Week 8, Day 2: Sketches and Tracings

My inspiration this week is St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow, Russia.  I was inspired by photos my cousin R and her hubby J took while they were in Moscow to adopt their two adorable boys!  The photos are posted on Week 8: Inspiration, Photos from Russia.  I have always loved the stunning and unique design of the onion tops.  The architects use of color, shape and pattern is beautiful.

To understand the Cathedral a little better, I did research to learn about it's history.  It's quite interesting.  Located in Moscow's Red Square, it was commissioned by Tsar Ivan the Terrible in 1552 to commemorate his capture Astrakhan and Kazan (northern provinces, I think). There is speculation as to the identity of the architects and what their design influence was. And apparently Tsar Ivan loved the design so much he had the architects blinded so that they couldn't create any more buildings that would be outshine his beautiful cathedral.

My Sketches and Tracings

This week I did sketches and tracings.  The tracings help withe the complicated subject matter because I can see how everything relates and how the patterns are formed.  I've realized that sketching can take as much time as the other stages of designing. I guess I would call that more drawing than sketching, and patience is not a virtue I have.  I can manipulate things on the computer forever, but drawing...I get tired and don't want to finish.  Yay! another item for my Blog Focus 2012, a complete drawing.

A collage of the different styles of onion tops

Silhouette of St. Basil's

Main cathedral spire

One of the onion tops

JL, I know you like to know my time frame.  Today, it's taken me a long time today to do all this.  Been working on and off on it, so I can't tell you exactly how long it's taken, but between the tracings, research and sketches it was at least 2 hours, probably more.