Jim Leggitt / Drawing Shortcuts

Quick Visit to Rhode Island School of Design

I graduated from Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) with an architectural degree in 1973. (Yes, that's what I looked like as a 23 year old architectural student!)

My involvement on the RISD Alumni Council has me back on campus every fall for meetings and to the annual parents weekend and art sale. For those unfamiliar with the university, RISD is simply the best art school in the country, offering undergraduate and graduate degrees in architecture, industrial design, painting, printmaking, film, fashion design, photography, sculpture, landscape architecture, graphic design, illustration, furniture design and much more. 

During my recent trip to RISD, I spent a day walking around the school and visiting several of the departments. Below are photographs of my quick trip showing various projects, details and observations. I sure had fun talking with students and seeing many of their creative projects. If you are ever in New England, make sure you visit RISD and discover the amazing talent of the students and faculty! My 40th class reuinion is coming up soon and I can't wait to reconnect with friends!

Above - Architecture and Industrial Design.

Above - Industrial Design metal and wood shops, Furniture Design.

Above - Printmaking and painting studio.

Above - Industrial Design and Architecture.

Look for other interesting articles on my blog, visit my website www.drawingshortcuts.com and read my new book Drawing Shortcuts Second Edition. 

 

 

 

NEW! - The 2010 Blog Collection , a 116-page catalog of my best blog posts from 2010 is now available on Blurb!  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1963744

Traditional Watercolor from a SketchUp Model

I have recently written about a new digital watercolor technique that I’ve been exploring with Google SketchUp and wanted to feature this traditional watercolor process that the talented illustrator Michael Abbott used for a proposed golf course development. I built the original SketchUp model for Michael and he illustrated this beautiful traditional painting using the following steps. (I have included enlargements with the original images for you to see more detail)

 

Step 1. Conceptual Master Plan. Our planning team designed the golf course and club house adjacent to mid-rise residential buildings. The visual presentation material for this development included several watercolor paintings of the golf course and other amenities.

 

Step 2. SketchUp Massing Model. I built a simple SketchUp block model of the golf clubhouse complex. Knowing that the buildings were only going to be seen from the aerial perspective, I made the effort to insert just enough model detail for Michael to illustrate and not waste time with too many windows and roof details that would never be delineated in the watercolor painting. 

Step 3. Ink LIne Drawing. Michael enlarged the aerial view to 17”x24” and first created an overlay pencil sketch of the scene for team review and comment. He then illustrated the scene on 1000H vellum with a .25mm fine point Rapidograph technical pen. His line drawing was scanned at 300dpi, lightened in Photoshop and printed onto watercolor paper with waterproof inks using an Epson wide format printer.

Step 4. Traditional Watercolor Painting. Michael had the print of his line drawing mounted on heavy foam board and proceeded to paint directly onto the paper with traditional watercolors. Some of the white highlights were painted with opaque paint. Note: many watercolor artists are integrating digital reprographic techniques into their visualization process. Once their watercolor paintings are completed, they often scan the image and continue improving the contrast and color in Photoshop!

 

Look for other interesting articles on my blog, visit my website www.drawingshortcuts.com and read my new book Drawing Shortcuts Second Edition. 

 

 

 

NEW! - The 2010 Blog Collection , a 116-page catalog of my best blog posts from 2010 is now available on Blurb!  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1963744

 

Architects That Can Draw! - Scott Lindenau, FAIA

Principal of Studio B Architects in Aspen, Colorado, Scott Lindenau, FAIA incorporates sketching and concept drawing into every architectural project he designs. By recording his ideas and observations on paper, Scott can begin his design process during a first site visit or meeting with a new client. Many of these quickly generated sketches were drawn on newsprint or in his sketchbook using charcoal and pastels.

Scott advocates the use of hand drawing at the inception of the design process and often publishes his drawings along with model views, construction photographs and other related visual material as coffee table books for clients at the conclusion of projects.

The following images are examples of Scott’s conceptual design drawings and some photographs of the completed architectural projects. I’m a big fan of Lindenau’s work and hope you will be inspired to include concept drawings in your next project!

 

Holtz Residence. The early concept sketch of this house was created with charcoal and pastels on newsprint. As the design for the house developed, a computer model was built to further explore facade articulation and massing.

 

Lindenau Residence. Notice how Scott’s design sketch translated into the final massing of his Aspen residence!

Briggerman House. This concept sketch for a home located near Aspen on a wooded hillside was generated with pastel on newsprint. The image reveals a dramatic entry ramp, lookout tower and other elements of the massing.

Kukkula Winery. These sketches of the California site were made with a soft graphite pencil in a journal. The landscape drawings helped inform the articulation of the buildings and organization of the plan.

 

 

Ho Residence. Located on 22 acres near Aspen, the wood and stone exterior was captured in a quick gestural sketch with pastel and charcoal in Scott's sketchbook. Notice the simple representation of the mountain and dramatic site topography.

 

St. Thomas Residence. These two charcoal sketches were developed during a site visit. 

 

Scholl House. The mountain site and building massing were clearly developed in this sketch that was created in just a few minutes.

 

 

Concept Design Studies. These three sketches for different residences represent various ideas for building massing, materials and integration with the landscape.

 

Look for other interesting articles on my blog, visit my website www.drawingshortcuts.com and read my new book Drawing Shortcuts Second Edition. 

 

 

 

NEW! - The 2010 Blog Collection , a 116-page catalog of my best blog posts from 2010 is now available on Blurb!  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1963744

 

 

Architects That Can Draw! - Nigel Gough

I enjoy featuring talented architects who have great hand drawing skills. Australian architect, illustrator and educator Nigel Gough founded his company Nigel gough Illustrations in 1998 and has been working with the design industry visualizing architectural concepts. He recently offered to share with me a “lighter side” of his business with some great pen and ink drawings he produced to the amazement of his students at Queensland University of Technology (QUT). Here is Nigel’s fascinating story told in his own words:

 

A Student Challenge

While producing images for real world architectural projects is the life blood of our profession often it’s the unusual and whimsical images that can hold our attention and challenge our skills.

Often commercial work is constrained by the need to get work through the office quickly and efficiently, and produce a product that shows the subject matter in the most favorable light, in a manner that’s in keeping with the clients expectations, and ultimately pays the bills. This can lead you down the same creative pathway time and time again, to stay within the “safe” zone.

In the university environment the game is played by different rules, so you can enjoy different results.

 

As a part-time tutor / lecturer for many years in the QUT Industrial Design undergraduate design visualization program, we have run styling workshops throughout the course of the semester. This required students to produce concept designs that had to reflect a particular design style or designer. The whole project had to completed in class during a three hour studio session.

This included analyzing a range of exemplars within a design style, developing a concept design in keeping with that style, then producing some presentation images to communicate the idea.

 

The typical response being one of incredulity. “It demanding too much from us.” “It can’t be done.” And finally; “I bet you can’t do what you’re asking in 3 hours.”

Well the gauntlet was thrown down. A challenge it was. Can I really produce a worthwhile concept design in 3 hours? In this case the designer was Ron Cobb. A great concept artist, from films such as the original “Alien” movie in the 1980’s.

The design concept was meant to be a terrestrial mining vehicle for a distant planet. Lots more fun than your typical Industrial design or Architectural  project. The images show some of my design development sketches, and the two final presentation images in response to the students challenge at the time.

 

I really like the results, even a few years latter. It reinforces in my mind that traditional media, in this case Pen and Marker, is still an excellent presentation tool in communicating conceptual design ideas. It’s fast. It’s evocative.

It has an immediacy that really suits the process of design. When used in conjunction with current computer presentation software (eg. Photoshop) traditional media remains a strong option for both the design process and design visualization.

It’s satisfying to prove that student projects can be completed as planned, despite a slew plaintive cries to the contrary. It’s fun to press the creative envelope and produce something outside the box of standard design work.

Lastly in the words of the American Express ads “Its priceless”, to hear that massed “Ohhhhh my God” whisper (pardon my ego) when students actually see you at work in the studio. That makes the effort of teaching enthusiastic design students a real pleasure.  - Nigel Gough

 

Look for other interesting articles on my blog, visit my website www.drawingshortcuts.com and read my new book Drawing Shortcuts Second Edition.

 

NEW! - The 2010 Blog Collection , a 116-page catalog of my best blog posts from 2010 is now available on Blurb!  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1963744

 

 

Architects That Can Draw! - Frank Gratton, AIA

 

The process of visualizing master planning and architectural projects involves many steps between an early idea and the completed presentation rendering. As concepts are developed, quick character sketches are an effective tool for communicating visual information about the place, landscaping, scale, color and overall design.

My good friend Frank Gratton, AIA has been communicating design ideas for many years with quickly generated hand drawn sketches. Frank often begins visualizing with extremely rough thumbnail sketches, then developing them as more refined drawings. Many of his images are used as the basis for presentation renderings that are created by professional illustrators.

Frank’s drawings below are from a master planning/architectural concept for an entertainment and golf resort in Asia. The development was based on a “Southern California” theme with all amenities connected by waterways and pedestrian paths. All of his drawings were eventually developed as formal presentation renderings and combined with precedent photographs to communicate the overall theme.

 

Frank Gratton, AIA in his office with drawings from different "in-progress"projects.

 

California Boardwalk. This 8”x12” ink drawing on trace reinforced the pedestrian connections to the waterway and to the hotel complex in the background via shuttle boat.  Antique sea planes added character to the setting. Notice how Frank populated the drawing with over 30 people to give it scale and an “active” look.

 

Hotel Amenities. These two images represented different relationships to water. One featured a wedding gazebo overlooking the lake and guest shuttle boat. The other created a nostalgic hotel lobby overlooking the swimming pool. Classic arches, colors and details reinforced the Southern California hospitality design.

 

Golf Course Villas. Frank developed this 2-point perspective showing residential villas overlooking the golf course. He elevated the buildings on stone bases and made the trees more transparent to promote views of the course from the units. 

 

Evening Restaurant View. This dramatic 7”x12” concept drawing was developed as a night view with dark background colors and bright colors to represent lighting. Again, Frank reinforced the water theme with reflections and placed the restaurant in front of the hotel to establish the location and relationship with the overall architectural theme. Note that Frank highlighted the lighting with a florescent orange colored pencil!

 

Golf Course Views. These two drawings were developed to emphasize the connection between the golf course and waterways. All of the drawings that Frank produced for this project were composed with a consistent proportion and created on standard tracing paper with a Staedtler Lumocolor pen and colored with Chartpak AD markers. Frank used a limited color marker selection. 

 

Resort Hotel. This important view of the hotel was composed to establish the foreground waterway, pedestrian connections, exterior swimming pool amenity and the overall massing of the hotel architecture. Frank used pink building colors to reinforce a Southern California classic hotel theme.

 

Process Drawing. As Frank developed his sketches, some were modified after he had generated the drawing. With this drawing of the amusement park gateway, he added “drawing patches” to include more foreground people and an antique sea plane.  Once scanned, the patches disappeared. (see below)

Amusement Park Gateway. In the heart of the development was an amusement park. Frank composed this drawing to show multiple stories - the waterside cafe, entrance feature to the park, graphic signage, ferris wheel, sea plane and observation deck. He illustrated over 15 people to give the scene scale and activity. 

 

Look for other interesting articles on my blog, visit my website www.drawingshortcuts.com and read my new book Drawing Shortcuts Second Edition.

 

NEW! - The 2010 Blog Collection , a 116-page catalog of my best blog posts from 2010 is now available on Blurb!  http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/detail/1963744