Las Meninas Sketch

Yet another art post that involves my trip to Spain. This is a small sketch of Las Meninas, a famous painting by Diego Velásquez, that I did in my sketchbook over the summer. It was my favorite painting that I saw in the Museo del Prado (the Prado Museum in Madrid), so I bought a poster of it and hung it up in my room at home. One day, I was bored so I stared across my room and started drawing it on a piece of tracing paper. I didn't think about how difficult it would be to draw in a 5 x 5 square, so getting detail in the faces took a while. I wish I would have drawn it on regular paper and made the size a lot bigger because it would have looked nicer. But I don't mind because I usually hate all my hand drawn work, but was very happy when I finished this.

Architecture in Segovia

During a trip to Spain a few years ago, I took this picture of the aqueduct in Segovia. For those who don't know what an aqueduct is, it was used to transport water from one side of a city to another many centuries ago. This particular structure is recognized as the symbol of Segovia and remains completely intact as one of the best-preserved ancient monuments in Spain. Apparently, the aqueduct has been kept in such great condition that it could be used today (even though I'm sure no one would want to, indoor plumbing is more convenient anyways).

Antique Store

I took this photo of a window of an antique store in the old part of Frederick, MD. I like this picture because of the repetition of blues throughout the photo, in the vase, bowl, and reflection of the sky. I also thought it was interesting that the way the picture came out makes it look like two photos merged together; one of the window and the other of the house (in the reflection) and the sky. I also thought it was funny that the window breaks up the photo into rule of thirds, which was completely unintentional.

Line Quality

This was a piece I did last year in my art class when we were discussing design and composition. We had to cut lines and shapes out of black construction paper and arrange a design on white paper. I like this piece because of the different thicknesses of the lines and the way they are arranged; some of them intersect, while others are parallel to each other.

Guitar Sketch

I just drew this a few hours ago. The top is a Gibson electric guitar and the bottom is a Fender acoustic, both replicas of images I found on the Internet. I drew this for my boyfriend, who played guitar in a well-known local band in my hometown. Drawing isn't really my strong point as an artist, but I like to doodle occasionally. I prefer to draw instruments or other objects that involve multiple shapes. My favorite part about this piece is definitely the electric guitar because of all the different geometric shapes it has. This is probably the only drawing I've ever done that I would consider decent, so I think I'll be sticking more to digital art and photography from now on.

Photo - Parc Güell, Barcelona

Building near the entrance of Parc Güell, a famous park designed by architect Antoni Gaudí in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain. I took this picture because to capture Gaudí's style of architecture. I also liked that most of the park's statues and buildings are made with recyclable materials from the city (broken plates, glass, etc.), or built in a certain way that emphasized the beauty of the natural environment. I love taking pictures of architecture and the styles in Spain are much more interesting than those in the U.S. I prefer photography over all other art styles, plus creating this piece allowed me to amp up the colors with Photoshop to make the sky and the blue tiles in the roof stand out.