Sketch: Rocas Rojas, MX

Here's another house by my favorite architect, Diego Villaseñor. Rocas Rojas, or "Red Rocks" is a beautiful work of art that almost appears carved from the red cliffs it crowns. In this house, he has mastered the harmonious relationship between the structure and the context of the surrounding environment.

I think the sketch came out fairly well, but as always, I can see all sorts of ways it could have been improved. Sorry for the lack of entries lately, class has really kept me busy!

Sketch: Resort at Punta Ixtapa

This is another masterwork by Diego Villaseñor. This is at a resort in Punta Ixtapa, Mexico (click it to see a larger image), which will almost certainly be our next vacation once I am a millionare. The reason I chose this scene is because Villaseñor shows here an amazing command of simple geometric shapes, shadow, and natural elements. My mind isn't forced to comprehend anything except the view and how nice a dip in that pool would feel right about now. Just looking at this photo makes me feel more relaxed. His counters are present, such as the clay pot in the arched window, but they are subdued, and appear to belong there naturally as part of the context, rather than something contrived to simply be "different" for the sake of being different.

Anyway, here's my humble attempt at sketching his work. (click to see a larger image)

I'm learned a few more interesting things while sketching this. One is how to vary my soft, medium, and hard shadows a bit more. Another is that when you view a ceiling fan, one side will look fat, the other will look skinny, because of the angle of the blades. I never quite realized it before though in retrospect I have no idea how I could have missed it. While sketching, I spent a good deal of time wondering what was in the basket. Soap? Rocks? Bread? I eventually decided that it must be very tightly rolled towels. Considering the pool and the deck chair, that's the most logical choice.

The coup de grace, however, is the tree trunk on the left. The more I thought about it, the more brilliant it became. It is ironic, because it is a softer shape than the architecture, yet it is a dead tree. The curves and verticals beautifully transition from the floor, up the stairs towards the pool and arched window. The very idea of the dried out, dead tree makes me long for a dip in the pool. But the most brilliant part of the whole thing, that I only just now figured out is that it also acts as a convenient towel or robe rack.

Lastly, this sketch was actually one of the most challenging yet. My sketches are supposed to be freehand, so I can't use a ruler to do my straight lines with. Getting relatively straight, parallel lines, or lines at the proper angles, took many, many tries. And no project is complete without at least one mistake. While scanning this in, apparently the corner got folded up in the flatbed, which explains the white square in the lower right. All in all though, I rather like this sketch, but I love the scene.

Sketch: Casa Papelillos

The Summer II Semester has started up, and I'm buried in "Introduction to Architecture" and loving it. In some ways I'm torn between wishing I'd been able to take this class in the Fall Semester, so I'd get more information over more weeks versus being glad I am taking it in the summer so I could have this class four nights a week. It's a rare thing to be taking a class I enjoy so much. In any event, I have to regularly do sketches now, and since I've got a scanner, I'll try to get them up here on the blog as often as possible. Anyway, today I present you with my very first freehand architectural sketch of a building I fell in love with a month ago. You can click on the images for a larger view.

This is Casa Papelillos, designed by architect Diego Villaseñor. It's located in a quaint little fishing village called Punta de Mita, Mexico. It's a 19,000 square foot residence consisting of a main hacienda and a guest house. It's capable of housing about 20 guests comfortably, and is located in the Ranchos Estates (an exclusive, gated community). It has all the modern accoutrements you could want, the list goes on. Suffice it to say that you need to visit Villaseñor's site to see more of his works, and the Papelillos site to see more of it. This house is one of the reasons I want to be an architect so much.

In any event, this is only one view of the estate, but is one of the most beautiful. I had to sketch it. And here it is...

In case you're wondering what that smudge is in the lower-right, it's my signature. I'm not keen on posting that to the web for obvious reasons. Anyway, I'm not that great...yet. But with practice I hope to become great. . And along the way, perhaps I'll gain more inspiration. I can tell I'll be studying Villaseñor's works for a long time. As soon as I get it back, I'll post my other, non-freehand sketch (a gridded enlargement).

I will try to keep this blog updated at least three times a week. Perhaps more often as I get into sketching everything in sight, but between homework assignments, work, wife, kid, house, temple, etc, it will be difficult sometimes. Still, I love doing this, and god-willing, even if I become a Starchitect one day, I'll still be keeping up this blog.