Friday, June 11, 2010

Exercise 11: DRAWING TO SCALE

In this exercise, I have outlined two important skills for creating an interior space that is accurate in scale The first is a basic technique for drawing a tile floor or ceiling accurately in perspective. The second is a technique for scaling a room so that all the elements in a space are in correct size relationship.

To scale a room you establish the principle dimensions of height, width, and depth for the walls, ceiling, and floor. Determine the height of the back wall first (ten feet for example) and the back plane forward to the front wall like you did in the first room drawing. Once the four walls and ceiling are roughed in it is time to map out the floor.









Drawing a Tile Floor

#1 - Create the floor of a room by drawing a square in perspective.

#2 - Measure out equally spaced increments along the back edge of the floor. These increments can be in drawn in scale. For example, each increment spaced one inch apart on this drawing represents 24 inches or two feet. To make the tiles smaller I could draw 1/2 inch increments to indicate 12 inch tiles. This would still be a 1 to 2 ratio, but the number of tiles on the floor would be doubled.

#3 - Draw a horizontal line across these lines to indicate a row of tiles along the back edge of the floor. As this line crosses each of the converging lines that extend to the vanishing point, you will see a tile pattern appear. To make the tiles longer or deeper you would simply start the line from a point further forward are back on the floor.

#4 - Starting from the back left corner of the floor, draw a diagonal line to the front rightcorner of the floor. At each point that this line crosses the converging or orthogonal lines draw a horizontal line from the left to right edge of the floor. This gives you the final grid pattern.


Drawing Proportional Tiles

Since I made this room perfectly square I can make the tiles 24 inches square by drawing the diagonal line across the floor before drawing the horizontal lines (reversing steps 3 and 4). I would simply draw a horizontal line through each point where the diagonal intersected the lines that converge at the vanishing point. When the room is not square you can use a technique known as the Cone of Vision to create perfect squares.


Exercise 11: Part 2

DRAWING TO SCALE IN ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE-Scaling Walls, Windows, and Doors

Drawing the Walls and Windows










#1 - To start, determine the dimensions of the actual room that you are going to draw. In this case I made the ceiling 9 feet high and each of the four walls 14 feet wide to create a space that is 14 feet square. I now know the height, width, and depth of this space.

#2 - Using the same sequence as before I established a horizon line and vanishing point and drew the front wall first and then extended lines from this square shape to the vanishing point.

#3 - Before establishing the back wall I divided the floor and walls into equal spaces using increments of one inch for the floor and half inch increments for the walls. I did not connect the points on the walls to the vanishing point. Instead, I identified a point half way up the wall as a reference point for creating the window and door. The ratio of all increments is 1 inch to every 24 inches in real space. This must remain consistent throughout your drawing to create proper proportions between different elements.

#4 -Create the doorway and window by determining where you want the top and bottom of the window to be on the wall. I used the center point on the right wall to judge the best location. The lower sill was placed at three feet above the floor and the window top at eight feet above the floor.

#5 -Locate the front and back edges of the window by drawing vertical lines to connect the top and bottom corners. You can draw a line up from the floor to locate where you want the window to begin. The window below begins at approximately thirteen feet from the back wall and ends at roughly nine feet making the window 4x5 feet.





The crown molding is outlined in this diagram. Remember that everything relates back to the vanishing point.


Exercise 11: Part 3

DRAWING TO SCALE IN ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE - scaling shelves

To scale other elements like shelves and furniture it is simply a matter of using the wall and floor dimensions to determine the size and location of any object in the room.










#1 - First, determine the height at which you want the shelves to appear on the wall. Using the windows as a reference point, I decided to place the top shelf a foot lower than the top of the window on the other side of the room. Once you have made this decision draw a converging line back to the vanishing point from the place on the wall where you want the back edge of the shelf to begin.

#2 - Next, determine the depth of the shelf by drawing a vertical line up from the floor. In this case I used a point that represented half the depth of the tile below to start the vertical line. I extended the line up to a point that is the same height of the back edge of the shelf.

#3 - Draw a horizontal line out from the wall to meet this vertical line. Roughly one inch below (in real scale), draw another vertical line out from the wall. You now lave the near edge of the shelf established.

#4 -Repeating this process, draw the back edge of the shelf. You can make the shelf as long as you want and you can create multiple shelves in different locations and lengths.

#5 - To create a crown molding above the shelves I drew a cross section the profile of the molding as it would appear if it were exposed at the front of the room. I then extended this flat shape back in space to the vanishing point by drawing a line from each corner.


Exercise 11: Part 4

DRAWING TO SCALE IN ONE POINT PERSPECTIVE - Scaling Furniture

If you know the actual dimensions of a piece of furniture you can scale it to a drawing of any room by using the scale measurements of the room. In this case I made arbitrary choices as to the dimensions of the furniture in order to make it fit comfortably in the room.

Drawing a Lamp and to Sofa Scale










#1 - Using the points on the grid of your room, determine the height, width, and depth of each object. I decided to make the lamp six feet tall with a circular base and lamp shade. I drew a square on perspective for each and created the circles as ellipses. Each square is centered on a vertical line.

#2 - Next, draw the profile of the sofa (shaded in darker blue) and used this flat shape to determine both the height and the depth of the object.

#3 - Extend the sofa back in space by drawing converging lines from the corners of this front shape. Complete the shapes by rounding off the arms and the top corners.

#4 - Complete the lamp by connecting the ellipses of the base and the lamp shade. Connect the top and bottom of the lamp by locating the center axis and drawing two vertical lines to indicate the pole.

#5 - Complete the sofa by dividing it into separate cushions. I located the middle in space by using the tile pattern on the floor.

No comments:

Post a Comment