Draw-It! Week 2 Take-Home

Rendering Research

Our main task following week 2 was to research various rendering techniques, testing them on our drawings, and deciding which style we wanted to use for our final presentation.
First I tried watercolour and coloured pencils with the background. I only sketched the building, as that wasn't my focus here.

Water colour then pencil

The first attempt was to apply a very light and watered-out watercolour, trying to gradient it, and then applying a cross hatching on top radiating from the building. The cross hatching style is by Renzo Piano and I came across in my research, founding it quite light yet effective in representing the sky.

Close-up of water colour
and pencil rendering

Rendering by Renzo Piano

Next I tried applying the watercolour after the pencil hatching, to see if there was a different effect. I noticed with my first version that if the brush is slightly dry the individual bristles draw lines instead of giving one thick layer of watercolour. I tried to replicate that in this attempt however it didn't work to the same delicacy.

Pencil then watercolour

Colour pencil rendering on
the west elevation

Grass detail

The grass was done in the same style as the sky in the first watercolour/pencil render, and I believe it looks better; even though its more dense and the texture isn't as obvious, its more even.

I was still unsure about whether or not I like colour in the background, so I tried it on the west elevation in a different line-style. From these three drawings, I would prefer the sky from the first render, the grass from the second and the path from the third render.

Ink render

Focusing more on the building, I decided to experiment with ink as I felt that due to the houses already neutral facade I could just accentuate existing features, rather than introducing colour. Following this attempt, I was convinced that I prefer black and white rendering, however ink was too sharp and austere for a building that blends together so well.


To achieve a softer effect I tried using charcoal, used on smooth paper so that the lines were softer and also so that the charcoal wouldn't fracture where it was drawing from any rough paper. I used the southern elevation as it allowed for more room for experimentation. My main concern was representing the steel in a way I liked, and so this was my focus for my first drawing.

Many light lines

Solid lines

Only solid near the edges

Mixture

While working on these experimentations, I accidentally smudged a previous part with my hand while drawing the next one along. As a result I had achieved a light gradient line, thicker at the edges and thinning out where there was less charcoal. From this I attempted my next elevation. Not happy with the clearly fake shadow I had drawn, I also decided to exclude that from this attempt and focus on developing a better grass pattern. The comparative result is as follows:

Charcoal rendering development

This result was what I wanted to achieve. The lines on the building weren't too attention-drawing and the grass was dense enough, and not too straight or unclear. The grass effect was achieved using the side of a short piece of charcoal being drawn in curves at different angles. The steel, by drawing heavy lines at the poles/joints and then smudging (with a finger) these lines towards the centre (trying to keep the lines straight so that both sides would join in the middle).

Close-up of charcoal smudging

I continued my rendering work by working on the western elevation, drawing from my acquired. The western elevation also allowed me to include a road, and personally was a favourite elevation as it showed the beautiful roof and door designs by Murcutt.
After this final render I concluded that I had achieved the style I had been striving for, from a mixture of research and experimentation.

Final rendering result