), and his name was J. Africa I think.

The same street performer on a unicycle throwing a torch under his leg while juggeling! Whew!

The entrance to this GIANT park in the middle of Madrid, beautiful park!

A colonnade near the man made pond, it was a semicircle (didn't get as many pics as I would have liked to -- my camera was dying)

Mermaid sculptures were around the bottom of that colonnade, and here's the nicest looking one, the rest were all violent.

Where the geometry started... we didn't stay too long in the geometric section!

Cute birdy... Enough said.

An oddly sculptured tree in the park (you can see it i the geometric picture above)

A literal topography! Pretty neat looking though, it was also an islande because of the little stream they built around it,

An interior courtyard of the museum of modern art in Madrid. Sorry guys, no pictures from the inside, pictures weren't allowed.

Looking up in the glass elevator!

Cars, street performers, and grafitti

2008-02-01T10:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Everyone! This is post number two, there aren't as many pictures of the city itself, but some good pictures of the people in it, and some activities I ran into today. I also would like to congratulate Christy's (one of the teachers) sisters, who just had a baby. But anyway, this past week I didn't do too much that was picture worthy, but I got up this morning so that I could post another blog. I walked around for about three hours, and found a classic cars show, and some break dancers, and a few other things, hope you enjoy them :)

This is for Clara, thought is was cool.

The interior courtyard of the museum of Frederick Mares.

The next series of pictures is for Pat, I found a classic car show that had some Porsches and BMWs and others

This is Gaudi's real masterpiece haha, jk, but this is his lamp in Placa Reial.

Street performers! They were doing all kinds of stunts and flips and jumps, it was really neat.

And then of course, standing on top of eachother.

Back from popular demand, the artwork/grafitti of the city.

First blog post in Barcelona

2008-01-16T14:10:00.000-08:00

Dear everyone! It's been great being in Barcelona, Europe is a crazy place when you are totally domestic to the USA hehe. But we've been doing a lot of walking, and although my legs are sore, Iv'e got some good experiences under my belt so far.

So here in Barcelona, we have beautiful palm trees all over the place. The weirdest thing is that parakeets live in them!

Here's one of the parakeets that I managed to get a shot of in an evergreen in the museum of zoology.

The city is also full of artistic and tasteful (for the most part) graffiti. Here is on of the supported artist's characters seen frequently in the city:

Of course, some artists are just plain cooler than others :)

This is one of the many sculptures (my favorite) of the Placa Catalunya. I'm not sure of the artist, but the statue is beautiful.

This is a part of the music hall here, this is the main entrance and the scullpture above it.

This is the 2-3-4 or so floors of the music hall. The streets are too narrow for me to get a better view.

One of the beautiful and narrow streets here in Barcelona. This is in the old city, you don't find many streets like this in the new city.

By far, my favorite picture from the first few days. Just another peaceful, european street.

The colonnade in the Convent de Sant Agusti (an ancient convent that Kristin and I found while out on a sketching project).

A local practicing his juggling in the park at the museum of zoology.

The Arc de Triumph here in Barcelona.

Well, thats all I have for now, more to come!

Love, Emma