Hand vs. Computer Perspective Sketching White PaperPosted: M
-
Hi Dave M, I don't know of any at this time.
Don't you think its best to have people with a trained eye evaluate rather than someone to who literally any picture will look good? Isn't this why we are taught/trained by knowledgeable people?
-
Jeff, thanks for sharing the link to those papers. Interesting reading. I agree with many of the three papers observations and conclusions: hand sketching is quick, beg for change and improvement, allows expression of though processes, allows close interaction with client to find solutions, etc.
It is also true that not everyone can express themselves well - not only lack of ability but lack of training. When I went through school 100 years ago, I had five years of art courses along with the rest of the stuff crammed into the BArch program. Not that much art today.
Many of the younger guys I work with are not quite up to it. Some DO have sketchbooks and can sketch so it's not dead yet.
The computer has taken its toll on hand drawing. I use my SketchUp for design -a lot - but, most of the time SU is the first refinement, the original ideas still flow through the graphite (and/or pentel) and quite often in the presence of the client. They tend to be as amaized at seeing a drawing appear on paper before them as they are later seeing the SU graphics change and rotate before them on the computer screen. This personal touch seems to humanize the whole process.
In my opinion, having lived through the era of no computers to computers everywhere, hand drawing is not dead yet; it still can play an important roll in the creative thought process
-
A good read Jeff, thanks for the heads-up.
I've often wondered why 'very' loose freehand sketches appeal to my eye so much! I'm inclined to think that this type of presentation makes my brain work in a different way than it does while viewing a 'polished' presentation.
To understand / appreciate the loose sketch I have to do some visual investigation and I think I enjoy this. There is a certain satisfaction for me once I've scanned / investigated / viewed the total scene and then 'hopefully' understand all being presented. Its akin to view an abstract painting to a certain extent, not that I claim to grasp many of their meanings
On the other hand, viewing a polished presentation that leaves little to investigation does not give me 'that' challenge and does not draw me in!
I think the 'Styles' in SketchUp go some way to delivery the 'loose' sketch effect and as this feature develops we might see more being developed along these lines.
Mike
-
seems like ive got a similar view to most other people here, in that i much prefer quick hand sketches for doing all the leg work.
I've always seen computer modelling as a final stage in the design process, as i find it hard to actually think of anything very creative while modelling.
-
Well, I'll have to play the devil's advocate- I'm probably from one of the very last student years where computers played a VERY small part in our student work... in fact they were banned for final presentations! That was just over 10 years ago and just 5 years later they were practically compulsory- the turnaround was as quick as the film to digital camera revolution. I'm not a bad hand sketcher and I always enjoyed it, but for me I just can't beat the speed, accuracy and, therefore, the satisfaction of SU. It completely changed the way I felt about design- I always felt so frustrated with the discontinuity of the stages of design: written/sketched analysis, rough sketches on miles of tracing paper, rough models, more sketches, slightly better models, accurate plans, more sketches, better model, accurate plans and elevations..... scrap them all and start again
I love that I can explore the simplest kernel of an idea in SU at 1:1 and if it works I tighten up the dimensions to take materials and details into account and in no time it's a perfectly accurate component ready to drop into a building model. If it doesn't work, no matter- it probably took me less time to model it in 3D and view it from every angle than it would to have sketched it from a few viewpoints anyway.
I appreciate the nostalgia for hand-drawn sketches as much as anyone and without any shadow of a doubt they will always play a part in day-to-day architecture, if only to explain in 5 seconds of sketching what it would take 2 minutes to explain in words...
...but if anyone ever makes me do a measured perspective in pencil and pen again (..and trace... and razor blade) I suspect I would feel the joy of actually designing architecture draining away quickly from me like the ink from a Rotring Isograph cartridge dropped on the bathroom carpet while trying to clean it.... again
-
Juju, I waited to answer your question until I had thoroughly read the white paper. To answer the questions posed by the author of this paper, the subject pool was the right one. BUT, how often is the client we're presenting to also a trained designer? There was some discussion of the clients' perceptions in Report 2, but it wasn't direct- it was designers' perceptions of their clients' perceptions.
I thought it was a great read, a well done study, and I've shared parts of it with several colleagues. I also think it should be mandatory reading for any Design 101 class, regardless of the discipline. I just also think it would be valuable to all of us to build on this study and learn more about our audience and what presses their "buy" buttons.
-
I was looking at an interiors magazine the other night while in the book store flipping through pages looking for ideas on modern apartments. One photo really cracked me up. On the far side of a room stood a life-size face-me component rendering person executed in painted plywood. Made kind of a nice art piece, but only a dedicated SketcherUpper could fully appreciate it. My wife thought I was crazy for laughing while reading an interiors magazine.
-
@roger said:
I was looking at an interiors magazine the other night while in the book store flipping through pages looking for ideas on modern apartments. One photo really cracked me up. On the far side of a room stood a life-size face-me component rendering person executed in painted plywood. Made kind of a nice art piece, but only a dedicated SketcherUpper could fully appreciate it. My wife thought I was crazy for laughing while reading an interiors magazine.
Roger, is this the picture you are referring to?
This is just a small portion of the much larger picture.
This one was in the Feb 08 issue of Arch. Digest page 143.
-
Fred that is the one. You seem right on top of that. Any idea who the artist is?
When I have absolutely nothing else to do I am going to make a couple of these. Knowing me that could be never, but I love the idea.
-
On the foot note over the image it says:
Standing ADA (Double Sided) is by Alex Katz -
I like this topic. I have had several discussion with several different people about this very thing. I really love a quick sketch for dumping an idea, I would love to be able to sketch better and faster than I currently do.
I'm really taken in by the quick sketches of an idea, they have a certain quality about them that leaves some to the imagination and at the same time very informative. This topic made me think of a book an associate of ours wrote called Rapid Vis Toolkit which is a great book for helping to understand how to quickly visualize ideas and also the organization of ideas. Pretty fun stuff!Edit: I still need to read the white papers, they look informative.
Advertisement