My House in Paint - by hand watercolor rendering

I recently went to a job interview in which they asked me if I could draw and color in elevation. I was honest with them telling them it was a bit tricky. However, it got me thinking, maybe I will do some drawings again. I don't have hardly any hand renderings in my portfolio, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And now you get to see my renderings.

My favorite graduate level class I took was a water color class.  We, well, I, use to joke that the farther along in the architecture program the more you just look at picture books and drew pretty pictures.  And my water color class was no exception.  I would somehow make it up to the U twice a week at 7 in the morning to paint.  I loved it.  We learned tons of techniques, and I would practice until I got them right.  It isn't a skill that I use a lot anymore, but I still long to pull out my materials and just paint.  Watercolor is a tricky medium because unlike other forms of paint, you can't coverup your mistakes, so you need to get them right the first time.

I have made a couple other renderings for you, I posted one yesterday, and you will get a chance to see the others in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

My House in AutoCAD - computer drafted rendering

To continue my rendering series, I decided to do one simple one in AutoCAD. I know that I had been doing hand drawings, but I thought I would show you what the base for nearly all of the renderings is. And now you get to see my renderings.

 My favorite program in the world is AutoCAD. I think you know that by now. I love how easy it is to draw up just about anything in it. I have been working with AutoCAD since I was a junior in high school, so, like 12 years, which makes me feel old. I still love it and would not give it up for anything. For this series of drawings I took the construction drawings of my house I grew up in, which my parents still have after all these years, and put it on the computer. It was fun, because they were stock plans which were altered, so I had to make up some things, but all in all, it came out nice. The longest part of it was figuring out which part of which elevation was what ended up in my house. And from working off of memory, I still didn't quite get it all correct. It was a great base to build on for my renderings.

I have made a couple other renderings for you, I posted some already, and you will get a chance to see the others in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

My House in Colored Pencil - by hand colored pencil rendering

I recently went to a job interview in which they asked me if I could draw an colored in elevation. I was honest with them telling them it was a bit tricky. However, it got me thinking, maybe I will do some drawings again. I don't have hardly any hand renderings in my portfolio, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And now you get to see my renderings.

I love drawing with colored pencil. One of my favorite things is that you don't need to have the color to make the color. I have a basic set of 12 Prismacolors, and love to have fun with them. However, I am not a patient person, so don't do a lot of even coverage for the pencils, but I do like the sketchy look. I remember when I was first learning to do colored pencil I worked that thing until I thought it was dead, a lot of hard work went into it. I did get a good grade on it, unfortunately my teacher lost it, and I fear I don't have the patience involved to remake it again.

This is the favorite from the series of my Mother's, however, I have made a couple other renderings for you, I posted one yesterday, and you will get a chance to see the others in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

My House in Prismacolor - by hand marker rendering

I recently went to a job interview in which they asked me if I could draw an elevation colored with Prismacolor markers. I have had some experience with Prismacolor in the past, and it was not a good one. So I was honest with them telling them it was a bit tricky. I realize other interviewees probably lied and were like - oh yeah, do that all the time. And needless to say I did not get the job. However, it got me thinking, maybe I will try some drawings again. I don't have hardly any, if any at all, hand renderings in my portfolio, but I thought I'd give it a shot. And now you get to see my renderings.

The year before I graduated a friend of mine gave me her set of markers because she had a better set at home. Granted, half of these were falling apart, but with a little patience I found the ones that still worked and had a fairly decent set of them. I had worked before with some, taking a class that worked with some for a couple of days. They had me buy four gray ones that were different clearness, and then work with them. This is where my true hatred of the things came in. When I went to do this project the other day, I learned some things.

 Things I learned:

1) Markers work much better when not at 20% occupancy. You see, the ones I had been using were semi clear, so if you wanted to make it darker, you drew on it again. Hence, if you didn't line up the marker lines, you ended up with weird streaks. However, full color markers don't have near this problem, and can be very lovely to work with.

2) Dried out markers don't work as well as fresh ones. I know, this should be obvious, and it is. But man, when I went to the store to buy one because the old one was way to dried up, it was an amazing difference. And at $6 a pop, I now remember when I never bought a complete set to start with.

3) Markers are cool. So, one of the cool things about when the markers dry on the page, they create a lot of character in the subtle color differences. I mean, yes, you see it as the same color, but there are just little pools of fun with slight variations.

4) I don't know if I like the new kind. Ah yes, I have the classic kind, with a super fine point, and sides that let me know which is the thick side verses the small side written on the package. I know that those fine points die a lot quicker, but I don't know if we need the thin side that you can get by turning the thick side on its side anyways.

I wanted to share with you my first try. Yep, that is my first try, ever, making a Prismacolor rendering. I think it is pretty good, and with more practice, and good tools, I think I could be pretty good.


Well, the marker version is my Father's favorite one so far, and I have a couple others done. You will get a chance to see those in the next few days. Keep checking back for more.

New York Times Building

NY Times Building - Wet to Dry & Auxiliary Technique (Salt)

birdhouse watercolor

Birdhouses - Wet on Dry Wash & Opaques

Dance Center Watercolor

Dance Center - Calligraphy

by hand water color

I thought I would share some of the water colors I did of the view out my window at school.  This first one is the one I felt was the best, I tried to work up to it at least.  But just so you know, water color isn't just a one shot deal, here are some of the other test ones.