Sketchbook#6 Online at Patras by Ecoweek

SKETCHBOOK #6 PATRAS BY ELIAS MESSINAS

Online 20/11/2020 Saturday morning Sketching in Patras with architecture students has become a tradition, during the class of Sustainable Design course taught by Elias and his colleagues at the University of Patras. Aegina Port 9/8/20 This time, since the session was virtual, I will had to dig into my files and find sketches that were done in other locations. So, here are some sketches from Aegina, Greece and from Jerusalem, Israel during 2020.

But, this year, due to COVID19, the plans were changed. The course was taught online, and a site visiting sketching session was no longer possible. So, this year, the free-hand session took a different path, and took place online, with students in lockdown, sketching what the could find near their home. The experience was different, but still quite challenging and exciting! Enjoy the resulting sketchbook!

Sun Grove, Jerusalem 25/7/20

Online 20/11/20 Saturday morning Being in a lockdown, makes you appreciate the time that you have the freedom to travel and to visit special places like Aegina. Some sketches from Aegina, sketched during the summer of 2020 – in the short break between lockdowns. This year I kept my sketchbook in my bag, to sketch at every possible occasion - including waiting outside a store, or when visiting a place at night.

Olive Grove, Aegina 20/8/20 A visit to the ancient olive grove, above Marathonas. An amazing climb and walk, which we don’t miss every summer we spend in Aegina. Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Online 20/11/20 Saturday morning Free-hand sketching is based on training the eye to see. So, in the first part of the session we discussed some simple principles and guidelines that can guide the eye how to organize the theme, what to see, how to construct the drawing and how to see the relationships of things. Finally, how to identify the nodes that will help test the drawing as we go along.

Perspective In the session we also discussed how to handle a perspective drawing: how to draw in perspective in fair accuracy by defining some simple guiding principles. Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Online 20/11/20 Artemis Kambasi Drawing a perspective drawing while seating in our room. In fact, all spaces are perceived in perspective, depending on where we are seating – which sets the horizon line and the vanishing point. In this example, we have an ideal perspective setup with a clear picture plane (the wall with the window) and objects within the perspective drawing. The first attempted sketch was with the vanishing point above the picture plane. It was greatly improved after explanations were offered by the instructor. Copyright: Elias V. Messinas Architect

Online 20/11/20 Artemis Kambasi The second drawing in the room involved a more complex situation of two vanishing points. Again, the horizon line was initially located above the space. It was corrected and greatly improved after explanations were given.

Online 20/11/20 Athanasia Chrysanthopoulou Another example of a perspective drawings is this attempt to sketch the perspective of a street in downtown Athens. The explanations primarily centered around the effort to define the horizon line and vanishing point, so that all horizontal elements will merge towards the vanishing point.

Online 20/11/20 Maria Stelaki Here we have another example of a street view in perspective where once we define correctly the horizon line and vanishing point, we can build the drawing in fair accuracy.

The drawing was well handled with a hint of shading to emphasize the different planes and thus giving depth to the composition.

Online 20/11/20 Georgia Arafioti This theme involved different layers of information – sky, clouds, mountains in the horizon, apartment buildings in the background and the isolated trees in the foreground. Following explanations the drawing was completed with all the details.

FREE-HAND SKETCHBOOK : PATRAS By ELIAS V. MESSINAS, ARCHITECT and ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS from the UNIVERSITY OF PATRAS, GREECE The online free-hand sketching session took place on Saturday 20 November 2020.

A group of four (brave!) students joined the session. The session included explanations about sketching, online tools, analysis of the drawing frame. Then followed by a warm-up sketching session each one at their own location, then a discussion on each sketch, followed by a concluding sketching session in which each student improved their chosen theme. The following students are sharing their work in this sketchbook:

Artemis Kambasi Athanasia Chrysanthopoulou Georgia Arafioti Maria Stelaki

TRAVEL SKETCHBOOKS By ELIAS V. MESSINAS, ARCHITECT Greek-born practicing architect with a focus on sustainable design, graduate of Yale School of Architecture, Bezalel Academy and National Technical University of Athens. Author of books, catalogues, and numerous articles. Recipient of research and publication grants from – among others Graham Foundation, WMF and the Getty Grant Program. Founding chairman of international NGO ECOWEEK.

Elias’ sketchbooks are being written and sketched since the late 1980s and include sketches, drawings and notes from his travels in cities in Europe, the Middle East and North America. Elias’ sketchbooks have been exhibited at the Yale Art & Architecture (USA, 1990), the Athens College Theater (Greece, 1995), the Jerusalem Theater (Israel, 2002), and the Israel Museum exhibition ‘Journeys’ (2014-2015).