MA Landscape Architecture student group participated in an urban mapping landscape drawing workshop with the fantastic artist Alex Blum on 15th November 2016. Setting up in historic district of Rotherhithe at 11am we had a vast panorama of the London skyline, starting with the iconic buildings of London; Shard to the West, and bouncing East along Tower Bridge, the Gherkin and the Cheese grater, and many more (probably with food related nicknames). We viewed the high and low tied and busy Thames water and avian traffic throughout the windy day.
The workshop set at the water's edge was a really interesting way of playing with the shapes and connections in front of you to form image, rather than drawing from assumptions. For instance instead of drawing a window as an isolated object, create the window from its connections, e.g. lines from other buildings, or construction lines. At first it felt like a very back to front approach, but working through a series of 10 minute sketches at a variety of scales I really began to understand the process and I hope this will improve my drawing awareness. I realise how informative an image can be if you really pay attention to the detail, it doesn't have to include the whole view. Once mastered the first drawing, the next challenge was to add movement, which included looking over the broody Thames and capture the dynamic nature of the river with entering in and out of different objects and the skies.
The chilly feet were warmed during our lunch break at a pub next to the River. The afternoon was spent creating one A2 charcoal drawing that combined all earlier skills. Alex was a great teacher and her comments were helpful and encouraging. Wondering through the historic streets of Rotherhithe enriched with Brunel's magnificent industrial heritage was also fascinating, including an iron bridge totally wrapped in wisteria!
Grace Walker, MA Landscape Architecture student at WUC
0 Comments