Straight Lines, Slanted

Yesterday’s evening event at the King Kalākaua Building offered the kind of challenges and opportunities we had envisaged for Architecture Month. Tight spaces, columns, arches, domed ceilings, tall buildings, ornate details, and – as a non-architectural bonus – quickly fading daylight.

A good turnout, which included several architects, made show-and-tell particularly lively and enlightening. Mayumi, representing AIA, the co-sponsor of our two architecture-themed events this month, treated us to a short introduction to the historical and architectural aspects of the building (the stylized hibiscus flowers in the Corinthian column capitals featured prominently in several sketches). A common theme during our conversation was the struggle to maintain perspective in our depictions of soaring buildings from up close. Jon’s sketch of the space between office buildings (and the narrative he provided with it) provided perspective in more than an architectural sense. Wide-angle views complemented sketches of particularly attractive details (oh, those Corinthian capitals!), some of which became the focus of our sketches unintentionally as the rest of the scene fell off the page, lost to our misjudgment of perspective.

Finally, as cookies made the rounds, we raffled off a few sketching-related items that were well received by the winning parties. Architecture Month continues with our second event downtown on April 16 – see you there!

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Don’t forget to check out Thursday’s sketches on the USkO Flickr page.