Exercise 2.5

Architectural illustration

Create an architectural illustration that shows the contrast between a building or structure of your choice. This contrast maybe between an old building and its modern neighbour or perhaps it’s between its renovations and alterations.

Think about how to deal with this creatively through your choice of materials, approach to image making, mark making, colour and composition. Find out when your building was built and research into what architectural style it is.

So I started this exercise with the research from the architectural illustrators in my mind and how I could incorporate some of their styles into this exercise. I decided to choose my mums house, as it was nearby and was recently built in 2016, and has a good architectural structure which is interesting to look at and draw. Now I wanted to carry on with my digital drawing on this exercise as I have done for this unit, to improve my skills and understanding of Procreate. So I decided to go out and do some sketches in my sketchbook of the house, then work on a final illustration on my IPad to create the digital image.

So I did three sketches, rough to start with then built up to using a ruler so the outline was straight.

Then I added a bit more detail and tried a side view to add some more of the angels, so you could see how the house was. I then went on to create an outline on Procreate, I find it easier to get the outlines on Procreate as it straightens the lines as you go.

This worked much better and you could gauge the angels more, and the perspective. I will try this again with a slightly side view to see how that works.

Now I like both compositions, I’m more drawn to the first one looking straight on, and I think this will work well with the media I want to use, but I think maybe the side on drawing is a better architectural design.

So I researched into my mums house, she still had the leaflet and image she was given when she bought the house with my dad. The house is called a Rosemary, here is the original glossy leaflet and original architects drawing.

I researched into the house style but unfortunately I couldn’t find anything on the Persimmon website, so I looked into the unusual roof line to see if that bough anything up. The roof line is mid century modern, and is a Skillion and lean to roof style. it has a balcony at the front over the car port, and a Juliet balcony on the bedroom at the front, as well as a balcony at the top bedroom. The house is a three story design, which is fairly slimline, but quite deep.

So the brief says that there should be a contrast between the building and it’s surroundings, so I thought I would take on the media of the fabrics and patterns like the illustrator Esther Clark, but this obviously needs to contrast with the building if I use the patterns for the landscape. So I thought I would try watercolours as that’s my preferred media personally, and do a similar style to the illustrator Pamela Williams.

Now with regard to the fabric and pattern media, I’n not going to use fabric, but I’m going to use digital media of my own fabric designs instead, to keep the digital theme going. I will also use digital watercolours for the house itself too.

So I started on the drawing in Procreate and started with the background patterns to start with. I liked the patterns I had chose, I chose ones with a dark sky and with plenty of textures.

I then went on to add patterns to the foreground and sides, and tried to incorporate some of my mums favourite patterns and colours, to represent her and her house.

I chose garden inspired designs for the front and left side, then for the car port I chose blue which was my dads favourite colour.

I then went on to test out the watercolour brushes to see how the building would fit in with the patterns.

At this point it’s not looking quite how I would like it to! The watercolour brushes are not quite as good as the real watercolour paint I’m used too. The patterns are a little blocky, but I do intend to faze them into each other better.

So I think I’m going to have a think and re-look at the composition and media being used.

So I came back to this exercise with fresh eyes and decided to go or try the drawing that I completed where the view was from the side. I re-looked at the research task for this exercise and I found most of the illustrators used a side view for their compositions and paintings.

I then decided to hand paint the drawing with real watercolours like the illustrators did, I think this will give a better quality of finish, and it will also give more texture and combined with the digital patterns, will explore both sides to this exercise.

I started with printing the drawing I did on Procreate onto some watercolour paper, I did this as I wanted a defined outline of the building, I will then incorporate the dark railings into this outline.

I painted each room a different colour, these are the colours my mum has decorated the rooms, I wanted to include this and represent this on the outside of the building, as mum is all about colour, she loves tropical sunny colours and most of the rooms are tropical inspired, so this was a must for me to include.

I finished off the watercolour painting then left it to dry, I then went on to draw the details with black fine liner, like the railings, balcony’s and details around the windows and doors.

I phased out the sides of the painting and drawing like Pamela Williams did, so they look slightly unfinished. I intend to blend these with the surrounding patterns, and also phase those out around the edges too.

I also used coloured pencils to add the boarding detail at the top level and the side room, like ship lap slats of wood.

I am much happier with the look of this drawing now, I like the colours and how the details in black have made it pop more and made it feel more structured and solid.

Now I need to scan the painting into the computer and onto my iPad to add the pattern details for the surrounding area around the house. This is the scan:-

So the scan was sent to my IPad and then I brought it up in Procreate, and started to add some of my patterns to the picture. I used two botanical prints for the flower beds in the front garden, a green blossom and blue tit pattern for the greenery out the front, then a bold stripe for the drive way.

I then went around the left side and built up the layers, so I added a coloured pencil drawing of some country flowers, then a layer of vector style branches/ trees, both made into patterns. Then for the sky I used three different patterns, one a blue with yellow textured dots, which I thought looked like stars, then a darker blue pattern, with gold lanterns hand doodled. and for the lower sky I added a dragonfly and bubble pattern, to add some insect elements.

For the right side which was the next door neighbours house, I decided to use a tile pattern because this is my mums favourite pattern, and it can represent the neighbours as they are Spanish.

After this was done I went over the all the patterns I had layered and blended them so there was less hard lines.

After that was done I used an air brush texture to take out some of the page edges, to give that unfinished ethereal quality to the painting.

I think this works really well, and I really like the patterns layered up as the background and surrounding areas, it represents what’s actually there but in abstract pattern form. The actual house does look a little plain now compared to the rest, so I might try putting a layer or two into the background and lower the opacity right down, so it adds just a bit of texture behind the watercolour paint.

So yes I added some more patterns behind the watercolour layer, then gently used a airbrush to take off some of the watercolour to reveal the pattern, but not as brightly has the surrounding area.

I think this looks much better and is how imagined it in my mind, again I chose patterns that meant a lot to my mum, including some dad enjoyed too. My mum really loves this drawing and wants a print of it now, so I am happy it has some meaning for her, and encapsulates her and dads characters into their house.

So the brief asked me to show a contrast between the building and its surrounding area or in its materials and media, I think I have done this, although not quite in the way I had originally planned, but I feel the delicate pattern designs show a contrast to the blocky angular shape of the house/ building, and contrast with the materials of the building work, and the ethereal quality of the art work captured inside and outside of the house now.

I am happy I tried many ways to make this work, and feel it has come to a good conclusion. Inspired by Esther Clarks work and fabric mixed media illustrations, has really helped me to see how you can bend the rules and think of new ways to illustrate and used various media to show an atmosphere and character of a property/ building.

Up-dated 19/09/2022.

After feedback from my tutor she suggested I pair down the colour scheme on the building and surroundings, and add in the research I had previously done in the research on Architecture.

I started by thinking about what colours and patterns to remove and how I could limited the colours in some way. I found this quite difficult as the patterns and colours I had chosen were personal to the picture, as it was my mum and dads house.

To think about it in a different way, I put that aside and thought more above the picture and the composition.

I decided to take out the colour orange from the picture and the patterns, and I took out the two patterns in the front of the house.

I tried to keep the background colours to blues and greens, and the house colours as pink and yellow.

The drive way wall is more white in pattern now, as well as the room above, I felt this simplified the painting more, and added in a more neutral tone, to balance the picture out.

I moved a few other patterns around so the turquoise hummingbird design is now to the right of the picture, rather than the as it was as the room above the drive, this was to keep the blues as the background colours.

After moving a few other patterns around and adding a pink air brush over the top of the bottom pattern on the house, this made the house pop out more from the background as the colours were united.

I think this is a compromise between what my tutor suggested and what I feel the house should include, as some of the patterns were made for my mum or dad and important to me to keep in it. I think the up-dated version is more refined and I can see how uniting the background colours together and the house colours together makes the composition better.

Research from research 4 on architectural illustrators

Where my inspiration came from.

The next illustrator was Esther Clark who specialises in opaque media, line and wash and marker pen and ink. Esther is self taught, although had an architect for a father and a mother who was a creative so it must run in the genes! Esther uses fabrics as paint, cottons flood her work and textiles are her thing, patterns and colour trend highly in her work. Esther now works on commissions for house portraits, although has illustrated stories of animals.

I love the way Esther has used fabric’s for her house portraits, in a collage style effect, I found this set of art most interesting, it creates lots of texture, colour and ambience to the piece. The house feels really cosy and homely, very botanical and focuses a lot on the garden and surrounding area. I especially like the way she has used strips of fabrics to layer the foreground and sky areas. The building looks like it is fairly modern, and like a glass house, I think its all about bringing the outdoors in and focusing on the view. The fabrics she has used really captures the essence of what the building represents.

Although this house portrait is executed in the same way as the first picture, it feels very different. The fabric Esther has chosen is less botanical, it has a shimmer and sparkle to it, and feels very glamorous and grand compared to the first picture. I like the dark fabric with green spots she has used for the pond in the foreground, and the sky blended light fabric she has used in the windows, it gives life to the piece. This building is obviously a lot older and maybe Georgian in period compared to the glass house, she has depicted the style very well in the art. I find Esther’s work very clever and can see how she has captured the personality of the buildings, their owners and the feel of the place in her art pieces.

Tis last piece is a farm building and you can see the more rustic colours and fabric’s Esther has used, the colours are warm and textured, it looks like she has used pen or embroidery here to add the small details on the windows. The houses are very boxy and ordinary in the architecture and style, and I feel she has capture the essence of the farm here, it’s very natural, simple and workable.