Bobby Parker 12/23/20 Bobby Parker 12/23/20

6-Plex Renderings

From one of my Canadian friends, here is a 6-plex rendering. I am always happy when my Canadian friends hire me because, basically, they pay a premium. The dollar exchange means what I quote is actually marked-up, on their end, since our dollar isn’t as strong.

The more work I do for a client, the more I know what they are looking for in architectural renderings. With this client, we have gotten to the point that I am sent CAD drawings and a list of colors, and I deliver them their rendering. All the detail and nuances are known, so not many questions need to be asked.

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Bobby Parker 12/18/20 Bobby Parker 12/18/20

The Bull Mixed-Use Renderings

Great project for a great repeat client. I have to say, I am blessed when it comes to fantastic clients. Maybe once or twice a year, I get a flake, but most of my clients are great people and companies to work for.

When I am first approached to create an architectural rendering, I asked lead questions. The questions are formulated to pre-qualify projects. Again, I am blessed to choose my clients and the projects I want to work on. Most of the time, I weed out the flakes, not to say one or two doesn't slip through the crack, but they're usually isn't a second project with that client. There is too much online for my clients for me to get dragged down in the mud with a bad client. One lousy client, who usually doesn't have his or her own boundaries and doesn't respect my boundaries (calling me on Christmas morning to discuss your project isn't cool), can jeopardize other clients projects who play by the rules, and I won't have it.

These turned out great, and I wish my client the best of luck on his project.

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Bobby Parker 12/15/20 Bobby Parker 12/15/20

Ruttger’s Lakeside Cottage Renderings

It is always a pleasure to get commissioned to illustrate for one of our local resorts. I work for people worldwide, from Canada to Australia, but locally, only a couple of people. I have some theories, but I’ll keep that to myself. Funny enough, I am currently working on projects for both of my local clients.

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Bobby Parker 12/15/20 Bobby Parker 12/15/20

Chicago Apartment Renderings

Come on, oh baby, don't you wanna go

Back to that same old place

Sweet home Chicago

“Some good news on my end, the project you recently did for me actually sold out in 3 weeks! With only drywalled and framed out units to show. Thanks to your nice renderings!”

— Baird & Warner

Chicago, the best city in the world! Okay, since I am from Chicago, I might have a strong bias. I was approached to do some interior apartment renderings for a real estate firm in Chicago; I got excited; see, I work from my home office. They don’t let me out often, so sometimes I live vicariously through my projects.

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Bobby Parker 12/9/20 Bobby Parker 12/9/20

Little John House Rendering

Here is another small house from a series that I have been posting. This one, unlike the others, is a two-story small house. There weren’t interiors requested for these, and it isn’t my place to share, but it is a cool little house inside, too.

I would love to read about the demographics of these little houses. I am assuming, it is for single couples, maybe in their late 20’s or early 30’s. I live in a resort town, and our population dwindles in Winter. These people are called snowbirds, and they go South in the Winter to avoid our brutal cold weather. Not many people can afford more than one house, but imagine having small homes around the country where you can travel. If we went small, we might be able to afford more than one residence. After all, remote working is now standard, and I doubt they will change once the pandemic is over, so who cares where you live?

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Bobby Parker 12/8/20 Bobby Parker 12/8/20

Joanna Small House Rendering

Here is another small house, part of the same project I posted earlier this week. There are a few more, and I'll post those as I wrap them up. This, I think, is my favorite of the lot.

These small houses remind me of an Architect I worked with 20+ years ago. He was a mild-mannered guy, pretty average in appearance, so I would have never have guessed that he lived out of a tent. No, really, and by choice. He didn't want to be tied down, and he loved the freedom of being able to pack up and move anytime he wanted. He would go to the gym every morning, workout, bathe and come to work. He was a cool guy, and I enjoyed working with him. We both worked late often, ordered out, tossed around the beach ball when everyone left (long story), and became pretty good friends. Oh yeah, he didn't own a car, either. I wonder where he is today. Probably retired at 40 and living on an island somewhere.

I don't think I could live in a tent, but a tiny house right now in my life would be fantastic.

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Bobby Parker 12/4/20 Bobby Parker 12/4/20

Lena Small House Rendering

Lena, in Greek, means "sunlight". I love houses with names; it helps me give the architectural rendering a personality. Most often, I get project names like House 1, which doesn't inspire me much. For this series, I wanted a lot of contrast between light and shadow, so you can really see sunlight.

In a few years, I'll be an empty nester. I anticipate it not being easy since I live for my family. However, I am looking forward to downsizing. Right now, my wife, two kids, and I live in a 5,000 square foot house, that we literally utilize less than half of that. When the nest is empty, I am downsizing to one of these little houses.

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Bobby Parker 11/27/20 Bobby Parker 11/27/20

8 Lowell Road Rendering

If you have been doing something long enough, you can see trends and patterns. Architectural Renderings for real estate brokers have been a trend over the last few years. For the first decade of my career, I create architectural renderings for architects and architectural firms. Software became more comfortable to use and less expensive, and the architect wanted to find a way to create new revenue, so they started doing their own renderings in-house. There is also a trend there; Architects are looking to outsource because they are not able to compete with the price and quality of a professional architectural illustrator.

When creating a rendering for real estate brokers, I have found too many people get involved. I only answer to the person who is the project lead to avoid this, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t pass around the images to get feedback. Now, there isn’t anything wrong with this, if that information is managed. Notice something about these renderings? Both the right front and the left front are pretty much the same view. I was told by someone to move the right camera left several times; I can only assume this person never saw the front right rendering, but I could be wrong. At some point, you simply have to take direction to complete a project.

I do like this home, you can’t go wrong with a white colonial home.

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Bobby Parker 11/23/20 Bobby Parker 11/23/20

Nest at Centennial Crossing Renderings

Often I am asked for a ballpark price without seeing any drawings. I don’t request the drawing files, but I do request to see the project PDFs. I don’t give ballpark numbers without first seeing the project. I know the trend overseas is flat fees, but that doesn’t work for anyone unless you are looking for something fast and cheap, which I don’t compete with. As I write this, I am reminded of how sometimes people get disgruntled if I don’t reply to their request with a number without seeing any project documents. Also, many times, other illustrators want to see what they should charge, so they pretend to be a prospective client, so asking some simple questions allows me to qualify quote requests.

The Nest at Centennial Crossing renderings is a prime example of why I don’t quote without reviewing the PDFs. When I ask for PDFs, I might get a reply like, it is a single-family home. Honestly, I illustrate 40 thousand square feet homes, so I can only assume they mean an average American single-family home, but that is still too vague. The Nest at Centennial Crossing is a series of small single-family homes. However, they pack a lot of detail. The roof was pretty complicated, just as complicated as a much larger home. Two of these homes had custom brick, both running bond and stacked, so I had to custom build both. The landscape plan had a dozen specific species, which I had to custom model. The homes are clustered, so I had to use some photography tricks, which greatly extend rendering times. All this has to be taken into account when quoting a project.

I love these homes, they were designed well, and a lot of detail was put into them. Had I not requested the PDFs, I would have assumed they were the typical American single-family home, which they are not.

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Bobby Parker 11/19/20 Bobby Parker 11/19/20

Wildflower Farms Renderings

Often I get email inquiries, and they don’t turn into a job until time passes. I might field emails for months, answering questions, and I do it happily. One of my passions is to help people, and even if I don’t land the job, I want to be a positive resource. The Wildflower Farms renderings took about six months to come to fruition; most of my inquiries do.

Each project has its own life and story. Sometimes people come to me, and they think they know exactly what they want; they have their camera angles, lighting, and mood decided. I don’t mind, and all I can do is make suggestions; however, sometimes there isn’t much wiggle room in people’s minds.

Part of my process is composition, and you would be surprised at the percentage of time I spend on this. I can move the camera 1000 times, and I can change the light just as many. Zoom in, zoom out. pan left, pan right… It can take many hours to find the best shot. When a client comes to me with a preconceived thought of how the image should be composed, they miss out on someone’s eye who has been doing this for decades. Until you are looking through the camera lens, you don’t know what the right shot is.

Often when this happens, the client thinks they know what they want; the view isn’t actually composed. There are art, color, and light theories to follow, which haven’t been given any thought.

Anyway, these did turn out pretty good, and I hope you agree. If you have any questions, feel free to comment.

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