This portfolio contains drawings and designs created by María Corina Franzius Ascanio. It includes a kitchen design with red accents and an open floor plan, a black and white drawing of an imagined hanging chair on a Spanish colonial terrace, and a modern house design inspired by Le Corbusier's Ville Savoye but adapted to the artist's tastes. Other works showcase abstract shapes found in nature, colorful neighborhoods in El Hatillo, Venezuela, skyscraper silhouettes in Caracas, replicated staircases in framed artwork, and an orchid drawing using pointillism technique. Overall the portfolio displays the artist's interest in architecture, interior design, abstraction, and incorporating personal symbols and memories into her creative works

1. PORTFOLIO
María Corina Franzius Ascanio

3. RED COOKING
I painted this drawing with red because it is a strong and
attractive color for the viewer. In this exercise, I made a kitchen
for a medium space. I didn’t put many cabinets because I like
clean, organized and open spaces. They make you feel free.
Also, if you do not have many things to store you don’t need
many cabinets. I put a rectangular granite sink in front of a large
window that brings natural light into the kitchen. The island is only
for cutting and socializing because it doesn’t have a sink or
stove. The refrigerator is French style with a bottom freezer. This
is a kitchen for a small family to feel at home.

5. HANGING CHAIR
At the back of my house there is a classic Spanish colonial
terrace with a wooden floor. I always wanted to put a hanging
chair there. My family never put one, but I can imagine it. This is
what inspired me to do this exercise. I drew the chair like I
imagine it in my back porch or terrace. The drawing is black and
white because I want to show more the shadows that the chair
makes in combination with the ceiling lamps.

7. COCO HOUSE
I was interested in architecture before discovering Interior Design, so I
began to learn about it. I was impressed at how some architects were so
advanced for their time. One of those was Le Corbusier who is one of my
inspirations. When I was learning to use CAD programs, I decided to make a
house and my first inspiration was his Ville Savoye. That’s why this design
you see, that I call The Coco House, is modernistic with square forms,
straight lines, sharp angles, elevations on thin columns and long rectangular
windows. However, it is different from the Ville Savoye because I designed it
like a place for me, where I would like to live, so I gave it close parking
spaces and an open terrace on the top to enjoy the sun.

9. HATILLO ABSTRACT
I love abstract images that I see in normal life, in objects that I
see every day. Abstract art is always around us. I was taking
pictures in the town of El Hatillo, near my house, on a Thursday
afternoon. I saw a black gate that made a soft shadow on a white
wall with the light of the afternoon, but all together it was a
beautiful abstract image. The black metal made a contrast with
the soft shadow, like a solid that suddenly becomes soft.

11. HATILLO LIVING
El Hatillo is a colorful village. One of the streets has a small
church at the end, and above the church are many colorful slums
going up a mountain, all the way to the top. The sky was very
blue that day, like it is many days, with electrical cables creating
art on the sky. I like this picture because it shows life in El Hatillo,
with its cars, the church, the rustic homes and finally the blue
skies of Caracas, my hometown.

13. LOOKING UP
My hometown Caracas has tall buildings too, just like Montreal. I
enjoy watching the combination of the sky, the clouds and the
shapes of the buildings, that create an effect that makes you
dizzy. I made this using only Adobe Illustrator. It took me some
hours to make because I had to put the lines one by one and in
perfect form for the perspective. If the lines are not exact, the
buildings look strange. After I finished the lines I colored the
buildings like real buildings that exist in Caracas.

15. STAIRS IN PICTURES
To make this, first, I drew in Illustrator the stairs that you see on
the wall in the pictures, including the frames. I used an image of
a wall, desk and chair that I liked, and in Photoshop I added the
books and the big green plant on the desk. On the wall, I
imported the pictures of the stairs from Illustrator. The stairs were
hard to make because the lines had to be perfect. They are real
stairs that I know, but they are not exact. The first one is from the
house of my best friend. The second one is from my house, and
the third one is from the house of my godfather.

17. PERSPECTIVE
This is an abstract freehand drawing with a perspective, and I
enjoy asking people what they see. To me, it is just shapes and
forms, but my sister for example sees buildings from the sky.
Other people see colorful shapes falling. To make this I used a
normal 30 centimeter ruler and a triangle. The colors I used were
to make gradient effects, so I used contrasting colors, warm and
cool, to make it more visible. As you can see, I enjoy abstract art
very much.

19. ROOMATES
With a good distribution of the furniture you can transform a little place into a
comfortable one, and even with privacy. I made this bedroom thinking about
my future college dorm in Montreal, but in the end, I will stay with my sister
who lives there. The bedroom is for two people to live comfortably, where
they can have privacy on their sides. The room has mostly neutral colors,
but with details in purple, my favorite color. I used these colors to make it
visually a nice place to live. I learned the technique to color the rustic
shadows you see from my mother when I was a kid. The large window in the
back is because I love natural light to make rooms feel warm. Finally, on the
left is a painting similar to my personal logo.

21. ORQUIDEA
The orchid is the national flower of my country. Here in
Venezuela orchids grow wild, but they are also used for
decoration in many homes. In my house we have some beautiful
orchid plants that inspired me to make this drawing. Since I like
abstract art so much, I used the pointillism technique to make my
drawing a bit abstract, but also the strange shapes of the orchids
contribute to the effect. For me these flowers symbolize unity,
beauty and mystery.