Learning a New Skill

Most learning we do is conceptual learning, which is quite different from developing a skill. Conceptual learning is a process of developing an understanding of a subject and can often be done through listening or reading. This is primarily intellectual. In developing a skill, there is also understanding, but this understanding must be coupled with the practice of what you are learning. Sometimes you must practice without an intellectual understanding because that comes only when you can do it. Learning conceptual subjects can sometimes be done extremely rapidly. But learning a skill, is rarely something that can be acquired immediately. You must master each aspect of the skill before going on to the next. In learning new skills, practice a little bit every day. If you try to learn it all at once, you may wind up understanding how it is done but not be able to do it exceedingly well.

 

Sunshine Adds Pizzazz

Sunshine adds pizzazz to your rendering and makes life seem more charismatic. The human eye sees in three dimensions and can compensate for poor lighting.  A rendering is only two-dimensional; therefore, to make an impression of form, depth, and texture to the subject, you should ideally have the light come from the side or at least at an angle.

The Snow Is Not White

We, as architectural illustrators, have to see the world with an artist's eye. Often, I get questions, about how I create such realistic renderings. My reply is simply, use a lot of real world references and try to recreate it virtually. Our brain often plays tricks with our eyes. We tend to see what we want to see and not what reality is.  Try this. Grab a photo of a snowy day (just an example) and using an image editor like Photoshop sample the color of the snow. You'll find that the snow isn't actually white at all, but our brian knows snow to be white, so it is overriding what we actually see.

Most of the time, when we look at the world, we aren’t actually looking at all. Instead, we are relying on the knowledge about the world we have stored up over years. We know the table is flat, so we don’t actually bother to observe how that flat rectangle on four sticks looks out there in the world from the particular position in which we are currently standing.

Our brains operate as efficiently as possible to filter the wealth of information coming through our senses. In fact, we don’t truly see with our eyes at all – we see with our brains. Only those things which are unusual, a potential threat, or have changed significantly, cause the brain to react – our attention is caught and for once we are genuinely looking at what is out there.

When we were children we looked at the world like this most of the time – everything was new to us – exciting and waiting for us to discover it. As we got older, less things were new. We’d already seen so many trees we stopped looking at bark patterns, the same happened with the clouds in the sky and on it went – as our body of knowledge grew ever larger we paid less and less attention to those things we had seen before’.

Fortunately it is possible to recapture that the ability to pay attention to the world again – and to look at things directly rather than filtered through a cloud of knowledge. Some knowledge is of course required for rendering, but make sure it’s the right knowledge. The laws of perspective, what something looks like from every angle – this is the kind of knowledge you need and will develop as you learn how to render.

One of the most crucial part of a photo-real architectural rendering is textures. In my snow example If, you make your snow white it will not be natural; it'll look off and your viewer will sense something is wrong. Try adding either a fresnel reflection or tinting your snow material blue, which is actually what is happening in real life.

Window Masking

http://youtu.be/9oVM1PJ20Y8 When it come to architectural renderings, one of the first things to learn is to create good masks to retouch objects  in Adobe® Photoshop®. In this video I'm using Autodesk® 3ds Max®, V-Ray for 3ds Max, and Adobe® Photoshop®, to create glass reflections.

 

The Little Things

Have you ever reached a point on a rendering where you feel like it’s as finished as you know how to make it... but there’s still a nagging feeling......a feeling like...
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Argh. It’s not quite what I was hoping it would be... BUT I JUST DON’T KNOW WHAT TO DO!
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Well, the good news is, you’re probably way closer than you think.In fact, I’ll tell you right now what you need to do... You need to look at the nuances, because it’s the little things that usually make the biggest difference.

REBIRTH of GAEA - Flowing Meditation

A layer-by-layer deconstruction of "Flowing Meditation," part of REBIRTH of GAEA, an epic visual tapestry delicately interweaving reflections on the environment and spirituality through the rich imagery of Greek Mythology.

My daughter Emma has had a deep connection to the environment for as long as I can remember. As she grew older and became enchanted with Greek Mythology, I decided to show my support for her interests by creating REBIRTH of GAEA, depicting her as the Goddess of Earth.

The song is "You're Too Late Satan" by Worm Is Green, an amazing Icelandic group mixing sparse electronic beats and glossy trip-hop threads.​

Tradigital Drawing

Here is a short video describing how I accomplished a tradigital watercolor.

Abstract Masses

The french poet Paul Valery observed, "To see is to forget the name of the thing one sees." This is a perfect expression of the mind-set for rendering.  Something has to shift. Maybe it's a shift from left brain to right brain; but that shift seems absolutely necessary to create a strong composition.  Until the shift is made and you start thinking in abstract masses on a rendering scene, you are, in sense, on the outside of the rendering process looking in.

The Edge

An object ending right on the edge of your render will revert the viewer's attention.  It also gives the impression you ran our of room. It makes the composition look unplanned.