Le Bloempot

LE GRAND MIX

I'm back to writing quotes of my life. 

To be honest, I was far from imagining that life as an architecture student meant becoming a sort of survivor. But I can't abandon my blog, so here I am, back at it again.

We've been divided in several groups so we could each study a renovated architecture in the north of France. My group happened to receive the "Grand Mix" in Tourcoing, a concert hall that can room 650 people a night, that mostly invites young electro djs to perform. 

Everyone recognizes the Grand Mix by its circle, square and triangle that Thierry Baron asked to build to remind you folks of the three Bauhaus shapes ;) When you're an archi student, you get the privilege to see the backstage and meet architects for the only purpose that is your next weeks' presentation. However, the Grand Mix is going to be rehabilitated by the Chelouti architect agency and the construction is starting from December.

Hope you'll go visit!

04.05.2017

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I haven't been writing since September and I terribly missed doing that but architecture studies do take a lot of time. I am actually living in a houseshare with 8 other students. There's Mathilde, Lucas, Lou, Laura, Billie, Philipe, Matthieu and Enzo. I'm sure you've already watched "L'Auberge Espagnole" from Cédric Klapisch, and to be honest, its the indentical scenario with the house chores and its a real merry chaos! 

This illustration is a dedication to all of my homies:

 

Its definitely the best house you can wish for as a student :) 

Lots of love to you 8 ! 

LILLE

It's been a week now that I've settled in Lille, in a student residence. My studio is great, all bright and new! Fortunately, some friends from Poland lived in Lille too, what made my first week as a confirmed bachelor much easier.  

Tomorrow is my first day of college, at ENSAPL (Lille National School of Higher Architecture and Landscape studies). Honestly, I already love the atmosphere there and the school building looks good!

Here's a watercolor/pen drawing I've made of the left part of the school:

Well obviously, It had to be a foggy day (cause we're in the north of France). 

BAC

 I haven't been posting for some time as lately, my daily life looked like this:

Anyway, my baccalaureate is DONE. Apart from that, next year i'll be in the Lille School of Architecture, i'll continue posting some stories... ;) 

Boog & Elliot in  Open Season movie digital painting 

KungFu Panda

Pencil, pen and digital 2D drawing of the dragon warrior Po ... 

My nut, my egg, MY easter. 

This guy has changed the world's history more than anyone else. Making a tribute to Scrat this Easter! Today on Easter Sunday, mainly in France and America, children wake up to find that the Easter Bunny has left them baskets of chocolate. I hope you've been faster than Scrat this time.... 

#PrayForBrussels

"More than 30 people are believed to have been killed and dozens injured in attacks at Brussels international airport and a city metro station." - BBC

ISIS spreads violence and cowardliness around the world, so let us spread joy and bravery.

Maison Conquet

The Maison Conquet is a known boucherie in Aubrac, at Laguiole. Its specialities are dry sausages with Roquefort and obviously the prime rib of Aubrac cow...

Do not forget to cut precisely the meat, with a Vent d'Aubrac knife.

Figaro in Pinocchio

I think I need to watch this movie once again.

“Remember, a boy who won't be good might just as well be made of wood.”

-The Blue Fairy

Plots and drawings

Today I felt like writing a plot for a story. I usually gather my ideas in my head but I wanted to throw them on paper for once. The plot talks about a creature from the moon, that somehow landed on  earth. Humans get frightened, and call the police to put it in jail. A few days later, the inhabitant of the moon's body starts to slowly disappear. Once day, less than a quater of it is left. Narrow enough to pass between the prison bars, he escapes... 

Thats a sketch of the creature, using the graphic tablet:

Moony before he reaches Earth. 

A little later it becomes to look like this... :

And that's a Walt Disney reproduction of one illustration from the MICKEY book of 1998:

Funicular in the old town of Lyon

In November, my Mom and I drove to Lyon, so technically, the visit of the old part of the city is a must-go. First of all, you can access this place by the funicular - pretty typical, here. You walk on the heterogeneous pavers and take pictures of a tremendous cathedral. 

View from the inside of the funicular

Going down the stone steps on the left of the monument, you'll find two roman theaters and you'll discover the mysterious traboules of Lyon. Traboules seem secret, stone corridors, from building to building and unique in France, from the Middle-Age. They're great places to hide yourself in, or sit down and draw for hours their complicated architecture. 

All right, now that you can't stop yourself from wanting to open each ancient door, running through every single traboule, open your eyes and take a look at these lovely grocery shops and traditional patisseries. Especially the "Boulangerie du Palais" ... yes, I'm giving you my secret address here, be careful.  Yum, I can already feel the delicious taste of the praline buns in my mouth!

The Week of Democracy and Fraternity

The week of democracy and fraternity project aims all students to take part in debates such as tolerance and freedom. It is taking place in all french schools of central europe, and is looking forward to allow debates with primary and high-school students to build constructive ideas, so they can learn and make their own judgements, after des events of November.

This is the poster I have made for the project:

C'est le petit Nicolas qui se prend en selfie avec le reste du monde, un pied sur la tour-eiffel pour rappeler les attentats du 13 novembre.

Observation drawing at politechnika architektury

Since September, I take drawing courses at the warsaw school of architecture. Our teachers are two man, one that looks really old and another one that is a little youger, and they are both great. The level is really high, but we are all full of determination and we keep our humour despite the critics we can get!

I met three girls there, Julia, Natalia and Martyna, and we usually fool around at each other's  drawings.

This is my latest drawing, the theme was "flower pots using watercolors" :

Animation

I've been pretty busy with doing all of my portfolios for the studies. You know from a previous (and old) article that I'm a Disney fan, and I have always loved animation sketching. I'm really into it now, and my hand can't stop from drawing over and over a character under thousands of face expressions and movements, even if I got still a lot to work on. 

This is a character I have created.

The dog face expressions and the frog are sketches I have made using Preston Blair books, where I have learnt how to make a story-board and the basics of character sketching. 

 I just love how this mouse really seems to fall straight down in a hole!

That's Figaro, the cat that appears in the Pinnochio movie and Pluto&Figaro cartoons. I have tried doing the 2014 records of the Gobelins school admission exams, making Figaro jump on a sofa.

Aubrac

It's time to write an article about this place, really. At first I just wanted to tell you that I spend all my summers there and I love it each and every time, I'll tell you why. 

To be honest, the food may be 99,9% of what makes this place terribly attractive. Ok, I must have exagerated, cause the landscapes that hides the plateau are breathtaking.

Then there's the cows. I need to draw an Aubrac! They seem to have eyeliner on the top of their eyes... 

This article is not finished at all. I mean it can't be, I could write a whole book about this place: Nasbinals, Laguiole knives, Aligot, the people there... 

That's a watercolor painting of the typical beer in Aubrac: 

Nantes

On the 13th of April, I went to visit Nantes because I would love to enter the Ecole de Design de Nantes Atlantique. 

On the way there, my Mom and I had to stop by the JB Rautureau Factory at 2 Rue des boutons d'Or, La Gaubretiere. Its the biggest  factory of sexy and fashion shoes I have ever seen! 

4 hours later we decided to drive to our hotel.

The school had eco-mowers: sheep. Thats such a great idea, seriously.

At the information day, I met Pierre-Marie Martin, a student that is really cool, and he explained us a lot of things they do there. He showed us his stop-motion court-métrage called "Oscar l'escargot" ;)

Anyways, Pierre-Marie loves what he does and he's a great designer!

Sunday morning, we had to leave the city and drive back to Paris...

Dior 2015 Haute Couture Show?

Whether it was on the runway, in Vogue or at the 40th Ceremony of Cesars, you have already obviously seen this wonderful Dior dress somewhere. Marion Cotillard was wearing the star dress of the 2015 Haute Couture Dior Show, for the 40th Ceremony of Cesars. This illustration is just a part of a project i'm working on, maybe a gift i'll make for Dior Poland...who knows? ;)

You can see the making of of the dress using that link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uEDgf_ezWFw

Photography lessons

Since the beginning of the year, I take photography lessons at the Academy of Art in warsaw. My teacher is Paweł Bownik, and I must say, its not always easy!

Each lesson is different, and always interesting. However, lessons with models tend to be really complicated, because i'm not used to asking a model to pose in polish. Its always important for the model to feel good, otherwise there's absolutely no emotion in your pictures.

I need to train my shyness... but the pictures always come out really well! you can see some of them with that link: Pictures with models

Teacher: You need to communicate a little more with the models. Me: I know...

A closer look

 Its just a short article to show you how I use my graphic tablet ( I have had no courses, so I'm not sure at all if that's how we do it...lets just say its a self-taught method). I've decided to work on one of my favorite Pixar character: Remy in Ratatouille:

Look at the right eye. Fisrt, its just a black spot and it slowly becomes realistic.

Now take a look at the thin lines that will soon become Remy's hair.

Graphic Tablet

Hi there! I hope you have had great Christmas holidays, and I wish you another  365 happy days.

During my silence, I bought myself a Wacom Intuos Pro graphic tablet, which lets me draw on photoshop by hand, and make wonderful characters. Well, it seemed easy at first, but things have got a little complicated when I finally got to hold the Intuos Pen... When i'll have some time, I'm going to paint a watercolor drawing to show you how it works. 

Let me show you my first trials:

 A bird from Preston Blair books and illustartions I have tried to draw and color:

Diorling for a Dior Miss

Hi there! So today I wanted to share with you a gift I've made for Martina :)But first...let me show you some of the "Diorling"'s history:
In 1963, Dior creates the Diorling, a pure frangrance imagined by Paul Vacher. We could describe Diorling as a chypre-leather but also as a real woodland smell. In the 60s, this perfume for women reveals an unexpected character for the time it had been created. Diorling is a mix of citrus oil and bergamot essences. Its heart unveils a floral bouquet of roses, violets and indian jasmine. An elegant path of wooded trail reveals notes of leather, oak moss and amber.

Black Friday

For millions of people Black Friday is the time to do some serious Christmas shopping -even before the last of the Thanksgiving leftovers are gone! Black Black is the Friday after Thanksgiving, and it's one of the major shopping days of the year in the United States -falling anywhere between November 23 and 29. While it's not recognized as an official US holiday, many employees have the day off -except those working in retail.

The term “Black Friday” was coined in the 1960s to mark the kickoff to the Christmas shopping season. “Black” refers to stores moving from the “red” to the “black,” back when accounting records were kept by hand, and red ink indicated a loss, and black a profit. Ever since the start of the modern Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in 1924, the Friday after Thanksgiving has been known as the unofficial start to a bustling holiday shopping season.

In the 1960's, police in Philadelphia griped about the congested streets, clogged with motorists and pedestrians, calling it “Black Friday.” In a non-retail sense, it also describes a financial crisis of 1869: a stock market catastrophe set off by gold spectators who tried and failed to corner the gold market, causing the market to collapse and stocks to plummet.

  

A Laguiole knife?

Laguiole knives have very particular caracteristics and are made in Laguiole, in France. Its a skill that goes from dad to son, that only real artisans know how to fabric.

First of all, Laguiole knives can have different material blades. The most popular spluses are damascus blades: layered worked steel and carbon that are superposed many times, heated at a high temperature, and every pattern is unique.

We can recognize any Laguiole knife by its symbol, on the top transition between the blade and the handle: the "bee" is Laguiole's symbol, but it changes according to customer's or the artisan's wish.

The little dots that are often made of iron on the sides of the handle, are aligned to make a cross. It was a tradition so that Christians  and Monks could pray whenever they wanted, by planting their knife in the ground.

Its finally June. 

I came out with a great idea: we should throw a concept of "Fresh-Food Days". It consists of eating fresh and ecologic food day and night, everyday, until the weather gets bad again. You'll tell me its stupid, but it would encourage many people to eat healthy food, without having any frustration. I made a little statistic, and 86% of the people were for. You should try it!

Now here's a recipe that anyone can do. Plus, its totally in the concept of Fresh-Food Days. I think i'll create a #freshfooddays on Instagram!

My music

I think you need to get to know me better. So I decided to show you what kind of music do I listen to.

I'm not complicated, I can listen to Rock, Reggae, Techno, Dance, Pop...anything, but not Rap.

These days I listen to 4 songs I'm sure you know: Jubel - Klingalande

Changes - Faul ft. Wad Ad & Pnau, Rather be - Clean Bandit, 

Stolen Dance - Milky Chance. My top favorite song is: 1973 - James Blunt. 

That's a watercolour I did for Julia. She's a fashion lover with a perfect taste. Always beautifully dressed, I imagined her on the Louvre - Rivoli.

Julia K. wearing a Z.V. dress, V.B. handbag and holing a Coco bag at Louvre-Rivoli.

Yes, I just discovered it today. Bistro Burger Bar was a great time to spend a lunch with friends, a modern and cozy place to stay, and the food was good. In Croque Madame, the service is bad and the place is kitschy...  Better late than never!

I realised I was totally out-dated when I wanted to eat at "Bistro Burger" today, but when I stopped at the place, I saw
a "Croque Madame". Finally, I think the new Bistro is out-dated...

I've developped a certain interest for Guillaume Musso. For those who don't know...
Guillaume Musso is a french writer. His books are total thrillers. Tomorrow, 7 years later, Central Park, The Call of the Angel, The Girl of Paper... his books are within the world bestsellers.
When you start, you need to finish. When you think you know the whole story, your mind suddenly collapses in 0,01 seconds and you figure out that what you read was just the beginning.

Alice and Gabriel have no memories of their last night, therefore they're not ready to forget...

Already in the first pages of the book, you start asking yourself thousands of questions, near to the end, you think you know everything, but the thriller suddenly collapses and you're breath stops. I've never been that scared for the characters while reading a book.

She's his past...he's her future.

A strong plot. An improbable hypothesis that explodes in your mind at the 100th page. Everything debuts when Matthew walks along a second-hand market, and you, with him, wondering between Boston and NY. Then, a breath-taking car chase of 5 days makes you come back to reality in all of a sudden. A hard suspense story.