House No. 115: City Apartment

House No. 115: City Apartment
ink, watercolor pencil, and metallic ink on repurposed card stock
2 in. x 4.25 in.
115/365; 04/25/11


Another city house today. I loved drawing the fire escapes on this one. Fire escapes and cisterns atop apartment buildings are two of my favorite things about city architecture.

House No. 114: City at Sunset

House No. 114: City at Sunset
ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
2 in. x 4.25 in.
114/365; 04/24/11

Colorful skyscrapers.

House No. 113: Pink House with Cherry Tree

House No. 113: Pink House with Cherry Tree
ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
2.25 in. x 2.33 in.
113/365; 04/23/11

Happy spring weekend!

House No. 112: Farnsworth House

House No. 112: Farnsworth House
ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
4.25 in. x 2 in.
112/365; 04/22/11

And now for something entirely different ...

It took 112 houses for me to reproduce an actual house. I never had the desire previously to do it, but I wanted to experiment with some Modern Architecture and kept thinking about the Farnsworth House and Mies van der Rohe.

The Farnsworth House is an example of the International Style. Designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, the Farnsworth House was built to be a weekend retreat/country house for Dr. Edith Farnsworth, so it wasn't a place someone would live all the time.

It’s a bit impractical. It’s not a place to have “stuff.” It is not terribly private, either. (Remember, those who live in Mies van der Rohe houses shouldn’t throw stones.)

My head loves this design, but my heart doesn’t. What do you think?

House No. 111: Igloo

House No. 111: Igloo

ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
4.25 in. x 2 in.
111/365; 04/21/11

Igloos have been made to be sort of silly. We see them in media with fur-hooded Eskimos and penguins (wrong continent), and advertising ice cream or bagged ice. Igloos are simplified and misunderstood, quite like the tipi. Igloos are, in reality, amazing snow structures of the Inuit people of the arctic, themselves a very complicated culture that is diverse and spans portions of Alaska, Canada, Greenland, and Russia.

Igloos are an example of ingenuity and make-do. I love how homes reflect culture and available resources. For me, igloos are proof that people make comfortable, homey retreats out of whatever is available wherever people find themselves.

What is home exactly? I think that beyond shelter, containment, and safety, there is an element of comfort required to make someplace home. We make homes for those we love, and we think of home as someplace comforting. I think food is inseparable from home, as are smells. What are your requirements for home?

House No. 110: Yurts

House No. 110: Yurts
ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
4.25 in. x 2 in.
110/365; 04/20/11

You know I love some tents. I really do.

I'm still working out some troubadour-style nomadic homes in 3D materials, but I have some ideas that are cooking. I love the patterns on some Mongolian gers, and so I wanted to play with that for today's houses. I like the white is set off against the background. I imagine the interiors are lush.

House No. 109: Petit Château

House No. 109: Petit Château 
ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
2.75 in. x 2.75 in.
109/365; 04/19/11

This little illustration is drawn on the back of another sheet from my matchbook calendar that I have mentioned before. The paper is just yummy. Very thick with just the right amount of tooth to it.

It’s funny because the photos of the drawing are so much larger than they are in life, and the details are so much easier to see. I like making these tiny drawings and am thinking about what I should do with them all. Perhaps mount them all together? What do you think?

House No. 108: Gothic House

House No. 108: Gothic House
ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
2.45 in. x 1.85 in.
108/365; 04/18/11

Today’s house is a diminutive illustration of a high Victorian style home with iron work and dark colors. I took a lot of liberties with the architecture (again) because I got going and just NEEDED to draw quoins and arches and symmetry.

I imagine that this house is dark and musty inside and has things like dress forms and wooden trunks in the attic, doilies on the furniture, and those tiny foot stools that were supposed to alleviate gout. And a silver samovar with a highly ornate repoussé coffee service. And frosted sugar cubes and nonpareils.

House No. 106: Dutch Row Houses

House No. 106: Dutch Row Houses

ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
3 in. x 1.6 in.
106/365; 04/16/11

I still have Dutch things on my mind. I think that yesterday's house left me wanting for something more Dutch-y. (And I still have pancakes on my mind too, but I digress.) These are stripped-down Dutch row houses, and I am rather partial to their stepped-gabled facades and bright colors. They are perky and reflect Holland’s ubiquitous tulips. I think simple was the way to go with these.  I do enjoy making something into an icon, and that is probably why I enjoy designing logos so much.

House No. 105: Dutch Colonial

House No. 105: Dutch Colonial

ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
2.5 in. x 1.75 in.
105/365; 04/15/11

I didn’t mean for my Dutch colonial revival house to look like it was on acid. It just happened. It's all dayglo and listing to one side, and I took a lot of liberties with the architecture because, hey, I can make it way more fun and also slightly cage-y looking.

I think that if I lived in a Dutch colonial revival house, I would feel trapped, though that barred appearance was really more of an accident than a statement. I have never been a fan of the style, and I am not entirely sure why I decided to draw it.

I think that I had Dutch things in my head because I was reading A Homemade Life by Molly Wizenberg, and she gives a recipe for Dutch Baby Pancakes, and I have sort of been obsessed with the thought. Although, I think that Dutch Babies are really German. I have had pannekoek when I was in the Netherlands, and those are also amazing. I think that I really need pancakes. Stat.

House No. 104: Little House in the Big Woods

House No. 104: Little House in the Big Woods
ink and watercolor pencil on repurposed card stock
4.25 in. x 2 in.
104/365; 04/14/11

Did you ever read the Little House books? In fourth grade, I was obsessed with them and read each book several times until about sixth grade when I first read A Wrinkle in Time and my obsession with Madeline L’Engle began. I think I loved books in which children had to be resourceful. Before Laura, it was The Boxcar Children (Only the first one. After that, the books become forced.) and Z for Zachariah.

Today’s house, Laura’s Little House in the Big Woods is inspired by The Wilder Life by Wendy McClure, a favorite author and blogger of mine. The book is being released today, and I cannot wait to read it. In fact, it has me wanting to reread the Little House books. If you are into such things, check out HalfPintIngalls on the Twittergraph. Hilarious.

House No. 70: Zayat

House No. 70: Zayat
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
070/365; 03/11/11

In Burma, nearly every village has a zayat, a building used as a shelter for travelers, religious celebration, and civic assemblies. Buddhist monks live in zayats during intensified practice on sabbath days. 

And so ends my series of alphabet houses. I almost feel a little sad that I have finished them, I enjoyed them so much, but I have so many ideas to play out and some collaborations coming up. I can't wait to share them with you.

House No. 69: Yaodong

House No. 69: Yaodong
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
069/365; 03/10/11

Yaodong are humanly-excavated caves that have been constructed and used for centuries in China, particularly in the Loess Plateau. Once again, these ancient building techniques are innovative sustainable housing. I'm beginning to see a trend here.

House No. 68: Xerxes Palace

House No. 68: Xerxes Palace

ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
068/365; 03/09/11

Xerxes, the great king, the king of kings,
the son of king Darius, an Achaemenid.

Persepolis, the Greek name for the City of Persians (Persēs polis: "Persian city"), was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire (ca. 550-330 BCE), which is now Iran.

The palace of King Xerxes was sacked by the troops of Alexander the Great with particular fervor in revenge for the attack on Athens by Xerxes.

On a barely related note: have you seen the movie Persepolis? It is fantastic.

House No. 64: Wigwam

House No. 64: Wigwam
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
064/365; 03/05/11

While working on this illustration of a wigwam used by the indigenous people of North America  — I based mine on the wigwams made of bark by the Algonquin —I felt like an elementary school child working on a presentation for class. I seem to remember drawing all sorts of Native American housing for school reports: wigwams, tipis, longhouses ... again, some things never change.

House No. 62: Villa

 

House No. 62: Villa
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
062/365; 03/03/11

The word villa comes from Italian by way of Latin: Roman villas were the country houses of the upper class, and the Tuscan countryside of Italy are still dotted with generations of these estates that make up the quintessential picture of the villa.

I always think of villas being flanked by rows of tall, pencil-thin cypress trees and overlooking rolling hills of vineyards. Sigh. I could use a stay at a villa right about now.

House No. 59: Unity House

House No. 59: Unity House
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
059/365; 02/28/11

Following the Second World War, Britain had an urgent need for housing, and traditional building materials and skilled labor were in short supply. In order for inexpensive and easily erected properties to be installed, component parts made of cast concrete were produced in factories and then sent out to be erected by labor who were untrained in traditional construction skills.

One style of house was called Unity housing.

About 15,000 Unity homes were built in the 1950's, mostly as semi detached and terraced houses.  They were factory produced and assembled on site with precast reinforced concrete columns. They had pre-fabricated kitchens and bathrooms and were situated in excellent locations with roomy accommodations and sizable yards.

This type of structure makes me think of Number 4 Privet Drive and the Bucket residence (Chez Bouquet).

House No. 58: Trulli

House No. 58: Trulli
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
058/365; 02/27/11

A trullo is a traditional Apulian stone dwelling of the Italian Itria Valley. Similar to the French orri in their dry-stone conical roof structure, trulli traditionally were built without any mortar.

In addition to its unique architecture, the Itria Valley is famous for its annual summer opera festival. Where do I sign up?

House No. 57: Sámi House

 

House No. 57: Sámi House
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout

8.5 in. x 11 in.
057/365; 02/26/11

Let me get one thing out of the way at the start: there are a lot of different houses built and used by the Sámi people, who are a culturally connected people spread across many different political lines in far northern Europe.  The Sámi live in the northernmost parts of the countries of Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Russia.

In fact, you may notice some similarities between house number fifty-seven, here, and house number forty-three, Russian Izba, particularly in the izba from the story of Baba Yaga, a Chicken-Legged Izba. (Isn't that a lovely depiction of Baba Yaga's house by fantasy illustrator Reuben C. Dodd?)

I illustrated a Sámi house traditionally found in Sweden for this house because I love the house's supports, but there are many, many fascinating Sámi dwellings that could take up their own sub-project, and believe me, I'm thinking about it.

I am really fascinated by the Sámi, and I want to learn loads more about them. I will keep you posted!

House No. 56: Rondavel

House No. 56: Rondavel
ink, colored pencil, and watercolor on paper, digital layout
8.5 in. x 11 in.
056/365; 02/25/11

Rondavels are found throughout southern Africa including South Africa, Lesotho, Swaziland, and Botswana.

The structure of a rondavel is pretty amazing because the roof has no struts or beams supporting it and is built without internal braces. There are no seams, joists, or rafters up there, like there are in a gabled roof.


Radial poles, called principals in architecture lingo, are supported by circular purlins, which are concentric ring-shaped supports that form the conical shape of the roof. It's kind of like a giant hoop skirt, but without a person holding it up from the inside. (see image below)

The roof is thatched over wooden poles made of tree limbs and sewn with grass rope.

Traditionally, the floors and walls of these roundhouses are fortified with a processed mortar made of earth, sand, and dung that strengthens the earthen floor and stone walls with a firm and smooth coating.

The houses are not just green and sustainable, they are beautiful too. The exterior of the walls are oftentimes decorated with carvings, paintings, and mosaics.

Verified information of rondavels is not as prevalent as other house types that I have been researching, but the essay by Gerald Steyn, The Indigenous Rondavel – a Case for Conservation, has an excellent bibliography that got me started.