Introduction

In this lesson, we will be using what we have learned in the previous lessons on simple volumes, and we will combine everything into a simple composition.

I am stressing out ‘simple composition’ because I know you want to create the best possible concept out there... But the reality is that you need to just express one simple idea throughout your whole drawing to be successful.

You will get many opportunities to develop and grow with your conceptual thinking - but for our first architectural composition, we just need a simple concept that is expressed graphically in a very coherent way.

Sounds good?

First, we need to have a look at the five principles behind architectural drawing composition, so we learn the secret, unseen code which makes any architecture composition look good.

The Five Elements To An Elegant Architectural Composition

• Vertical dominant - a vertical volume located at one-third of the page that orders the composition, makes the other volumes revolve around it.

• Christmas tree - the principle by which all volumes in your composition fall into a visual hierarchy subservient to the vertical dominant.

• Foreground object - a detailed object that is closest to the viewer in perspective and adds spatial depth to the composition by being like an introduction to the composition.

• Horizontal dominant - a horizontal, elongated volume which creates dynamism in your drawing and alongside the vertical dominant orders the composition.

• Curvature - the effect of translating from the foreground object to the Christmas tree. It is obtained by hatching or by objects in the composition and offers a smooth transition and contrast to the Christmas tree concept.

Now we will apply these elements to our very own simple volumes composition...

First, we need to draw a couple of thumbnail sketches so we choose what volumes we can use in our composition, what would be their proportion, how to set up the materiality. This stage is essential because it gets you used to ‘thinking with pen on paper’, which means you need to stop worrying or trying to imagine original ideas. Instead, use pencil on paper to imagine ideas - this will get you the solution to all drawing problems ever.

Your original thumbnail idea will improve by drawing a succession of 3-4 thumbnails.

Keep in mind, this idea although essential to the progress of your composition, will still be modified when you start drawing the large perspective

Here Are A Couple Of Tips:

• Start off with rectangular volumes such as prisms, cubes, pyramids... but add a couple of round volumes such as cones, maybe a sphere or two to soften things up.

• The vertical dominant can be made out of two different objects sitting on top of each other (two prisms for example), but can also be one single volume -prism, pyramid, cylinder, cone.

• Add an interesting object in the foreground - either a simple object with an interesting texture (wood, glass) or a more unusual type of prism or other volumes.

Simple Volumes Composition Thumbnail Sketches

To repeat myself, great ideas do not come out of thin air. You will use your new found drawing abilities as a tool to brainstorm ideas for this composition.

There is a catch to this - you cannot just rush in and do a couple of thumbnail sketches, and the idea will all work out fine... you need a thumbnail progression where you improve your idea on each particular iteration... You will feel what you need to improve and what to discard - this architect’s sixth sense will develop as you progress through the course.

We will be sketching a composition with simple volumes, we will refine it through a thumbnail progression. The way this works is you get an idea, and you slowly build up on it by improving the ‘weak’ elements but keeping the good ideas from thumbnail to thumbnail.

You can probably tell that with 4-5 of these thumbnails in a row... you will get some improved, focused and clear ideas.

We Will Be Drawing A Composition, So Remember To:

• add a vertical dominant at a third of your volume, so you get some order in your composition.

• add the Christmas tree to get order in your composition.

• add a foreground, so you get a bit of spatial depth to your drawing (goes the same for both regular and aerial perspectives).

• add the horizontal dominant and curvature to get more creative juiciness to your work.

Horizon Line At The Bottom Third And At The Top Third Perspective

We need to do two drawings for this composition.

So we will finish our first composition in the regular ‘third of the height horizon line’ approach... but we will also do an aerial perspective.

This aerial perspective will be from the opposite direction (180 degrees rotation) so to be an aerial perspective with the horizon line at the top third of your page.

Start with a thumbnail, so it is easier for you to imagine how your composition will look like in an aerial perspective and rotated at 180 degrees.

Also, make the most possible use of the checkerboard pattern - this will add spatial depth to your drawings and help out with the page layout as well.

Line Drawing

At this stage, you need to add detailing - startof with filling the page with freehand construction lines of all the volumes that you sketched in a thumbnail. You also need to draw a large drawing, do your best to fill up two-thirds of the A2 sheet with your main perspective. The other third will cover the aerial perspective - and do not forget that after all there is a lot of space on your sheet.

Most likely you will draw both perspectives in some sort of overlay... like a picture collage.

Come on, you can do it - you do not need any more guidance here as you will be drawing what we sketch in the previous two freehand lessons, only larger and more detailed.

After you fill the page with freehand construction lines, use the ruler to thicken the contour lines of all these objects. Do not forget that vertical lines are perpendicular on the T-bar and that each objecthas two vanishing points unevenly set to the sides.

You will also construct all the cast shadows with a 60-degree angle and horizontal - these are the same as you would construct them in axonometric, the only minor difference being that the shadows which of horizontal lines are not parallel, but have the same vanishing point.

You remember this from the constructed shadows lesson, right? For shadows, vertical lines have horizontal shadows, and horizontal lines have parallel shadows.

Hatching

Hatching boils down to representing the shadows and all the materials with graphite.

The possibilities of shading and textures are endless, but I recommend pausing that train of thought for now and focusing on just seeing things through to the end.

The first thing you need to do is to hatch the shadowed faces and the cast shadows - this is fairly easy to do as we already practised this in all our previous lessons.

Be careful when drawing shadowed faces for curvy volumes such as cylinders, spheres, cones - these have their own type of shadow gradients, and it would be best you revise that in the T1.1 lesson on simple volumes.

I would recommend you also add a horizontal reflection to each perspective as that adds and extra level of graphics to your drawing - the way to construct a perspective is by doubling the height of the initial volumes.

That makes 100% sense, the harder part is you understanding how to hatch the reflections.

The preconceived notion is that you need to hatch the whole reflection, the reality is that a reflection is just a paler double of the original volume - so the shadowed faces are a lighter grey, and the faces directly hit by light are still white.

This technique is what you need to consistently apply in order to get clear reflections for all the drawings you will ever do in your life. Period.

I would also recommend you draw the tiling as a checkerboard with black and white tiles - the reason to do this is that is will add contrast to your drawing and more information, especially when you overlap a reflection on checkerboard tiles. That overlap is always going to create an interesting effect for your work.

Lastly, you should draw a background for both your compositions - the background will just make your drawing look fuller as it contrasts all the volumes and the vertical dominant. A background needs to have a consistentgradient, and I recommend the gradient getting darker as it gets down and as it gets closer in perspective.

After you finish hatching both perspectives you should go over the line drawing again and thicken all the important lines once more to give the whole drawing more clarity.

Speedup

Lesson Critique