Several years ago, my talented architect friend Thomas Schmidt, AIA was asked to do a time-sensitive “freebie” illustration by a local concern group to help others envision what Hong Kong’s impending Victoria Harbour reclamation “could” look like, as an alternative to the Government’s controversial and widely-criticized harbour reclamation plan that was in place at the time.
Through a decidedly low-tech but quick 8-hour process (essential if you’re not getting paid), Tom snapped a few photos from the top of the tallest building adjacent to the reclamation area to serve as the basis of the rendering. He then printed out an A3 color copy of the photo view he thought would best illustrate the concept, and started sketching with graphite on trace over the color copy to flesh out an imaginary human-scaled pedestrianized environment for the proposed project area, which was in stark contrast to what the Government proposed.
An A3 white piece of paper was used as a background sheet, then the “project area” and harbour was carefully cut out of the color copy revealing the white background paper below, and then a new layer of heavyweight trace was laid over the entire image for the final ink linework based on the graphite layout sketch.
The final ink linework (Pilot 01 Drawing Pen) was then colored with Copic markers (airbrush marker for the water) and Prismacolor colored pencils. Unfortunately, the airbrush marker spray used for the harbour was too “wet” and saturated the heavy trace, which resulted in the paper instantly shrinking and buckling in that area as Tom began to pull his hair out. Thankfully, the unintended wavy appearance ended up appearing as waves and worked perfectly for water!
The existing city context surrounding the rendered image was still partially visible through the trace, and unexpectedly came through as a hazy monochromatic backdrop further defining the more saturated colors of the project site – an unintended, but welcome result of this experiment in layering. An additional layer of blank trace was then added between the base copy of the photo and the final rendering to further make the background photo recede. The multi-layered set of sketches with several unintended accidents was quickly scanned and sent to the local concern group within a matter of hours of Schmidt agreeing to assist them in their cause.
They were absolutely thrilled with the rendering -- and relative to the creation of a hazy grey city skyline background they added, “You even managed to capture Hong Kong’s worsening air pollution problem as well – which is another item on our agenda with the Government!” This one image was soon widely circulated, stirred intense debate between the Government and local concern groups, and consequently triggered a plethora of alternative design proposals from the local and international design community shortly thereafter. Tom was shocked to learn that his quickie little A3 sketch had in fact acted as the catalyst for engaging the public to reject the Government’s ill-conceived plan and encouraged them to help shape the future of Hong Kong’s most precious asset: Victoria Harbour.
Look for other interesting articles on my blog, visit my website www.drawingshortcuts.com and read my new book Drawing Shortcuts Second Edition. All images in this article © 2006 Thomas Schmidt, AIA, ASAI All Rights Reserved
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