Bobby Parker 7/10/20 Bobby Parker 7/10/20

You should get paid in full when you deliver your work!

Some good advice on getting paid before you deliver your final deliverables. Thank you, Fabio, for sharing your thoughts.

Bobby Parker 4/8/20 Bobby Parker 4/8/20

Shawn Fisher Design House Rendering

I have all kinds of clients. Some dictate every move I make, calling all the shots and others, like Shawn Fisher, tells me to do my magic. Guess which projects usually turn out best? Okay, there is another type that I work in collaboration with, which also turns out pretty good, too.

This is a beautiful house and it was a joy to illustrate. Shawn was an awesome client and I hope we work together again, soon.

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Bobby Parker 3/21/20 Bobby Parker 3/21/20

Manchester Modern Farmhouse Rendering

It was the Summer of 1980, and my parents commissioned an architect to design them their house. After going through the process and falling in love with the 2D plans, my father started construction. I remember my father took a few months off of work, and I helped after school and weekends. Some of the design elements, after actually building them were, not so good. I mean in 2D they looked good, but after actually seeing them in reality, not so much.

My favorite past time growing up was drawing. I always drew; you could always find me with some kind of drawing utensil in my hand. Like many, if not most, my drawing stopped once I got a little older. Even when I was in college for design and architecture, I didn't draw, we had computer-aided design (CAD). After college, I went to work in construction, and I saw homeowners struggle to understand the 2D drawings that they were given, and it sparked something in me. I remembered back to when my parent was reviewing their 2D plans.

In the early 90's I took up drawing again, and this time it was architecture. I started taking the architect's 2D drawings and transferring them into 3D architectural sketches, or I guess you could call them renderings. However, at this early stage, they were just pencil drawings. I remember the architects didn't like it because it usually caused the homeowners to make late design changes, and it held things up on the construction site. My premise was, and still is, it is cheaper to change something on paper than the construction site.

After a few years, my construction site pencil sketches turned into art. I started playing with different media, added color, and I took a lot of liberties. Light and shadow took precedence over actual site conditions and real-world locations. Okay, why my life story? When I received the Manchester Modern Farmhouse 2D drawings, I didn't see a whole lot. It looked like a small house, and I wasn't' seeing farmhouse. Not until I built the 3D model and added textures and materials did I start to appreciate the house. My mind flashed back to the early days of why I actually started drawing architecture. Had these 2D drawings been viewed by someone, I couldn't imagine much emotion would be evoked. However, ad perspective, light, and shadow, and it become something else, something someone could fall in love with.

25+ years later, I am still drawing and making a living doing so. I rarely pick up a pencil or paper anymore, and now I use a monitor and mouse. To tell you the truth, it takes more than a monitor and mouse, it takes a lot of high-end hardware to compute the information I give it. Not only does it take high-end software-hardware, but it also takes a couple decades of knowledge and wisdom using art theory. Face it, one thing software, hardware can't do is be creative, which has become my niche!

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Bobby Parker 3/12/20 Bobby Parker 3/12/20

Lagoon A Beach Rendering

About 20 years ago, I met my wife online. I don’t think I was looking for someone, definitely not on the internet, and it was way before meeting people online was cool. Anyway, I met my wife online, sight unseen, but we hit it off. I lived in Chicago, and she lived in upper Minnesota. I had no experience with people from Minnesota, but my mind had conjured up some strange caveman/cavewomen stuff. We talked on the phone for a while, usually, while she was at work, and she would open/close a door that sounded like it was a screen door from the 1900s. My future wife started asking me to come to visit her, but I had no interest in traveling across the country (okay, two states over) to see cavewomen. After all, I like my women with teeth, which was literally my thought at the time. I dodged the ‘come visit’ bullet as long as I could, she emailed me her photo, and I was on the next train to the north woods.

What does my story have to do with the Lagoon A Beach Rendering, you ask? Well, I drove up to upper Minnesota, expecting to see log cabins everywhere, lots of old pickups, and gruff people. What I have come to learn is, every place pretty much looks the same. No log cabins, people seemed friendly and were well groomed (for the most part), and if I hadn’t know where I was, I would have to guess the suburbs of Chicago. I was kind of disappointed to tell you the truth. I wanted meat over a fire, and I got Dairy Queen! One thing I did see once in a while was old white houses with green trim. These houses look like old cabins on the lakes. There isn’t a lot left, but they are around, and I always liked them. They were more prevalent 20 years ago, so the Lagoon A Beach Rendering brought me back to when I first started courting my wife.

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Bobby Parker 2/28/20 Bobby Parker 2/28/20

Product Furniture Rendering

I try to stay pretty laser-focused on my architectural renderings, however, sometimes I get product renderings. I have done light fixtures, computer desks, couches, kids playsets, and these patio furniture. This client had a new line coming out, but due to the weather, they didn’t want to wait until Spring to get these photographed. Well, you don’t have to wait when you can virtually create your environment and place your virtual product in the scene.

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Bobby Parker 2/26/20 Bobby Parker 2/26/20

Front Drive Slim Renderings

I am not sure what's up with the naming convention, but the project's name is Front Drive Slim. I am sure it means more to my client than I know; each house does have a unique name. These houses are done for a blue-chip client of mine. A blue-chip client is a client who sends me enough work to get priority. I have to say, almost all my leads have a promise of a ton of work for a low price on the first project. I don't discount on the promise of work, but I might discount on bulk projects, usually at least quantities of 10, like this project for this client. Actually, I also get leads from people who want me to do the first project for free, and if they like it, they'll send me all their work. I am too smart to fall for this. If you are new to this business, the business of architectural illustrations and renderings, don't fall for these two popular sales tricks. Anyway, here are the houses for your viewing pleasure. They have a ton of detail, and I hope you appreciate the time and effort that goes into these.

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Bobby Parker 2/22/20 Bobby Parker 2/22/20

Rowen Tree Rendering

I absolutely like it, I mean love this house. Initially, I was not too fond of modern homes when I started getting them a few years ago. I know, modern houses have been around for a long time; however, I didn’t start seeing them until a few years ago. I have learned that not all house designers are the same, and some designers are good and some, not so good, at least not at everything. The Rowen Tree rendering has gone through several color changes, and they have been using the renderings to study them. Although there is a fee associated with design and color study, it is much cheaper than painting a house over, or even worst, living with something you don’t like. Some people get this, and many don’t. Now, these are the latest color, and I didn’t choose the view, but the pictures were not selected to be compositionally good, I guess :).

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Bobby Parker 2/19/20 Bobby Parker 2/19/20

778 Sagg Main Street

What a beautiful project. I really appreciate the architecture of this one. I work on all kinds of architecture, some I like and some I don’t, but all I put 100% into the rendering. One of the most significant factors in an excellent rendering from an okay rendering is the architecture. I think this one turned out awesome!

There was a curveball on this rendering project. The renderings are for a building department meeting, and they have their needs. Two requirements were no leaves on the trees and then a night time version. The above renderings show leaves, which I did first, and then I was told about the building department criteria. Here is the night version without leaves.

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Bobby Parker 2/17/20 Bobby Parker 2/17/20

Bread and Butter Renderings

There are many things I love about the work I do. Actually, it isn’t much like work at all. My bread and butter are single house renderings. I do large complexes, commercial buildings, and even high-rises; however, I really enjoy the single house project I get. I do about 100 of these single house projects a year. I like them because they usually only take a couple of days and there is a lot less stress surrounding them. Here are a few of my bread and butter single house renderings that I did this month, so far.

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Bobby Parker 1/26/20 Bobby Parker 1/26/20

White is the lightest color and is achromatic.

White is challenging in architectural renderings. Is snow white? Snow can also look blue or purple or even pink, depending on how the sunlight hits it and whether it is in shadow. Some artists try to avoid using pure white in their renderings entirely and instead think about what colors they see instead of what colors they expect to see.

The 565 Barnett architectural rendering has a lot of white paint. My client questioned the white; why did he see blue in the white? He sent me an example image of what he wanted to see, but after sampling the white for him, it was very blue and not white at all. After explaining color theory a little and giving a few examples, the white was no longer an issue, and now looking at it, it looks white as expected (but it isn't white at all).

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