Building a look – project 1 revisited and an attempt for one point perspective mode

So, when I left off, I had the joke that it might be possible to find high end pieces of furniture in an every man’s shop…

What you find are elements – so here is what I discovered from my Kelly Hoppen imagery:

·       Barcelona chair like sofas – basically anything in leather and not in a garish colour, but with buttons … I wish I could say there you go – but not – they are also in very heavy colours, so sombre; like someone’s office in the 1950’s?

·       Gloss surfaces – indeed they exist in IKEA too. Trouble is that the ones I saw were on light aluminium legs, so very far from the original corpulent look

·       And of course taupe – newest product – a multi modular seating, exists in different colours and textures. One of the leather versions is taupe. But the whole look is somewhat not consolidated, so again the feel of luxurious interior is hmmm lost.

I do not share pictures, except for that one, from those findings, the reason being that I am curious if my dear reader would go out and do the the hunt themselves?

Anyway, other than furniture, or elements, what we need for a successful look is a good representation of the surroundings we’re dealing with. And that is how I am back to you, and in this part there’s going to be pictures.

My project one needs revisiting, you remember that even as I presented it, I was not so happy about it.

This leads to a bigger conversation about space planning and how do we check an idea.

So, on the planning spaces course with the klc, I was told that the best way to test an idea is to draw the elevation. I tried it and I must say – well it provides you with something.

The elevations are however quite flat. That is why I was so happy to learn about the one-point perspective at the very least.

Now, the issue I am having is that I still do not have that marvellous quality of steady hands, so once again I resorted to CAD.

I started from the elevation, already established here.

Then I copied the end wall, and I picked a view point and a marking point.

After that a grid came in and the first piece of furniture appeared as a silhouette against the wall

And then the piece grew….

This is where I stop – simply because the exercise was meant to be done free hand and thus save time. I mostly have the problem that I loose the feelong of size and scale, and when I do those tries free-hand, they are not realistic (those are images I am not ready to share yet).

And there is so much for testing!

Hereunder is a summary of versions, which I produced for another on-line course – My design school.

Over the months it turned out I was never quite happy with any of them. The room is being empty for a while now (new flooring), so I go in and out, imagine pieces in their places and am not yet happy with the projected outcome.

Anyway, suffice to say – my choices used to gravitate around versions A or B, but recently I reconsidered a version D.

I am guessing, their specific merits, accompanied by numerous elevations, one point perspectives and even Sketchup models, will make for another post. For the time being, please let me know about your preferences, and the whys behind them.

Planning to be away for the Holidays, and wishing everyone great time, in your spaces!

Freehand drawing – a follow up to the creativity project

When thinking of my projects one and two, I realise that I very seriously miss brainstorming skills, and in design this means the ability to produce quick and to scale freehand drawings.

I do have some limited background in art and namely for as long as I could remember myself – drawings and painting was about fun, not about accuracy. I had always been a part of an art club and never expected to perform in art. The first time I had to compete in the field of art, I lost severely, and thereafter lost all interest in drawing and painting.

So, knowing that beside sample boards, drawing and sketching are the domains where I need to give a push to myself, I enrolled into KLC’s very promising Freehand drawing short course.

A very big difference between those two courses is that sample boards is about delivering well defined product in the industry, while freehand drawing is about a technique which a client may even not be aware if one is capable of. It is more of a skill, which is auxiliary to the rest, and which may remain backstage if we so choose.

The course’s tutor did not quite keep to the programme, but nevertheless made the course hours mostly interesting and worthwhile.

Here is what I learned:

• ·    There are simple exercises one can do, just to accustom his hand to drawing. To remind ourselves that it is a very accessible skill it is good to get used to sketch using any medium, like really any – discarded paper, crayons for all purposes, scraps…
• ·      When drawings objects – ideally go for cubes for a start. This was the exercise most appreciated – draw six cubes and shade them. Infinite source of exploration and training – how do the cubes evolve in the distance? What is the value of the shades on lighter and darker sides, and so on.

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• ·   There were of course exercises less appreciated – like enlarging a picture with the use of a grid.

·       There were exercises exercise in the leaflet we never properly did, such as drawing from observation…

It seems that the course was a bit too short for everything that is in the freehand drawing – on one side the numerous techniques meant to help us find our drawing “feet”, on the other hand learn the standards that are expected in the field of interior design.

The course’s most relevant to interior design exercise should have been the one-point perspective – it sort of got lost between the many different ways to shade and the enlarging. Nevertheless, I am, like many others, set to do my one point as soon as possible.

So, I like to look at the bounty of knowledge, as a starting point, and here is the list of what I want to take with me:

• ·    To draw a straight line without a ruler – look at the end of the line. Never tried it properly – here is a mine full of exercise already!
• ·   Cross-hatching, or etching – an exercise of applying subsequent layers of hatching to a field. Every layer leaves a piece unhatched and changes direction! That is how values are learnt – very useful and what I should do more often
• ·       How to check the result of a sketch – turn it upside down or take a distance!
• ·       Erasing is not allowed – shapes are corrected through other shapes
• ·       Erasing is only allowed where the light spills should be done.

And for the way forward, not surprisingly – practice!

• ·   When shown my mark making from the creativity post – the tutor advised me to try do them with different density – that is how the shades will come!
• ·       Most of our surroundings are cubes and tubes – one kind of sketching to practice a lot
• ·   Practice in any free moment – even when TV is on, or while on telephone…
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Always the diligent student, I picked a very customised practice for the weekend. I went through my Kelly Hoppen books and tried to sketch some of the most common silhouettes:

Finally, now that I am at Kelly and furniture, I am thinking – how many of those varieties can be found in Ikea? Checked this weekend – not many. Am not tempted to sketch Ikea, but am thinking already of a following post and exercise…

So, post may be something about influential designers and how to use the work – will inevitably lead to a presentation of Kelly’s books in my possession I’m afraid. Or sourcing? Going beyond Ikea is so tricky!

Or revisit project 1 – through space planning, and naturally some one point perspectives…. What do you think?