Bobby Parker 4/7/21 Bobby Parker 4/7/21

4 Ellen's Way House Renderings

I do love helping investors market their properties. When they are not built yet, or like 4 Ellen’s Way house renderings, they are remodeling and not ready yet. When Spring hits, you need to get these on the market, or you can miss out on a sale.

The site is tight, so I couldn’t stand back much, but I think these views tell the story well.

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Bobby Parker 4/2/21 Bobby Parker 4/2/21

Sullivan Residence Renderings

I have told the story before, but I am old enough to repeat the same story repeatedly.

A while ago, I received a call from a Canadian design firm. He saw my work online, loved it, and wanted to find out my story. After a few conversations, the cost came up, and we agreed on numbers. Now, if someone from Canadian hires me, they pay a premium because of the money conversion. I really felt appreciated when I was hired knowing this, and it has been a long relationship that has worked well for both sides.

The Sullivan Residence Renderings are our most recent project, which will be one of many this year. I do a few dozen homes for this builder a year.

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Bobby Parker 3/31/21 Bobby Parker 3/31/21

Aerion Park Airport Renderings

I am often pigeon-held into house renderings. I have been doing house renderings since the late ’80s, so it is smack-dab in the middle of my wheelhouse. However, I do many other things, from product renderings to high-rises, hotels, mixed units, apartments, and even airports, like these Aerion Park renderings.

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Bobby Parker 3/27/21 Bobby Parker 3/27/21

Nantucket Classic Cottage Renderings

There will be a series of these cottages, but to tell you the truth, I went rogue on this one. I'll have to do another version for my client, which will be a lot less involved. The brief didn't have a site or landscape plan and basically, I was told to put the cottage on a flat area with some bushes behind it. I started off in that direction, but I wasn't wowed, so I strayed from the brief a little.

I also played with color grading, pretty heavy, which I don't usually do on client work. I'll share these with my client, but I'll include something closer to what he requested. The goal was to not take away from the architecture.

Below is the client version. I think it still might be too much garden, but as I said, there was no landscape or site plan. The brief was, “don’t do anything that takes away from the architecture”. However, as you see, there isn’t much architecture as it is.

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Bobby Parker 3/23/21 Bobby Parker 3/23/21

Mansion Renderings

A while ago, I was approached by a developer from up-state New York to do some architectural renderings. I remember that our first phone conversation ended in a stalemate. He wanted too little, and I wanted too much (so he thought), so we hung up the phone, and we went our separate way.

The developer was gauging my fee on his budget, which is pretty standard for people to think makes sense (it doesn't). He was sending his work to China, paying pennies on the dollar, and getting low-quality renderings. Having said that, I really liked this home and the other ones he did, so I spend the evening praying, called him the next day, and we settled on a fee that worked for both of us. I ended up doing a dozen or so houses of this size and complexity with him; the house's crisis hit, and I haven't heard from him since.

I learned from this project that I can be flexible on my fee if I really want to do the project. Still to this day, I get compliments on these projects, and I also use them as an example that all projects are unique. I often get people wanting an average price on a single-family house. I tell them that I can't give arbitrary numbers; this 40 thousand square foot house is a single-family house, so what does a single-family mean to them?

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. If you want to see more of these mansions, you can see them on my website.

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Bobby Parker 3/18/21 Bobby Parker 3/18/21

Heard Farms Renderings

The Heard Farms series of architectural renderings have a story, like them all. However, I learned a couple of new things from these. Well, I guess I didn't learn; I was reminded of a couple of things.

The fine folks of the Heard Farm team were a pleasure to work with. They reached out to me with a few dozen views, but they peered down to these 15 interior and exterior renderings after considering their budget. The designer did his renderings that he did in another software but he wasn't satisfied. They were not bad, and after looking at them, I saw mainly a lack of suitable composition. They provided me their Revit models, which I had to model over to get what I needed. Initially, I used their camera to get past the initial stages (broad brush). I intended to dive deep into the composition (more delicate brush), to correct what I initially saw as the image's weakness.

This is lesson one. I should have shown my version first; this way they wouldn't have compared them with what they already thought they liked. I mean, they wouldn't pick out camera views that they thought would fail, now would they? When I set up my cameras, I always try to have a solid focal point. I use light and shadow to direct the viewer to that focal point. Subtle depth of field, leading lines, and framing are tools I use to accomplish a strong composition.

Lesson two was, I am a comercial illustrastor. I like to think of myself as an artist. I have drawn my whole life, since a child, and I love art. Every architectural rendering I do, I try to create art (creative skill and imagination). Sometimes I forget that I am hired to create renderings, and the renderings are not mine. I can suggest things, but untimely, I am engaged in doing a job.

These architectural renderings turned out good, and my client was pleased, which is my ultimate goal. I need to remember that my client's happiness is the priority and if they are happy, so I am.

I have decided to create my own art again to please my own soul. I think it'll be houses, but in pencil and maybe some urban sketching.

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Bobby Parker 3/17/21 Bobby Parker 3/17/21

1448 House Rendering

Stock houses have been a steady source of work for me over the past six months. I have had a couple of years of house plan creators reaching out to me, which tends to be initiated by someone reaching out to them from China. I rarely heard back from them, so I can only assume that they took the less expensive route, which is going to China. Over the past six months, that trend seems to have shifted. What I hear is, "I went to China, but the work wasn't good, and the communication was awful." I am sure there are plenty of good architectural illustrators in China, but this is what I have been hearing.

About a decade ago, I saw a trend of pretty OK renderings coming from people, so I knew pretty OK wasn't going to be good enough. Pretty OK was what I was producing in the early '90s, so I studied really hard about art and color theory, photography, and composition. I knew I needed to up my game; because pretty OK would become a cheap commodity.

It is good to see these house plan creators value what a professional illustrator can bring to the table, which can only improve their sales, so it is an investment well spent.

The 1448 House is a floor plan that the creator designed, and he reached out to me to illustrate it for him, so he can show it on their website. The request was a day shot and a twilight shot. A twilight shot is typically 30% more in cost than daylight shot and is well worth it for most.

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Bobby Parker 3/12/21 Bobby Parker 3/12/21

McMurry Residence

Yet another homeowner being given hand drawings but couldn’t visualize her dream house. Drawing from hand drawings takes so much longer, more than twice as long. However, I sincerely love helping these homeowners. I can imagine sleep is lost not being sure if you’ll love your house, a venture that most people save their lives for.

Kudos to the architect on this one!

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Bobby Parker 3/11/21 Bobby Parker 3/11/21

Homeowner Rendering

We all have a reason for doing what we do for a living. For me, the homeowner epitomizes why I do what I do, which is obviously to create photorealistic architectural renderings.

A few weeks ago the homeowner reached out to me from my website, explaining that they are getting ready to build their dream home on their family property. They have plans drawn by hand, but they can’t envision it, and they are afraid to pick colors and materials that they won’t be happy with.

Generally, I don’t take projects without CAD drawings because there are often too many errors in hand drawings, and I have to figure things out when building the 3D model. It is value-added to my client since it is far cheaper to figure things out on the computer than in the field, but sometimes they don’t understand that.

Since this was a homeowner with a problem to solve, and this is why I do what I do, I gladly took the project. What a beautiful house, and Nikki and her husband can now sleep in peace and dream about the day they can move into their new home.