Day 1: Arrival in Reykjavik

Current time: 9:09pm. The brightness of the sky matches the time it feels like for my body, which is around 5pm. Two more hours until sun"set" although it won't become completely dark. Even my camera is confused: it seems like its internal clock is telling it to use flash, although it's more than adequately bright for a photo.

Despite our early arrival time and obvious lack of sleep, Pablo wasted little time getting us to work. After a few hours at the charming hotel (our room key looks like this:

 Yes, it's a plastic punch card.) we headed back out to meet Pablo and Spike, the visiting CMU professor for Iceland. We boarded a small boat for Viðey, an island close to Reykjavik. The island is the home of a Richard Serra sculpture called Afangar. The sculpture features several pairs of rough-cut square basalt columns which ring the smaller section of the island. The columns' tops are all level with one another, but their respective heights depend on the topography of the landscape. 


Reykjavik city serves as the backdrop for the southwestern half of the island and a dark rust-colored mountain range adorns the northeastern half beyond the harbor. Capturing the beauty of the dichotomy was difficult, especially without the use of color (I deliberately chose to only work in pen and pencil today, as a starting challenge to myself). I sketched this:

From the actual landscape, which aimed to capture (the angles of these images are different) this:

I think I'll bring my watercolors along tomorrow.


Among the many wonders, both natural and man-made, I found myself drawn to the signage posted on the island. Providing only the barest of essentials, the name of the place it directs the visitor to, these simply wood markers bear the brunt of both weather and the animals nearby. I sketched, in pencil, this image first:

And followed with this:

In the second image, I wished to emphasize the sign by giving it prominence within the drawing, but also frame the view to crop out the location which it indicates. Is a sign only as meaningful as the thing it calls attention to? 


That's all for now, as I get some much-needed rest.