Les Portes de Paris

as i walked through Montparnasse i started to watch people go in and out of their apartments, wondering what their lives were like. la porte...a door..the name seems to fit these things that transport people from their public to their private lives. how many people have come and gone through these doors, i wondered. there seems to be so much wear and tear on these door...each mark telling a different story. these doors have kept the secrets of those that have lived behind them for decades, maybe even longer. do these doors hold some of the best kept secrets in Paris?

Don't Think, Just Sketch

"Don't Think, Just Sketch" that was the motto for Monday's class. Six or ten minute sketches without really thinking about what you were putting on your page. Liberating you from the constraints of details and proportions. A woman sitting beneath a tree is no longer just a woman under a tree on the page, she becomes one with the tree, as you sketch them rapidly together. You really begin to discover how many parts there are to a tree when you have to break down it's shapes into value. You notice that even the sky; although it looks clear blue, is actually many shades of blues. I was surprised at how much I noticed through quick sketches.

Mapping Music

while doing my metro drawing on the way to the saint chapelle, i wondered what the music would sound like. during the concert, as the violinists played, i asked myself what would this look like as a drawing; a painting of sound... little did I know that I had already mapped out the concert I would here in my metro sketchbook. the notes were all there, in every rising and falling of the lines on my blank page. it was as if you could almost here the concert again by looking at the metro drawing. the powerful, strong quick notes were the more jagged, darker lines, the quiet notes were softer lines, moving fluidly along the page.

les gens dans le metro

i noticed that the metros are relatively quiet most of the time. usually les gens aren't on their cell phones in the metro, unlike the subways of NYC. les gens look around while on the metro, staring at times, not breaking the stare if you catch ils in the act. les gens seem to be all dressed in dark colors and neutral shades. les gens speak in short phrases when talking on the metro.

Discovering Unseen Gardens

drawing pictures of things i had never seen before was an obstacle. not being able to see the paper you were drawing on was even more of a challenge. discovering this garden i had never seen before with nothing but my sense of smell and hearing produced some interesting blind sketches.

A Day in Monet's Gardens

Mapping My Day From Start to Finish: excited->nervous->petrified->angry->blank->calm->amazed->overwhelmed with wonder->happy->relaxed->determined->relieved->content

sketching in the gardens was so relaxing, just to sit and get to know each flower you sketched.. it was as if each flower had a story to tell, each being unique.. it was my job to capture that story, that unique quality in the essence of that moment.

Evolving Maps

Take Note: - maps were covered with hatch marks to indicate shading-all lines are clean, solid, stable-in many cases green indicates mountains, blue indicates water-bleeding of color to produce lights and darks -abundance of blank space -use of more light shades to makes darks look richer-maps evolve through time with more details

Vision in the Dark

...its incredible how your mind works...pulling images out when needed in such great detail..dans le noir il n'y a pas de la lumière ...what is the purpose of our eyes anyway, is it sight? is it our eyes that give us the gift of vision? our eyes are just windows to our minds, which is where we process all that we see. At the restaurant even though my eyes couldn't see anything, it was as if my mind was seeing for me. I could see the person in front of me, the water glass, the utensils, even the mannerisms of everyone around me in complete detail. I forgot for a while that I was even in the dark because my mind produced images from memory so that my eyes could see.