Blog 2 - Research statement and annotated bibliography

"Neoclassicist style is incorporated in much of Wellington architecture".


Book
A. L. Palmer. (2011). Historical dictionary of neoclassical art and architecture. Plymouth, United Kingdom: Scarecrow Press Inc.

This book is pivotal to the assignment. Having a breadth of knowledge about neoclassical design is important to ensure the topic and examples provided are correct and cohesive. This historical dictionary is specific to many elements of neoclassical design so any can be drawn on in discussion.

Edited Book

Trapeznik. A. (Ed.). (2000). Common ground?, heritage and public places in New Zealand. Dunedin, New Zealand. University of Otago Press.

Historical knowledge about buildings in New Zealand is why the above book was chosen. This is useful as  the heritage of buildings is discussed. How New Zealand is protecting the historical aspects of buildings helps show an understanding of the reasons why so many still remain in Wellington in the neoclassicist style.

Image

Vital Practice Essentials, Be Different. (2012).  StAndrewsontheterrace [Image]. Retrieved from: http://www.drsarahfarrant.com/media/

The image was chosen as it is the epitamy of neoclassicist style and is one of the many examples of central city buildings which portray neoclassicism. St Andrews on the Terrace has all of the basic elements of the neoclassicistic style - columns, capitals, the triangular pediment, and the use of light colour and blank space.

Journal

Sue Galbraith. (2003). New makeover for Old Government Buildings. BUILD, 78. 56-58.

'New makeover for Old Government Buildings' journal article is a perfect and specific example discussing the neoclassical style in Wellington. It is another example of a building specific to Wellington which is designed neoclassically. The article gives background information about the history of the neoclassical building and briefly touches on aspects of heritage, showing why these buildings are still here, and how Wellington has gone about restoration to continue to maintain the historic style.

Website
Manatū Taonga Ministry for Culture and Heritage. (2012). Te Ara, The Encyclopedia of New Zealand [Website].  Retrieved from URL: http://www.TeAra.govt.nz/

The Te Ara website is extremely useful in all aspects of this assignment. Most useful is the discussion and information regarding the colonial settlement, and history of Wellington. Architecture is specifically discussed and the combination of history and design explained on the website is vital knowledge in explaining why so many of the neoclassicicist style buildings were built in Wellington.

Touch and draw

Touch and Draw Final

I am extremely happy with my final touch and draw , I even like the little blurred edges of the blade lines as this is exactly what it looks like when you cut yourself in the shower!

 

Touch and draw definitely put the pressure on. I had two objects that I really wanted to play with ideas of, and it took me awhile to finally decide to go with the shaver. Both have such interesting essences to me, but I felt the shower mixer didnt give me as much of a buzz as the shaver did.

I really like the shower mixer idea and how it evolved into the gradient and texture showing water pressure. Ultimately it was my love for the possibility of the shaver that decided.




I started with an idea which was something like this - with the white space being where the shaver has taken everything away - as it does in real life - strips. But then I experimented a bit and really loved using the shaver to paint - looking at the movement it created and I really think it captured the essense of the object. I obviously experimented for a looonnnggg time to get a composition I liked. I wanted to use red as I have a love/hate relationship with my shaver, and when I hate it, its because it's made me bleed!

 

                         



Experimenting with negative space.





 

Here I had experimented with the crackling effect - I really liked how it looked like hair, or skin. Unfortunatly the object/shaver pattern got a big distorted so it wasn't the best.



This is the composition I like the best - its clean and shows a really organic movement to the razor. Unfortunately it is still missing something.



Individual technical drawing



This is the precedent drawing for my isometric technical style.




Initially with this individual work I had the basic isometric drawing above as my precedent drawing. The part of my drawings that really interested me when I thought about isometric is the hatch. I really wanted to play with the textures and show what would happen if my tumbling hatch drawing was made 3D.



Individual technical drawing hand-in



Reasons for choosing Isometric drawing style



After investigating technical drawing styles I was most definitely drawn to the Isometric style. I wanted to show dimensions and a better 3D idea of the object. Another reason I chose this view is that Engineers and technical professionals are used to the orthographic views and I wanted to appeal to non-engineer everyday types of people. I took aspects that I found interesting from the shed framing including, bricks and texture from the panneling and brought this through into my own drawing. I am really drawn to the drawing and how it gives a real feeling of structure while still clearly portraying the object.





Initially with this individual work I had the basic isometric drawing above as my precedent drawing. The part of my drawings that really interested me when I thought about isometric is the hatch. I really wanted to play with the textures and show what would happen if my tumbling hatch drawing was made 3D.

Unfortunately the cubes made the isometric style a little simplistic. So I decided to use parts of my other drawings to show the style. I also chose a new isometric drawing to eliminate the simplicity factor that my initial precedent drawing showed.







Section



Section final hand-in



I loved section. Breaking into my torch to see all the working parts and playing with them was great fun, and I love my final hand in peice. I played around a little before deciding on a final composition.

Heres the technical image of my torch in 2:1

 

This was the first experimentation with Section