Some flowers, shadows, creeping on that girl doing homework…

 

(Above you can find the dictated version of my observations today (if it works). I was going to dictate the whole 15 minutes, but my recording device missed the first 10, so here’s the last 5!)

Looking into the Modlin Courtyard from a bench outside of Jepson Theater 1:03

The clouds and the sun make the light in the courtyard a different color of white periodically depending whether the clouds are in front of the sun or not. The lit area would become brighter when the clouds weren’t covering the sun, but darker (but not too much darker) when the clouds did cover the sun. It was still brighter than the area in shadow, which is still visible but definitely in a duller white.

The light coming into the building: it’s light. Even though the area of the courtyard just outside is in shadow the light coming in is still bright and noticeable, but subtle and creates shadows with the columns just inside the building. Farther down from where I’m sitting, it’s brighter and more distinguishable coming through the two doors and even through the windows past the doors. I don’t know why because the area of the courtyard just opposite is just as much out of light as the part in front of me. Maybe it’s just the distance from which I’m looking at it that makes it seem lighter than the area just in front of me.

The arches of the courtyard (more specifically the ones on the right going straight down from where I’m sitting) create interesting shadows. I can see how they cast shadows the windows and probably inside.

The shadow that falls on the top left corner of the building might be from the big part of the building or just the awning above. Whatever this shadow is, it falls on the wall and the roof a little bit.

There are two pots of plants, one on each side of the courtyard so one in the light and one in shadow. The plants definitely look different because of this too. The ones in the sun are brighter, more vibrant, the greens, and the pinks, and the reds, and the yellows, and the bushy plant that’s maroon and mustard colored are more lit and more dynamic because it’s in the sun and there are more shadows that have been created. When compared to the plant on the other side, you can definitely see the leaves and the flowers more individually on the sunny side. Where on the other side the plant that’s bushy and green and the flowered plant which has green leaves and red flowers you can’t really distinguish between the leaves and the flowers themselves; their outlines are much less defined because they’re in shadow and there aren’t many highlights on them.

A girl came to sit down at a table in front of me in the middle of my observation. And there’s a highlight on the top of her shoulder and arm and if falls to darkness once you go around her arm. And her legs are completely in shadow under the table, but they are still visible. Even though she’s in shadow though there’s still a highlight on her. Even the bench a little further down, even though it’s in shadow, there’s still a highlight on the arm and the seat and the top of the back but the bottom leg and where the back starts sloping down becomes darker, there’s a darker shadow.

How I feel in regards to what I’m looking at: I feel like I’d be more connected to it if I sat in the courtyard instead of being inside looking out because then I’d feel the heat of the day and the heat of the light and the wind that I see passing by on the plants. I think I’d feel that and be more connected to it. But right now, there’s the windows with their panes and the wooden dividers of the windows separating me from the outside. All of this looks especially dark in comparison to the light outside, so they’re very dark (especially too because there is no light hitting them). The wood dividers of the windows are especially in shadow. It creates a dark separation between me and the outside with all the light in it, but I do find I forget about the window panes, so I guess that I can look through it and be in touch with what’s outside without having the windows hinder me, but I feel like it is hindering me a little bit from the feeling the mood of the light fully.