Windows at Parkview !

The window frames arrived last week are installed in the first unit.  There is plastic sheeting on the outside as with these high quality commercial steel frames the glass is installed in place.  This, at least made lifting the large sizes them up along the outside wall practical. These rooms will look east towards PArliament.  There is a great view of the city skyline and Peace Tower through the enormous sliding doors up in the penthouse.

Drywall is mostly complete, except for some interior walls.  The first floor, which will be the kitchen and living space is not yet primed, but with windows across the entire end wall and 10 foot high ceilings it will be a very bright space.

The next stage will be to install the heating pipes and pour the concrete floors. Then interior walls, cabinets and such can be installed.

Actors and Stage Workshop

This sketch was one from my workshop with Lius Ruiz.  I have followed his blog and studied his work for the last two years.  On top of his proficiency, he's a delightful guy and he gave me some very practical tools to help my composition. He had us start our drawings at the focal point and move out.   As in draw from the back and move forward.   He also taught us to simplify buildings by implying the rhythm of the windows.  We did several thumbnails to practise this as well as place overlapping figures in the foreground (the actors) to add some dynamism and draw the eye to the focal point.

The one question I continue to have is "when to stop".  His lesson plan didn't directly address that, but I think it gave me some tools to help me with that decision.

Betty Ford - Barcelona

I chanced into a little pub conveniently located between the conference and my hotel called Betty Ford. Dave, the proprietor, is an Aussie and the staff were wonderfully friendly and welcoming.  Good music, good vibes. I had a great hamburger there on two different evenings.  5 thumbs up on the JW travel scale.

The first workshop I participated in was given by Lynne Chapman.  I met her last year in Santo Domingo and correlated her expressive sketching style with her buoyant personality.   True to form, the workshop was lots of fun.  My take-away was cropping and using angles to create interest.  She suggested zooming in on an object and filling the page. Of course, true to form, I started with the interesting root buttress of a Plane tree, before moving to buildings.

Barcelona Sights

I was in Barcelona last week attending the Urban Sketchers Symposium.  I went a couple of days early to catch up with the time change and loosen up my hand before the event started.

The upper sketch is the Sagrada Familia, the cathedral that Antonio Gaudi designed and which has been under construction for a century.  It is a stunning building and was well worth touring.

Below is a typical small plaza, complete with outdoor cafe and water fountain.