I drew this sketch of the books in the libary in the castle of Poppi. The quantity of books amazed me and the age of some of the books were older than the United States. When they first started writing books they would use pressed cloth for paper and that is why we are fortunate enough to still have their writing with us today. What really stood out to me though was the pictures and use of gold in the books. You could not go to a store and buy colored pencils to draw with so instead you had to make the colors out of minerals and plants. Can you imagine grinding stones to get a certain color to use to draw a picture with? And then many of the pictures were encased in gold.  I find it amazing that people were able to use gold for such little things like decoration for a picture. I realize not everyone was this wealthy but today I could not see billionaires putting gold leafing in books. The design and work effort people put into making books is astonishing. It is sad that we lose all of that art today when we simply download a book off the internet.   (I apologize for this image being sideways, I do not know how to get it to turn.) This sketch was drawn inside the Medici Chapel in the tomb rooms. I was captivated by Michelangelo’s copy of the Pantheon. It was like a model for the pantheon, it was so similar. The contrasts he used while sculpting the figures on the tombs was very thoughtful. I had a very hard time depicting which figure was to be dawn and while was dusk. The question was brought up did Michelangelo mean to leave some of the faces almost unfinished or did he not finish them. Personally I think his work was intentional. I feel as though crafting these sculptures were so important to him that he would not have left them undone. Thus I truly believe everything we saw was complete.

For my first image I decided to draw the outline of the bottom of the coliseum. The structure of how the buildings were placed really captured my attention. I know I did not do a great job of drawing it but there was two walls that formed a straight pathway through the center of the coliseum. Then as you went out getting closer and closer to where the arena stopped and stands started, the walls were curved back into an ellipsis. It is wonderful seeing the design from straight solid lines transition to curved and rounded. The coliseum itself will forever hold a special place in my heart and that is really why I wanted to sketch something from there. The next picture is from the Spanish steps. I went there for the walking Rome assignment and climb to the top. At the very top I spent a lot of time gazing out into the distance looking over the tops of buildings. I really enjoy viewing things from above and being able to see the roof tops of so many building really made it quite a view. But as I was looking out at this beautiful view I noticed this quaint little balcony attached to one of the buildings. The design on the fence made perfect diamond shapes with vines entangled all around them. There was two vases, one on each edge, which held a plant in it as well. The plants in there’s vases were such a vibrant green they stood out from the vine in a wonderful contrast. This decoreated fence made me think of Italy. I always pictured buildings in Italy with vines growing up them, and while not many buildings actually have this feature the ones that do are breathtaking.