Collaboration, Part Three...Color and Transformation

 

The fourth and final stage of the drawing...color and transformation. See the previous two posts for the evolution of this drawing in progressive stages. Each stage informs the next in terms of illumination, shading and entourage. The final drawing is pen and ink on stretched yellow tracing paper and rendered with ChartPak AD markers (www.chartpak.com) and Prismacolor pencils  (www.prismacolor.com) on both sides of the yellow tracing paper. The rendering was commissioned by LeVaughn & Associates Architects (www.timothylevaughn.com) who, of course, reserve all copyrights to the design and the image.

 

 

This is a larger detail image of the line work base drawing before the marker washes and then the colored pencil washes were applied. I kind of like this all by itself.



Collaboration, Part Two...Progression and Transformation in Alliterative Drawing

This shows a series of images of a drawing done in progressive stages with no Photoshop or other digital manipulation except for scanning at various stages of completion. It is, hopefully, a good example of drawing as transformative or progressive exploration through the use of a graphically alliterative vocabulary. Alliteration is used figuratively here as a metaphor for the repetition of consonant elements in a particular drawing. A more appropriate definition in this case might be 'symmetrical alliteration' through the use of the classically repetitive elements in the design of this particular project. This is a set of renderings that I did for LeVaughn Associates Architects (www.timothylevaughn.com) for a townhouse on Chicago's North Side. As with all of Tim's work this is a particularly well composed building. The drawings are presented in descending order from final to initial stages of composition. 

 

This is the third of the four drawing stages. You really need to click on each image to get a sense of the quality of the line work and the tonal representation. The 8-1/2" x 11" drawings are done in ink on stretched yellow tracing paper and rendered with Prismacolor pencils (www.prismacolor.com) and ChartPak AD markers (www.chartpak.com), primarily Cool Grey #2 and Warm Grey #4 on both sides of the tracing paper. The dark black sky is rendered on both sides with fine point "Sharpie" black markers. I've talked before about the need to render on both sides of yellow tracing paper, the primary reason being that it gives you the ability to combine media that otherwise cannot be applied on top of each other or to diffuse the impact of particularly bold, dark or messy markers. As far as ChartPak AD marker washes go, you should never use anything darker than a Cool Gray #3 or Warm Gray #4 in any circumstances, especially on tracing paper. Use lighter washes on both sides of the paper and then, only then, apply pencils washes over them. Applying marker washes over pencil washes is a recipe for disaster.   

 

This is the second stage of the drawing. The only appreciable difference between this stage and the third stage is that there is more contrast here between the sky and the window glass and more subtle shading in the grey tones. The nice thing about 'night' views like this one is that you can subtlety imply shadowing and changes in object plane through the use of dark sides / light sides by means of soft grey tones. Classical buildings such as this one really need the resonance of line work to fully define the principal elements of the design. For example, the detail in the cornice.

 

The final image shown below is the first stage image. It is purely the original drawing in ink on yellow tracing paper. This is the final base drawing that the fourth stage color will be applied to (see previous post) and does work well as a stand alone image if you're into that sort of thing. The line work drawing was done actually done twice. Why, do you ask? The first line drawing was the original base and was so saturated with pencil work that it would have been too 'muddy' to really render in color without destroying the crisp line work with a kneable eraser. So instead it became the base drawing for the second and third black and gray tone stages above and this 'clean' base drawing is now the original that I will now render in a softer, pastel driven palette. Once the original line drawing was done, re-tracing it to create the color ready base drawing only took a few hours.

 

Click on the original to get a better sense of the line work and how it actually works well, as I previously mentioned, as a stand alone drawing.



Collaboration.....Part One

 

North Dayton Street Residence, Chicago, Illinois

Timothy LeVaughn, Architect  Rendered by David Barrett McTyre
 

Micron and Prismacolor Ink Pens and 3H / 4H pencils on stretched Canson yellow tracing paper, rendered with Prismacolor (www.prismacolor.com) pencils and Chartpak AD markers (www.chartpak.com) with masked edges and cotton ball-applied pastel washes on both sides of paper

Daniel Burnham and Jules Guerin. Daniel Burnham and John Root. Frank Lloyd Wright and Marion Mahony. Walter Burley Griffin and Barry Byrne. Cass Gilbert and Thomas Johnson. Stanford White and Charles McKim. Wonder what all of those partnerships have in common? In each case, a uniquely collaborative relationship between an architect and illustrator, a  dynamic partnership between two designers with mutual goals or, perhaps, just two friends that intuitively got what the other person was trying to do with a particular project through graphic communication. And in each case a design process that had at its core a unique set of graphic techniques and representation that was intrinsic to a unique approach to architecture.

Tim LeVaughn (www.timothylevaughn.com) and I have been the best of friends for over 30 years. We have practiced off and on together for some of that time, eventually going in our own inevitably different directions but always following what the other was doing with keen interest and mutually supportive ideas about what it means to be truly aware of the sophistication and well informed elegance of historical context in the modern and soulless digital age we live in today. Or, as Tim used to say, "What's wrong with good quiet architecture?" Historically well informed yet still compellingly original architecture? Recently we have begun to collaborate again on some of Tim's projects in Chicago. Here is one of them, a new urban townhouse that Tim's firm is doing on Chicago's North Side. This project combines the methodologies that we started out with together and then separately developed over time into a new design process that combines the sophistication of Tim's digital exploration with the resonance of David's hand drawings into something that is more a purely graphic exercise. Rather, this is an integral part of a collaborative design process where the goal is a continuing refinement of the building's details through graphic exploration. Tim has always been a draftsman of exceptional abilities and this manual drawing skill, his "good hand", makes his compositions snap in a way that overcomes the creepy verisimilitude and author-less qualities of the more conventional digital rendering techniques that dominate today's drafting rooms. The development of classicist architecture has always had at its heart the absolute necessity of representation through the abstraction of line.

Tim used to say that one of the things that made working together so much fun was that we could look at each other's design sketches and immediately grasp what the other person was trying to do. We might not have always agreed with what we saw it but we always got the essential idea behind it. The foundation of this understanding was a shared graphic vocabulary that only became more refined over time and was an essential part of our shared design process, much like the partnerships I listed at the beginning of this post. Because most of our collaborative projects were in Chicago I always thought that our graphic vocabularies had a Midwestern (or Prairie School) sensibility that was just as relevant and critical to our work in the late 20th century as it was in when it was in its formative period in the late 19th century. The rendering above is the first image of a series that I will be posting from our current collaborative efforts as well as some from our partnership in the early 90's. The scan here doesn't do the glowing and vibrant qualities of original drawing justice but such are the limitations of Google Blogger. Click on the image for a better sense of the original drawing.