Here is my project based on my trip to Japan before covid. Because I'm doing this after my trip rather than before/during my trip, I'm not necessarily doing all the steps exactly in the same order. I actually did a lot of these things *while* travelling anyway and have had a whole bunch of material pilled up for a while that I didn't know what to do with, so this class seemed perfect as a little push to put it all together :D

Assignment 1:

I decided to use my little watercolour-set which I'm already familiar with, but did some experimenting on the paper, to see how well it would hold up.

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 1 - student project

Assignment 2:

I have like a million photos, but here a some photos of temples cause it's what I chose to focus on for this project! Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 2 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 3 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 4 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 5 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 6 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 7 - student project

Assignment 3:

I found myself gravitating towards drawing near temples/shrines when I was out, because I found the architecture so fascinating. Trying to sketch down the buildings in front of me gave me a chance to try to figure out the shapes better and have them make sense in my head (which they still don't fully, since temples are far too complex and there are so many different things going on).

It was normally pretty busy, so I prefer doing little thumbnail sketches when I'm out and then turn them into full illustrations/larger sketchbook pieces later on, which also worked better when travelling with friends.

Assignement 4 and 5:

There were a lot of (really messy) temple thumbnails in my sketchbook on my return, so that's why I chose to focus on these.

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 8 - student project

Assignment 6:

I chose my 4 favourite temples and tried to make watercolour postcards from them. These follow the original photos fairly closely for the temples themselves, but I tried to move around surrounding greenery and mess with the perspective a little bit to make the composition a little cleaner.

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 9 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 10 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 11 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 12 - student project

Japanese Temples - Postcard Set - image 13 - student project

Marta Vicario

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