I can't believe it is now the end of February and the last time I blogged was back in December. Apart from a couple of days break at Christmas and a week skiing (I took work with me), all my time has been taken up with project work. Hard landscaping portfolio took just around 200 hours - that is worse than a full time job or two. The completion of project 2 took so long that I gave up counting but at last it is all done and handed in.
However no rest in sight as project 3 has just got underway. Site visit was last Friday and it is going to be a challenge to start the design process again and include curvelinear forms. At least this afternoon's speed design exercise coupled with a creative morning on colour theory has (hopefully) helped to get my frame of mind away from all the technical stuff onto the design stuff.
Still much work to do before the master class with Anthony Paul!
Thursday 25 February 2010
Thursday 3 December 2009
The importance of social networking
Have just finished a lecture about web sites , social networking etc., so having established how important it is for future working life (that distant point after the course finishes) am putting it into practice. First blogger then facebook then world domination!!!
Tuesday 17 November 2009
Week 9
A four day week this week so it's going to be really tiring. Today's session was the first introduction to Vectorworks. As a student I am now in possession of a (free) one year licence to use the software, which took forever to download and another forever to install. Fortunately the whole process went without a hitch unlike some of the other members of the course, who even today were still having trouble getting the program to work.
Half the group are attending the two day session this week and the other half will be there next week. In practice this means that it is a really cosy group with all of us on pcs rather than macs so that T, the tutor, didn't have to explain two different ways to do each function. 9:30 to 4pm ish is a really long day when you are learning something completely new so by late afternoon the brain had gone into melt down - a weird combination of 'this all seems really logical and straight forward' and 'I will never be able to remember how to do this ever again'. T's notes are really extensive and as she has a manual coming out soon (which is top of the to buy list) at least I will have some instructions to read through when all this stuff needs to be put into practice.
More Vectorworks to come, the brain needs a good rest tonight so that it is ready for another overload of information tomorrow!
Half the group are attending the two day session this week and the other half will be there next week. In practice this means that it is a really cosy group with all of us on pcs rather than macs so that T, the tutor, didn't have to explain two different ways to do each function. 9:30 to 4pm ish is a really long day when you are learning something completely new so by late afternoon the brain had gone into melt down - a weird combination of 'this all seems really logical and straight forward' and 'I will never be able to remember how to do this ever again'. T's notes are really extensive and as she has a manual coming out soon (which is top of the to buy list) at least I will have some instructions to read through when all this stuff needs to be put into practice.
More Vectorworks to come, the brain needs a good rest tonight so that it is ready for another overload of information tomorrow!
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Field Trip to London
Going on a field trip to the Tate Modern this week. Have mixed feelings as I have been there quite recently any way. However I'm sure it will be different going with my fellow students and a pad of paper and pencils. I will be just like a school trip - I wonder if we will have a quiz to do? Oh and did I mention this is week 7 of the course and we will have a whole day devoted to crits this week!
Tuesday 27 October 2009
The pressuer builds up
Five weeks completed and the pressure is starting to build. Project work is the biggest issue, as at the moment there just isn't enough time to learn all the technical computer stuff and then put it into practice. I really feel I could have done with the (now cancelled) earlier sessions on Google SketchUp as I am struggling with software that I have never tackled before. And what about power point. The time line project seems straight forward enough and goodness knows I have enough reference material at my finger tips but coming to grips with software that I haven't used for ages and on windows vista is proving a huge challenge. Moan, moan, moan.....
On a lighter note the session on Friday was excellent and much more related to the RHS Horticulture course I completed last year. The visit to Orchard Dean Nursery was wonderful, the sun shone so that I was able to get more autumn photos. Chris (the owner) was so enthusiastic that the prospect of a drive home in Friday night traffic paled into insignificance.
More photos were added to my stock with a visit to RHS Whisley on Sunday. Again the weather was perfect and with the extra hour due to the clocks going back, I arrived quite early and got the best of the place before it was over run with loads of visitors.
The gardens are fabulous at this time of year - well worth for anyone who thinks that autumn in the garden is dull.
Off to tackle more SketchUp now - hopefully the session tomorrow will shed loads more light on the subject!
On a lighter note the session on Friday was excellent and much more related to the RHS Horticulture course I completed last year. The visit to Orchard Dean Nursery was wonderful, the sun shone so that I was able to get more autumn photos. Chris (the owner) was so enthusiastic that the prospect of a drive home in Friday night traffic paled into insignificance.
More photos were added to my stock with a visit to RHS Whisley on Sunday. Again the weather was perfect and with the extra hour due to the clocks going back, I arrived quite early and got the best of the place before it was over run with loads of visitors.
The gardens are fabulous at this time of year - well worth for anyone who thinks that autumn in the garden is dull.
Off to tackle more SketchUp now - hopefully the session tomorrow will shed loads more light on the subject!
Sunday 18 October 2009
The first CRIT
Four weeks into the course and look what arrives - the first crit. As an adult it is really daunting to pin your precious work up in front of the rest of the group and the tutors. I really can apreciate how my own students have felt over the last few years. Sorry guys if I was anything other than kind and constructive.
Really nervous about the whole process so decided to get my crit out of the way in the first batch so that I could relax and take note of everyone elses work and hopefully get more inspiration than just the feedback from my own crit.
The whole process wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, although having the tutor draw over my 'beautiful' drawing was a bit difficult to get my head around. Next time I will photocopy the work before the session so that I can see the before and after images.
The outcome is loads of adjustments to be made so hours and hours of work before going back to the studio next week. And not only drawings to re-do but a major effort to master sketchup, photograph autumn gardens, get together images for a time line, down load and digest notes and the list goes on and on!!!
Really nervous about the whole process so decided to get my crit out of the way in the first batch so that I could relax and take note of everyone elses work and hopefully get more inspiration than just the feedback from my own crit.
The whole process wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, although having the tutor draw over my 'beautiful' drawing was a bit difficult to get my head around. Next time I will photocopy the work before the session so that I can see the before and after images.
The outcome is loads of adjustments to be made so hours and hours of work before going back to the studio next week. And not only drawings to re-do but a major effort to master sketchup, photograph autumn gardens, get together images for a time line, down load and digest notes and the list goes on and on!!!
Saturday 10 October 2009
Three weeks into the course
Absolutely ages since the last blog because I have been inundated with work. I have just spent a couple of hours downloading vast quantities of photographs of any thing I have that might be useful for the garden design course. All this is going to be vastly edited in picasa - a free software package from google. This probably means that almost all of it will be deleted as being of dubious quality or not appropriate for the seasonal photographs that I need. Hopefully I will end up with at least a handful of images I can then play around with and eventually end up with one of pictures that I am satisfied with. All the tuition from Wednesday will be majorly put to the test over the next few days, so what this space for some 'wonderful' pictures to come.
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