Although I'd already been to the Barbican art gallery, I hadn't had the opportunity to visit the entirety of the Barbican Centre. It was an interesting experience which, given the subject we have been given, required our awareness of the situation through all our senses. It was quite cold, and it was drizzling through most of the afternoon, the rain only being ruptured by rays of surprisingly bright and warm sun rays. Since we were welcomed by the rain and cold, the centre seemed quite un-hospitable.

  What hit me at first was the palette of the place, it was dark-grey, bleak, and wet. I also notice that it was very open, yet most of the buildings were elevated in some way (there is already a street that passes through/under the entirety of the centre), this resulted in strong wind currents accelerating into the spaces between the buildings supporting pillars. The group of people which I went to the centre with arrived at around 12am and dispersed quite quickly, very soon the whole space was devoid of people, and although the residents and employees brought some life to the place an hour and a half later, the space of the barbican center resulted in very few encounters. 

  Although my description of the Barbican Center hasn't been very positive up to now, it was through my prolonged observation of the location that I acquired a growing appreciation for the aesthetic and mood of the center.

  After the lesson started, we opened our sketchbooks and looked at each other's visual notes. What I noticed was that a lot of people observed the people of the Barbican centre more than the architecture (like i did) or the vegetation. I also saw a lot of drawings of the interiors of some of the buildings. I then prepared two alternate compositions in my sketchbook in A3, as a preparation for the larger format, One was more of a compilation of elements, whilst the other was a more clean and calculated creation of a scene which I experienced during my visit at the Barbican centre. The second composition was then transcribed onto the larger 100/150 format.

Sadly, the actual final outcome of this project was lost, and all that I have to show for it is the picture above and the rough/unfinished that I have in in my sketchbook which can be found below. What I do have is a series of photos from the actual visit at the Barbican center which I used as inspiration for my illustration(s), these can be found on the research page.