Sculpture Drawing Class

Another very relaxing class is the Sculpture Drawing Class. I attend the classes with my dutch friend Anna. Although the classes are fun, it is hard to keep up with the high leveled skills of the japanese students who will be professionals when they graduate.
We use charcoal to draw sculptures, still lives and nudes. In December we have had a female nude model pose for two drawings. Each pose was 3 sessions of 6 x 20 minutes (she needs a five minutes rest after every 20 minutes). It was hard to draw the exact pose, because after each break, the pose of the model was slightly different. But I can understand that, since posing and not moving in a standing position, surrounded by over 30 students in a classroom with limited air circulation, can be difficult.
It was not my first time drawing the nude and I love muscles and volumeus areas and it was fun to see how the model has gained or lost weight every week she posed for us. She will do one more session and I hope that she can be as interesting as the other two poses.

Pose 1, the legs are too long...

Everybody gets a mark for his/her drawing.

Pose 2, I tried to make the hands more delicate.

As a holiday assignment, Anna and I have to draw a sculpture and  a still live. The still live is not drawn yet, but for the sculpture we chose the bust of Laocoon, one of my favorite sculptures of Greek History. This bust is just a part of a large sculpture in which Laocoon and his two sons are attacked by snakes from the sea. I love the volumeus build muscles and dramatic expression on his face and hope that I did right to the sculpture.

Laocoon bust, by Kiwa.

Left made by Anna, right made by Kiwa.

Colour Class

We have had quite a few Colour Classes and everyone has made a piece of work every week. Classes are until February. I really enjoy the 2 hours a week I spend on thinking and making a composition of colours. The teacher gives good advice about every piece of work. Normally all the japanese students make their design with (acrylic) paint: the skills they have are abnormally good. My neighbour Anna, who is also a student from the Netherlands, and I do not possess these skills and we are allowed to use computer software.

A composition by texture.

A dutch friend Anna cut out fall leaves.

Slices of foam with a heated wire. 

A composition that gives the illusion of three dimensionality.

Based on the city plan of Amsterdam.

Composition based on a structural system.

Composition made out of materials from the 100 yen (1 euro) shop. 

Burned candles. But it is not what I wanted it to be...

A particular one that I liked. Made out of shiny paper.

Glass Presentation

Finally there was the presentation of the glass objects we made. We were supposed to make a presentation within a space of 30 x 30 x 30 cm and write a short report. My glass object was made out of blue and amber coloured glass, which resulted in blackish green areas that gave my object the title Seaweed Lizard. In this class there is another dutch student. My buddy Riccardo is a Product Design graduate student and he has made a glass bulb that seems to emit light.

Seaweed Lizard in its natural habitat.

Glass teacher Igarashi sensei with translator and assistants.

Riccardo and his glass bulb on a wooden presentation block.

Sceneries of the University of Tsukuba (Fall)

The typical brown/yellow/orange/red colours of the trees that mark the Fall are already fading, but here are some pictures of the University of Tsukuba. These are sceneries I see on my way to the Sports and Art/Design faculties everyday. 

Bicycle parking.

Sports and Art/Design faculty.

There is a passage through the building of the Sports and Art/Design faculty.

The stairs go all the way up to the 7th floor. There is also an elevator (which I don't use).

Near the International Student Center.

International Student Center

Near the library is a big pond.

I don't know which faculties are here, but I like the water with Koi fish.

This narrow path is dangerous when it is crowded. I actually ran over a person with my bicycle (not my fault).

Japanese Architecture Office

From November, I started working part time at Takenaka Corporation, This is an architecture office which emlpoys over 500 architects and engineers and does projects in Europe, America and Japan. My job is on Monday only, from 10:00 to 19:00 with an hour lunch break.

My tutor at the University of Tsukuba advised me to do this job because it is a good opportunity to get to know how scale models are made in Japan. The job is pretty simple: my boss gives me a printed plan of the design and I have to make a scale model for that plan. My tutor is working at the same day under the same boss, so we work together.
Both the university and the office use foam board and Styrofoam a lot, while in the Netherlands we often use cardboard or wood. Another thing I noticed is that the used tools (the cutting knife, glue container and ruler, etc) are slightly different in Japan.

To keep the projects and progresses secret from clients and other companies, I am not allowed to take pictures of the office spaces. I will post some of the exterior of the building soon.

Above: dutch knife. Below: japanese knife.

Left: dutch glue container. Right: japanese glue container.

Above: dutch ruler. Below: japanese ruler.

Health Check

A few weeks ago there was a mandatory health check for all the exchange students.

At the entrance we received a form in which a few basic questions about your health had to be answered. Then we had to visit some rooms for a short physical examination by a doctor, having an X-ray of our chest and taking a urine test. Our body height and weight, visual acuity and blood pressure were also tested.
Before taking the X-ray, we had to change our upper body clothing into a gown. After pressing the chest against the big plate of a machine, the photo was taken. The urine test is for detecting kidney problems and although it is a quite important test, there were a lot of people who had (mentally) trouble with preparing the sample.

It was very crowded since there were 200 students roaming roaming around in a small building, standing in line for each examination room and being redirected by english speaking japanese helpers in white doctor gowns. It was the first time in my life to experience a health check and even though I know that I am healthy, each examination was thrilling until I got the news that my body is fine.
The most concerning fact was that my body length has shrunken 1,5 cm...

Behind the small tree the sign says "Health Center".

Lifestyle note

Though not pictured here, every week we also need to make a floor plan and section drawings for the Architecture Design classes. Since I am not very skilled in autoCAD and Illustrator it is really hard to keep u with the pace. There are also other classes with (some) homework and in a few weeks there will be tests and reports to make.

At the moment it has become normal for me to go to bed  between 01:00 am and 04:00 am. Most of the days I have to get up before 07:00. In the Netherlands I have never done that before and thought I would not be able to do that, but I realized that my body is quite strong.

Paying attention to what I eat is difficult since eating outdoor is very cheap and the vegetables and fruit in the supermarket are expensive. But I think it helps and sporting 2 or 3 times a week is also good for relaxation.  

Architecture Design: Project in Murwillumbah

After 7 weeks working in the class of Architecture Design, here is some progression.

The assignment is to design a Visitor Center at Wollumbin Street in the city of Murwillumbah in Australia. The site is around 19 x 51m and is located near the center of the city. Nearby is a river and next to the site are a park and parking spot.

The environment.

At first we did research about the functions, contents and possibilities of visitor centers by looking for existing references. Other information, such as the history, climate, culture, tradition and typical architecture of Australia was also gathered by everyone.

Discussing the information.

A large part of the class actually went to Australia to examine the site and the location. Based on their findings and information from the internet, we built a scale model of the environment.

The working space for the architecture students.

A series of cars.

For the design of the Visitor Center, a number of requirements were set:

- Reception Area
- Orientation Space
- Exhibition Space
- Cafe
- Kitchen
- Kitchen Store
- Staff Room
- Shop
- Art Gallery
- Meeting Room
- Offices
- Store Room
- Garage
- Public Toilets

First plan: playing around with connections between each space.

After the first plan, I decided to separate most of the spaces and create small buildings that are connected with bridges. The concept is to make a passage between the park on the front and the shopping street at the back. By elevating these island-like buildings on poles and creating a lot of spaces with sunlight, the area will be more inviting to enter. The poles are an important element since this area of Australia floods almost every year.

My rough, second design (in blue) placed in the scale model 1:100.

The bridge that connects the park with the back street. The buildings are along that path.

Third model in which some roofing is added.

For the next time, research must be done about the angle of the light coming in and the difference in height since the area is sloping and has a small hill. Other details are the construction and the style (decorations) in which the buildings will be made.

4th week in class

At the moment the fourth week of my study has ended already.
In a few classes there has been some progress.

Glass
1. Make a clay model that you want to make in glass. The clay is on oil basis.

My model: a lizard

2. Make a mould by pouring plaster over the clay model. Before pouring the plaster, a leak proof wall must be made.

The teacher explaining how to build a wall.

3. Get the clay out of the hardened plaster and put pieces of glass into the mould. It is important that the weight of the glass is 1,7 times heavier than the weight of clay that has been used.  

My mould

Blue and Amber coloured glass.

This is the oven in which the moulds with pieces of glass will be baked. 

Maybe 5 people can fit in it if they sat down on the bottom.  

Sculpture Drawing

For the first time in my life I took the challenge to draw a sculpture. If I remember correctly, the sculpture I did was of David (from David and Goliath). Charcoal was the main tool I used, together with a piece of cloth, a gummy eraser and a plastic sheet with a printed framework for measuring different distances. 

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3: finished!

Sculpture of David

In the big drawing room is a high ceiling with large and small sculptures. Since they are white and walls and ceiling are also white, the statues are sprayed dark on a few places.

One of the large sculptures.

Some students use pencils. 

An important note is that all the students in this class will become professionals at realistic drawing. So there is a big difference in their work and mine and I should not be comparing mine to theirs. But it is great to see how well they can draw!