[Hamons]

Here is my first attempt at a color rendered plan.

Bear in mind I do not have an ounce of artistic talent in my body and using anything smaller than a shovel taxes my fine motor abilities.

Overall though, I was fairly happy with the way it turned out for my first attempt.

I did not like the way the shading on the trees looked and the writing and words is not what I wanted it to look like exactly.

It was done on 24 x 36" vellum using prismacolor markers.

The project it is for is an interesting one for me since it is for my fraternity's new house. It is quite a treat to be able to give back to the fraternity that even 12 years later still plays an important part in my life.

Its also a good thing they have me since they "forgot" to budget anything to landscape this $500k house! It looks liek I will be able to do it with about $5k in materials and lots of donated labor.

We'll see. Any artistic suggestions you have would be appreciated -- especially if targeted to a non-artist!

[agla]

A big bang for the effort is to use light, shade, & shadow. Color your plants with a lighter color. Then darken the lower right portion of them with a richer color to make them appear rounded.Then put a black shadow under the bottom and right of the plant or whatever you are shadowing. It will change the entire look of your plan.


Always put shadows toward the bottom of your page regardless of where the actual shadow would be or the plants look like they are hanging from them. I did a few in the upper left. Can you see the difference?

[Hamons]

I guess that is where I made a mistake -- I had tried to do the shadows the direction they would have naturally gone and tried to be more subtle. I used darker tones of the greens I was already using. Looks like I should have used blacks.

They do show up better when shown 24 x 36 -- but I will admit yours look better.

Thanks AGLA for taking the time to show me that!

[papercutter]

Just bear in mind that in the real world, shadows aren't jet black- they're usually one value darker than the surface on which they fall, and that value darker is in the same color family (i.e., a shadow on light red brick would look like dark red brick). Go too dark, and the shadows are what catch your eye first- and we're not selling shadows.

Having had more than one client say "that's not how the shadows fall," I always work off the actual site orientation in the way that best fits the presentation drawing.

My advice is that not every square inch needs to be colored. I'm assuming those walks are all existing? Just hit the edges with color to show that there's a shift in materials, but allow the rest to go white so that the work you're proposing pops. That, and really work on your lineweights- Pentel sign pen for your heaviest, super-fine point Sharpie for middle weights, and whatever really fine point pen you want to use for the lightest. That alone will give your drawing more depth than any shadows will. To be honest, I only draw shadows on plans if I'm bored with my other work and just want to color.

What did you use for the grass? It doesn't look like marker, at least from what I can tell.

[Hamons]

Thanks Papercutter -- I ended up using watercolor pencils for the grass -- I didn't like how strong the grass was when I used marker.

[papercutter]

Yeah, I thought it might be that or pastels. One thing you can do to give the grass a little more depth is to create a gradient effect- darkest farther away from the "sun" blending to light. It'll take some practice with the grass color and a white pencil, but it's a really cool, simple effect. If I'm doing that, though, I do it on a really small draawing then blow it up in Photoshop. It's too hard to do at 24x36 and keep the gradient consistent.

There are a couple of illustrators who travel the country giving workshops. If you ever get the opportunity it's money well spent if you want to get all artsy with your drawings.

[Hamons]

Ok -- could I hep this drawing out with line weights?

I think I will go through Nd try to enhance shadowing. And I realize now my mistake with shadowing. I may try to enhance those too.

Should I go through and and trace outlines of the building, beds and sidewalks? Should I use black or darker shade of building when doing the outlining?

Also regarding illustrators -- have any names so I can look them up?

[papercutter]

Mike Lin is probably one of the more famous touring illustrators, and you can check out his site at Mike Lin Graphic Workshop. Jim Leggitt has a good book on drawing shortcuts, but there's not a lot in there on plan drawing. Basically, anything you learn about coloring perspective drawings is easily applied to plans.

Think of your drafting standards when you're doing your lineweights- the closer something is to you as you're looking down at the sheet, the heavier the line. So, yes, the structure would get a heavier line.

[GLAN]

Nice Hamons...

Regarding the shadow........Why would you not show the correct position of shadowing for the site?

Doing shadow for perspective is one thing.......but to show the shadow opposite of where the real life shadow is......is misleading.........if doing a design to scale and using color.......why not provide the true renedering of shadow?..........this way the client and all involved have a clear understanding of the true finished product.

[agla]

The shadow can be just a graphic tool to make the plan look more three dimensional. When you have a shadow that is above the plant as you hold the plan, it tends to look like something the plant is clinging too rather than making the plant look elevated.



I was taught that it is a psychological thing that is in the subconscious. In normal day to day life, light comes from above and casts shadows downward, so your brain is easily tricked into seeing these plants lifted from the page. You have to think more about the shadows when they are above. That is what they taight twenty five years ago in landscape graphics. I think there is something to it.



This is the same exact picture flipped.The shadow is crudely done with a mouse on a pretty small image, but I think it makes a difference.



We were also told to use black because it sharpened the edge making it pop more.

I'm definitely not a graphic guru. I think it is much easier for the people who are graphically talented to do things with more subtlety. That leaves me out. I have to use black or it muds up the drawing.

[GLAN]

thanks agla

I appreciate your expanding on this......

I feel ya on the use of black.......we're not Picasso

It is more appealing to have the shadow cast below......that's a gimme.

I'm just hung up on the false perception inproper placement of shadow creates.

Perhaps...........if the real life shadow is awkward....a second copy would be appropriate for presentation purposes........after all, do we all not indicate a geographical reference of where " N " is?

Myself.....I have not progressed to color rendering......not likely I will......regardless.......throughout the process with the client shade consideration is at the top of priorities......Accuracy allow for no misconceptions and no misunderstandings

[papercutter]

No claims at being a "guru", just sharing the results of ruining dozens of sheets of paper getting a look I like!

I read your response last night, agla, and I got up this morning and did a couple of marker studies while drinking my morning coffee. Here are my thoughts:

1- the darker the drop shadow, the more pronounced the optical illusion you describe. The subtler the drop shadow, the less of an issue it is. I also should've included a caveat when I was talking about solar orientation: really, I try to be sure that I don't have the "sun" at due north, but that still gives me 270 degrees +/- to play with, and I do consider how it'll read on the paper. I'm also right-handed, which means that I shade from lower left to upper right, so that helps determine orientation.

2- There is a situation where a black shadow does look better, and a situation where a lighter shadow looks better. It comes down to contrast. If I color the tree with fairly light-value markers, a black drop shadow really pops- and in this case I'll agree, a lighter drop shadow would muddy the effect. However, if I apply more color to the tree and take it all the way from lightest to darkest value in an effort to give the canopy a more three-dimensional appearance, the converse is true. A black drop shadow muddies the effect, but a lighter drop shadow makes it jump off the page.

It's all a matter of personal style. I know mine is constantly evolving- I definitely learned something doing this study this morning, so thanks, agla!



So, for a really quick color rendering, where you don't lay down too much pigment- you're totally right, black's the way to go, as it's quicker and is, in fact, higher contrast with the plant. For a more intense rendering, a lighter shadow is better, provided you've created enough shadowing on the canopy to still end up with a high-contrast edge.

[agla]

I agree with everything that you are saying Dave. Your graphics are really good. I'm thinking that most of the guys & gals are going to have a lot less natural skill and very little trained skills at landscape graphics.

I had the schooling, but not the hands to get into serious graphics. It is an area that I have chosen not to prioritize because I felt I had a lot to overcome in both the world of LA students and professionals in the hand graphics skill set. I had a professor who advised me to keep it simple and work within my graphic skill set rather than trying to do the same techniques and level of graphics that most of the other LA students were doing. Most of the people I went to school with were incredible artists. They could draw animals that looked alive and buildings that looked like photos. When I tried to draw the same way, I fell way short. One professor told me to draw things more to look like they were supposed to be crude or cartoony instead of realistic. It took the attention off of the graphic and more onto the information it was conveying. Once I did that, the other professors seldom commented negatively on my graphics.

My first graphics professor in LA school thought I was left handed for some reason. Then he was lecturing about the difficulty that color blind students had and mentioned me as an example. When he found out I was not actually color blind, he apologized!

I think it is good to explore ways to improve both through line work and introducing color. Some people will get good while others will struggle. It makes sense to take it slow. The more variables you can master before introducing another one is better with all things in life, graphics included. Good line work can take you a long way. Jumping into color on poor line work will probably not overcome it.

I've really backed away from free hand and only use color for group presentations like a planning board or condo association. If it is a bigger scale site plan, I'll color it up using solid colors in autocad. If it is a detailed landscape plan I usually color it up with colored pencils because it is too time consuming to close up all of the linework for color hatching on a very detailed plan.

I keep the color on the plants very simple because of my skill level (low). Think light, shade, and shadow. I infill the entire plant with a lighter color or even the flower color - light. Then I darken the lower right with quick semicircular pencil strokes in a darker color, usually a green - shade. Then I follow up with a black trace of the lower right third of the plant symbol in black - shadow. The shadow is not to indicate solar orientation for planning purposes, but to lift the plant (north is almost always straight up on a commercial site plan which puts the shadow about as wrong as it could get). When I get more elaborate, it tends to go downhill. Some of you might find that to be true as well while others will do great things.

It is good to experiment, but if you are struggling a bit, don't be afraid to simplify. No one is going to look down on good looking simple graphics, but they will see the flaws when you get in over your head. You don't want to introduce negatives by trying too hard to be like someone else. Lots of good line drawings have been ruined by having color added to them ... several of them by me.

If you are doing well with more advanced graphics then you should definitely use it as an advantage.

Things are only as good as how well they are executed.

[papercutter]

I totally get what you're saying. What I perceived as a lack of artistic ability was one of the things that kept me from majoring in architecture. The other was calculus...

I thought it was funny that you mentioned a crude or cartoony style- have you looked at the work of some of the successful illustrators, like Jim Leggit? I wouldn't call his work crude, but neither is it high art. But it's exceptionally clear, concise, and you know what you're looking at. And, his style is relatively quick to produce, which I think we all need. Reading his book was a great wake-up call for me, because I've come to accept that I'll probably never be one of these brilliant illustrators who can make a proposed backyard look like a Thomas Kincaide (blech) painting, but at least no one will look at my fireplace sketch and say "oh how cute! a duck!"

My advice is in line with yours: start with what you know you can accomplish, and try to learn a little color theory- hue, value, intensity- and Chiaroscuro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia is good to know a little about too. That way, if something looks good, you're better able to know why so you can repeat it.

That, and do lots of studies to hone technique. I've drawn hundreds of circles on all different papers and used all different media to figure out what works for me. Paper's cheap, markers are kind of cheap- put on some good tunes (Charles Mingus is great coloring music) and just play.

[Ston Wurks]

papercutter nice link to a good discussion on light vs. dark.

I liken it not only to how much you add, but how much you leave alone.

here's an example of a conceptual proposal that was shown to a large committee of laymen for assisted living on one side and alzheimer's tenants on the other