The Colosseum

(Did I spell it right, Carla?) Anyway, this was where I spent the better part of my day today. The plan was to spend a few hours in the morning in the Colosseum and then hit up a Catholic service. I mean, when in Rome, right? Well that didn't work out, mainly because there is just too much to see and do inside the Colosseum. As soon as I walked in (wearing my church clothes, no less), I instantly felt compelled to draw, so I picked a nice little seat and set to work. I didn't want to do the exterior or the main floor of the interior, they seemed too overdone. I really wanted to work on the rings of passages around the perimeter, and try to capture the depth that I could see in them. It took a little over an hour (I think), and here is what I ended up with.


Remember you can click on the image to see it bigger. I was surprised and pleased by the number of people who stopped to look over my shoulder for a few moments or to say how nice it was. I don't think it was the best work I've ever done, but I was pretty happy with it.

Shortly after, I wanted to try one of the drawing types we practiced before we came to Rome, the birds-eye axonometric. It's nothing fancy, and only took about 10 minutes, but it really helped to understand the space some more.


Sketchbooks are great, and I take mine most places with me. I think that the opportunity to take notes and sketch out problems and questions is always valuable. And after all the drawings I did over the semester, I've come to realize that you never really know a place until you draw it. To steal a phrase, a drawing is worth a thousand photographs.

Although I got some of them too.