mleeARC is under construction.
Read MoreSketchbook Continued...
Limes: a still life session. It's not amazing, but it's progress. This was done on the IPad 2 with Sketchbook Pro. The Autodesk app has a built in time lapse recording feature that makes documenting and sharing super convenient. In this session I was hesitant to use the textured brush, but having no other choice but to use it on the lime skin, I quickly faced my fear. I used the textured brush with the default settings (I didn't was to complicate things) and it worked out alright. Next time I'll have to experiment with the settings to get a brush that is a little more accurate to the texture I need.
"Limes" time lapse video
"Limes" final image
Check out other sketches and time lapse video at the sketchbook page.
The Sketchbook
I will be documenting my digital painting in a new section on the site called the "sketchbook". I'm sure to migrate some of the works from the "art" selection over in the near future, but for now, this new section will be the dumping ground for my doodles: a sketchbook. Not just images, it will contain notes and timelapse video - less finished work and more developmental exercises.
Digital Painting
I've been brushing up on my digital painting skills. In terms of software and hardware I use Photoshop CS5 and my Wacom Cintiq 24. This is what I've been working on lately.
If you archive your file at various stages, looking back on them later is like travelling through time. I often enjoy comparing the process images with the final more than just viewing the final alone. It gives more information about the painter. I like retrospectively dissecting my thoughts, my beliefs, the brush strokes I'm confident in and the areas I'm unsure of. It doesn't just make me a better painter, it gives the painting another dimension. When you absorb it as a process and not as an object it becomes visceral.
My desktop crashed recently, so there are a couple of exercises I've had to set aside until I can fix her or recover the files. Here are two projects in process.
I've been frustrated with how flat my paintings look, as if I didn't really know what I wanted to do - and in most cases it's true. So I've tried to worry less about blending and more about making bolder decisions, a kind of critical thinking. The dancer is evident of that process. You can see some of my brush strokes look sloppy, almost careless - it's ugly but for good reason. It's like soccer training, when you play keep away with a one-touch limitation. It's sloppy, but it gets your brain working in ways that get you to the next level. I got really frustrated with this one. I thought, maybe a shiny surface would be a good subject to help me with this critical thinking kind of exercise. It seems logical - the layers that make up a shiny surface are a bit more obvious than an diffuse fabric. I think I've made some progress here, but only a little. It still looks tentative and flat. The only part I really like is the side-view mirror - and that was maybe 4 brush strokes. Slow progress, but progress.
The loss of my computer has stunted my growth, but I have in the past used my Ipad 2. I should take this opportunity to revisit it. I use Autodesk Sketchbook Pro - of course it's no Ps but for a tablet app it's really the best you can expect. Here's the kind of results I can get out of the Ipad.
I'm going to try and adjust to the loss of my desktop by supplementing with my Ipad at least until I get her fixed. I'm hoping to document some of the everyday things here at my new home: Boston.
Switching Gears
I've been really busy since my last post - and yes a little lazy too. Thesis was so long ago and the winds of change have been keeping me from doing some much needed upkeep to the site. But now that things have calmed down a bit, I think I can let fly.
photo by Mandy Vang
Here's the gist of it: I got a job. My family and I have relocated to Boston - a brand new adventure. We've taken some time to settle in and now it's time to stop neglecting the site. But the site doesn't have the same meaning as it once did. Originally, it was made to establish a web presence for me - a portfolio for my job hunt. During the height of thesis it became a virtual pin-up wall to get critiques on-the-fly. So what is the meaning of this site now? I got the job and I graduated thesis. Crossroads.
I could just ditch the site - it did everything I asked it to do. It was fun and it was functional, perhaps it's time to part ways.
I could reinvent the site - as I'm reinventing myself.
I choose the latter - for now at least. The site will slowly be transitioning into a blog. It will still have the more permanent pages and provide a portfolio-esque destination for anyone wanting to see my work. But on the recent activity page I will update snippets of "stuff". I think that's what made me so notorious in school and it's something I need to keep doing. Just because I have a big-boy job doesn't mean I should conform solely to that work. I've always done "stuff" on the side, and that "stuff" is a lot of what makes me, me.
I think back to my colleague's site TheWanderingArchitect. He's always been a mentor of mine and I sought his guidance when creating my own site, knowing he had already gone through the process. He started his site for the same reason I did. But after he graduated and got his big-boy job, new content ceased to be posted to his site - as if the wandering architect stopped wandering... ...even before he became an architect. I felt a bit like Wendy from Hook, "so Peter, you've become a pirate." Don't get me wrong, commencement is a big part of life, and for him, I'm sure he has no regrets. From what I can tell, he's pretty much owning at the game we call life. But for me, I think it's a little different. I built myself on the premise that I can be a Lost Boy. I can fly, I can fight and I can... you get it. And it's really true. The skills I rely on day-to-day professionally and at home are skills that I've honed doing little projects completely tangent to what I was supposed to be doing at the time. If I let that go, I'm just Pirate Peter.
What's more, the wife agrees: and that's check-mate for that debate. I will keep doing "stuff". And this site will be my "stuff-blog". Even if no one ever visits it, at least it will help me remember that I am a Lost Boy and I can- "ERR-ERR-ERRRERRRRR!"
photo taken by Aaron Cayer
Thesis presentation material live feed, crit.
This is a live feed of the material I am developing for Friday's thesis presentation in an effort to establish crowd sourced critique as live as possible in these few hours I have left. Please comment if you see any mistakes, flaws or opportunities for further development. Consider all images in-process and ready for change. Thanks and enjoy!
site plan, still need o draw in landscaping and elevated walkway connecting parks, perhaps the existing carousel also.
got a crit that the building didn't pop enough. lowered the brightness of context, i think it looks to grey.
money shot. rendering over with some photoshopping only if I have time, thus, the abstract image is a strategy to deal with time constraints.
uniting civic space. floor plan to be substitued by rendering of full building.
3d print fail, fill with tacky glue? note, raft and supports not yet removed
3d print model in context, towers are uniform height. I will print towers at varying heights to glue on top of it, but only if i have time. It doesn't look good without the varying heights and the optional connecting pieces between the towers. In context with the drawings and stuff, might be adequate as is.
mechanical pod handler (best name I could think of, up for debate though)
noise due to low sample value, gonna redo the render t tonight while I sleep. Difficulty trying to get crowd in there, and color. Trying to show sense of scale with this one, though, I think the blackhawk needs to be slightly larger.
circulatory system, people and resources. arrows and a key to be added. hard to delineate the three dimensionality of these systems.
Alternative money shot. to be photoshopped with mechanical pod handler units - one climbing with pod, and one in rest position. Grass textures and sky will be added too. I just didn't like that the main shot was of the architecture from far away like it was some jewel to be coveted, basically my antithesis.
Mercurial Architecture Continues
Resume Workshop
Conducted in collaboration with Professor David Woolf and the Norwich University School of Architecture + Art
Three Brothers Camp
Louffice Chair
An Open Call for Pod Designs
Mercurial architecture needs you!
Graduate Thesis: Design Development
Graduate Thesis: Mercurial Architecture →
Thesis Question:
How can the open-source ecology of internet culture influence architecture to navigate between permanence and ephemerality?
Butterfly, Architectural Portrait
Utilizing digital fabrication methods, I created a scrim from a portrait. It is a composition of 9 square panels resulting from maximum dimensions according to fabrication hardware used. It is also intentionally modular for ease of transportation. The fabrication software is set up such that one of a kind scrims can be created from any image file.
Software: Photoshop, Rhino, Grasshopper, Autocad
Hardware: laser cutter
Materials: 1/8th inch chip board
butterFLY
A composite digital photograph and digital painting.
Lake House →
Abstract:
A conceptual design of a house resulting from a random visit to an inspiring site. This design is driven by a connection to nature, passive design strategies and family living. It is an attempt to generate an architecture where living enhances the design and the design enhances living.
Smoke
A study in natural organic forms.
Tsev Teb (farm house)
Abstract:
Having immigrated from South East Asia to the United States, many Hmong have settled in the San Juaquin Valley in California and found work as farm laborers. The Tsev Teb (farm house) is a construct developed by Hmong farmers in the mountains of South East Asia which many Hmong-Americans attempt to replicate in the California. However adapting old techniques in a new context often requires innovation. This design is an attempt to marry the functional aspects of contemporary needs with the aesthetics and traditions of Hmong-Americans.
