Week Four:

The weeks are flying by and I want them to slow down. The beginning of the trip seemed like the longest couple weeks of my life, and I was enjoying what seemed like extra time in Rome, but now they seem like they are coming and going with each blink of the eye. I realized that the program is half way over this week and I still have so much to learn, sketch, and do while I finish out the reminder of my summer in Rome. This is very exciting to me though, because I’m looking forward to my attempt at accomplishing all that’s on my list (which is continually getting longer as the days go on) before I have to part ways with this Beautiful city. I feel like I finally understand the city now and enjoy being here more with each new day. This week was amazing though and I learned a lot. We had our mid project critique in studio. It was very helpful for my design of Piazza Dei Ponziani. We did a lot of sketching this week and I made some of my biggest gains of the program so far. Matt instructed my fellow students and I on a couple things to do with perspective sketching that I’ve always struggled with and he made them clear as day. These instructions Matt provided me with dramatically improved my sketching, which was very exciting and allowed me to gain an even stronger passion for the art of sketching. We got to sketch at Campidoglio this week, a very challenging and fun subject. It has a very hard perspective and composition to get right, but Matt’s instructions allowed me to produce, a worthwhile sketch. We also got to sketch at Sant’ Ignazio and I learned so much about sketching curves and ellipses that I never knew before. These two sessions improved my confidence about sketching a lot. The highlight of the week was another tour from Jeffery Blanchard, who was an old professor of Matt’s and one of the most intelligent people I have ever met. He did a tour about some of the Baroque churches of Rome. One of which was San Carlino, a Borrimini designed church that I found absolutely amazing and one of the coolest things that I have ever seen. I enjoyed my weekend sketching and walking around, studying this amazing city and its culture. Today, I actually got the chance to go back to San Calino with one of my classmates, Filip, and sketch. It was an absolute blast and the best part of the weekend. I’m looking forward to another fun filled week and all that it has to offer.