Walking into a brilliant new architectural design project [domestic glass and steel extension].

A walk to my friends daughters nursery opens the door to a fantastic design challenge.

On a recent weekend break we arranged to meet friends who regularly share summer holidays with us. This was very exiting for their four-year-old girl, who was desperate for me [‘sillyman’] to pick her up from nursery. I thought this was to be the highlight of the weekend, and although it was spectacular to be shown around by my little friend, and find that I needed no introduction to any teacher or child.... as they all knew ‘Sillyman’ was calling that day! [For clarification my adopted term of affection suits me to the ground... I am a man and I am more than a little silly.... especially when there are children to be entertained and amused.]

What I had not expected was Dad of four year old asking me advice on how they best select an Architect for altering and extending their Victorian Semi ‘d’ house which they had moved into about a year previously.... This question raised more questions than answers as I needed to know everything!

The bottom line is that the house they have is just fabulous, a house for life, space for the youngsters [and the adults] to grow up in and spread their wings. Great living and sleeping accommodation over three floors. Good garden space to front side and rear. Prime access to shopping amenities schools and transport... and not a bad Rugby Club!

The problem was the ‘back of house’. The kitchen and utility space on the north wall is small with lots of shape changing and lack of clarity. The ambition is to clear the single storey ‘back of house’ and redesign the kitchen and utility areas form a 'HEART' of house. A central focus for all the family and for all ages.

I had ‘retired’ [hurt] from architecture. For many years I had no ambition to do any architectural stuff, other than for my own pleasure. The description of what was wanted set me on fire. I just could not wait to start sketching ideas and developing concept designs that might tick the families needs.

The following morning, at the hotel breakfast table.... the enthusiasm turned into random sketches which led to brainstorming options for the design.

We snuck back to our friends house on our way back home and, not to be outdone by the total lack of survey gear.... I paced out the site with my size nine willies and plotted a plan on a soggy piece of paper, as the snow storm blew in.

The process of the design was just so fresh and enjoyable. 

Some weeks after this, we had a meeting, at our local restaurant, and I unveiled my concept designs. The whole buzz of making a presentation and the nervous anticipation of the ‘client’ reaction at the point of reveal. Very exiting.

I’m pleased to say they were delighted with the concepts and the form of the building.

After a period of gestation and feedback the design has evolved and the planning stages are ready for development and approval. [Oh, and my wellie boots oversized the amount of space available!]

It has been an extraordinary privilege to help in the process of procurement and it will be interesting to know if my wee friend will reflect on the house she grew up in, as a place that ‘Sillyman’ helped designed, but she will, I am sure, remember the laughter and joy of our silly games, magic tricks and paddles in the foam of Tiree. 

The contemporary glass and steel extension has a way to go before the 'opening ceremony'..... but I have been invigorated and refreshed by high-jacking my pals question about 'appointing an architect' and abducting their brief as my own. 

Thank you the Moos.

May your paper, and your silliness, never run out.

DRAWING AND SKETCHING PEOPLE FOR PRESENTATIONS.

ARCHITECTURAL PEOPLE. 

Drawing People for Architectural Presentations.

 My last blog was a little piece on drawing people.

As a warm up exercise and as a simple outline technique for adding scale to architectural drawings and sketches. It has had quite a good reception so I thought I would add a little detail to the first steps of the template for the outlines. 

I have been ‘practising’ drawing people for many, many years and still feel I have a long way to go.... but I enjoy the journey. Adding age, movement, character, humour just helps to keep it fresh. However, when embellishing design sketches I tend to revert to the simplest outline. 

These are the steps I use to draw individual people. If your sketch is an elevation, section or perspective [at eye level] then draw all the heads of people at the same height, that is at the same ‘eye level’. This will be the same as the horizon line. You need to adapt your figures if you are drawings view is ‘worms eye’ or ‘aerial’..... 

 Below is an example of eye level being at normal eye level. Adding other views to your practice routine will add to your skills and confidence, but given most projections will be elevations and section, you will probably use more figures drawn at ‘standard’ eye level than any other view.... although Plan view [directly overhead] are useful as well. This is easy to achieve if you use strong shadows on your building and people. 

These groups are sketches where all feet are at the same level as opposed to all eye levels being at the same level. If you are above normal eye level you need to foreshorten the height to ensure the correct perspective. The higher you are, the more the foreshortening will be. When you are in Plan view the figures are as short as they get, as they to will be drawn as plans! 

 Scale is critical to give a ‘realistic’ representation. This seems like such an obvious thing to say, but remarkably difficult to achieve when you are setting out. Buildings need human scale. Your Architectural People need to reflect the ‘human’ scale. The average height of an adult male is about 1800 mm, a female, about 1600 mm. This should relate to your floor to ceiling heights. If drawing in perspective, making your figures taller and slimmer will make them appear more elegant. The more ‘stylised’ your figures are, the less you need to worry about conventions of human proportion. 

ARCHITECTURAL SKETCHES WITH AND WITHOUT PEOPLE

Experiment and have fun practising your drawings. When you put them into your architectural drawings, keep them simple. Remember, the star of the show is the design drawings.... NOT your people drawings. If your people are not right, leave them off your presentation drawings, but copy the presentation and practice people [trees, bushes, landscape, backdrops, etc] on copies. Keep drawing. It is almost impossible to get better at anything by not doing it. 

Most importantly, Enjoy.

May your paper never run out.

DRAWING PEOPLE

DRAWING PEOPLE 

FOR ARCHITECTURAL PRESENTATION DRAWINGS

People in drawings add scale and interest to architectural presentation drawings. They are there to show the built environment is designed primarily for human use and accordingly the environment will be habitated by people.... 

Your ability to illustrate this in your design presentations, if not essential, is highly desirable.

Like almost all skills, the more you practice, the better and more confidant you will become.

  

Simple stylised shapes will normally suffice to offer scale and context. More realistic representation in perspective can be more sophisticated and contemporary, but requires much more skill.

The objectives of a simple representation of a person, or group of people, in architectural presentations is to add context and scale. They [along with other added features, such as landscape, trees, background and site related features] should add to the composition and purpose of the drawing/representation. If any addition starts to 'compete' with the design drawing.... then they are working against you... not for you. Accordingly, the added features must be kept simple and in balance with the intent of the presentation.

There are many styles of architectural figures available and a simple search on the internet will give a large selection to copy or use [pending copyright restrictions], but is a great skill to have to be able to sketch your own figures on your deign sketches.... and.... a great and simple exercise to improve your drawing skills.

A scrap of paper and a pen/pencil, or brush, and you can draw people till the cows come home. Start today. Repeat every day! Enjoy.

.....doodles will do.....

simple monochrome line drawings

Get started with your first doodles now. Easy peasy.

INSPIRATION OF AN ARTIST.

 Drawn to Painting.

Sometimes it becomes difficult to do the easy things.

Calling home, visiting friends, writing a blog. Things just seem to get in the way. I know.

So how can I make it ‘ordinary’ to write a blog? At the moment.... it is ‘extraordinary’!  It just should not be this way.

The whole point of this BlogSpot is to make my art visible. To you.  [I’ve seen it. I was there as it was being done! So it is not for me....]

I often contend there is no art if it is not visible, and these pages [along with my website and a couple of social media sites] is the place I show my artwork, to you. I am proud of my work and think it worthy of seeing. So here is my plan......

Keep it simple. 

Keep it light and airy. 

Keep it short and sweet and...  

find a rhythm of posting  that I can maintain and will provide a worthwhile feed for you, the reader.

Here goes.

My work consists of a lot of different subjects and styles, from little doodles through sketches and drawings to architectural and Urban Design work. Graphic Design, Calligraphy, Illustration. Watercolour Painting, Digital Art and Pen and Ink. Sculpture, woodcarving, and found object crafting.

My inspiration comes from many different things and I often have periods of ‘temporary obsessions’ with a particular flavour. Once I have had that flavour for a while, I look for the next exiting ‘flavour.’

I am always looking to learn. 

New subjects, new techniques and a better understanding. Books and the Internet are my main stimuli for keeping my old grey matter invigorated. I always have drawing material scattered all over the place and collect bits and pieces of junk to build with. My long walks along the shoreline and through the Fife landscape feed my senses with beauty and colour. I have holidays in the remote corners of Scotland, and love the wild west coast. These holidays fill my sole with a passion to interpret the light and character of huge landscapes on the two dimensions of paper.

A Journey, not a destination and as the great Gary Player once said “The more I practice, the luckier I get”

So here is some artwork to get things moving.

One:  Simple graphics and sketches.

‘Moonlight’

Pen sketch out of my sketchpad

Two:  Architectural Rendering and Urban Design Drawings

‘CULINARY COURTYARD’

Proposal for a Contemporary House Extension and Landscape.

Three: Logo Design and Graphic Design.

‘URBAN TEXTURE’

Pen and Ink and Pantone Marker Pen.

Four. Abstract

‘Entanglement’

Pen and Ink Drawing with Pantone Marker Pens.

Five. Landscape

THREE MINIATURE LANDSCAPE PAINTINGS

Watercolour on watercolour paper.

All my drawing and artwork are part of me. One is no more, or less,  important than the other. I have been selling my artwork for many years and still find I cannot work out what will sell and what will not. Beauty is certainly ‘in the eyes of the beholder....’

I hope that you have enjoyed this ramble and that something in the blog has stimulated your creative juices. I hope it has and if you would like to see more of  something, please let me know. I would love to hear from you.

Take care. Till the next time.

‘RED HOT AND BLUE’

Pen and Ink with Marker Pens.

Cous Cous the Puss Puss

 Cous Cous is a farm cat. Born in the barn and claimed by my boy when she was just a fur ball of a kitten cat.

       She is our first pet and she has moved with us over the years. Cous Cous pre dates all the dogs and quite often comes with us all for the last stroll of the day. In the woods with three dogs and a cat. Causes other walkers some delight to see such a sight.

Our Collie practices its sheep dog herding skills whenever the daft cat is on the prowl in the house, and I am convinced the cat goes out of its way to wind the dog up to the max. She also has a bad habit of sitting on the keyboard when I am working at the computer or standing on my watercolour pad when I am painting....! So cute, I know, but also quite annoying!

Blue Whiskers

 

Cats are a theme I have in my artwork and they appear from time to time in my watercolours such as ‘cat in a courtyard’ and ‘the long walk home’ as well as the more light hearted ‘CATalitic’ and ‘CAT a tonic’. ‘Blue Whiskers’ is a little watercolour sketch I did many, many years ago and has stayed with me as my logo and working title for art cards.

 

 

 

Cats have that independence and elegance that dogs seldom achieve. I often consider cats to be like women and dogs like men.... and I have suffered some abuse over the years for drawing this comparison... but, its just my opinion. Women and cats are independent and elegant, offer affection on their terms, and are incredible hunters. Men and Dogs are much simpler in character. Not too fussy about cleanliness, eat anything and are often far to keen to be affectionate....  I have a close bond with the dogs, and they are integral to my day-to-day life. The cat lives with us, eats our food, and from time to time play fights with me... until I bleed.

Chocolate Orange

 

 I enjoy drawing cats and I like the elegant shapes they pose. Perhaps there mystique draws me to them and adds greatly to the story of a painting. Where has it been? Where does it go? Who did it meet and what adventure has unfolded between then and now. It’s probably best we don’t know and thank the gods of fate they return safely.

The Cat will stay with me as a feature of my artistic endeavours.

The Three Amigos

I mentioned ‘walking the dogs’.

I thought I would elucidate somewhat and tell you a bit more about the puppies. When I say “puppies”
I would clarify that ALL dogs are puppies to me.

We got our first puppy a few years ago after a close encounter with a border collie pup, who was three months old, and on it’s way to the outer Hebrides. Our boy adopted it for the four hour hop to the Isle of Tiree. On our return home we interviewed many a dog, before deciding to extend our family with an eight week old tri coloured collie.

 

 

 

Poo for Poodle

  Some years later, and well after the Collie had trained me, we took in two refugees to safe them from harm. They are a 15 year old toy Poodle who we affectionately call “Poo” and an eight year old Parsons Terrier. The Poodle is my elderly Aunt’s dog. My Aunt  has been ‘touched’ by the horror of Altzimer’s and is now in full time care, her ‘Poo’ had nowhere to go... The other dog, due to a long list of ‘unfortunate circumstances’ needed a new home at the very same time as ‘Poo’. They came as a pair. We knew them well before we decided to take them out of harms way, and over the last twelve months, they have been part of our gang.

 

Walking the Dogs consists of a march over a couple of miles along the Fife Coastal Path and then to the woods and down onto the Forth foreshore where we explore the nooks and crannies of the bay of Dalgety. No walk is ever the same and apart from seasons, weather and others that are out and about, chewing the fat, I like to change my route and change the focus.

The Three Amigos

 

Most of the time it is all about the dogs, but quite often I like to indulge my passion for nature and we explore the bounty of the hedgerows and woods. The tides of the Forth bring many changes to the foreshore and we clear the litter and collect anything that I think can be recycled..... much to my partners horror.... The Collie is fixated by a ball, a stick, pine cones or any other object she can chase, collect and bring back to me, so I can throw it again and again and again...and one last time... and again!

They are my personal trainers. They make me walk every day. No  excuses, no days off, every day. Oh, and when we go on holiday, we need to go where three dogs are welcome and there is many a mile of woods and shore to wander. I love the quality they add to our lives and, although the boot camp has been fraught on occasions, the three amigos are a joy and a pleasure.

Did I mention we had a cat called “Cous Cous”?

a Collie trying to look cute...

Location, Location, Location.

I work from my home is sunny Fife, Scotland. In a fine place called Dalgety Bay, which is in fact the name of the bay on the shore of the Firth of Forth. It has a southern aspect overlooking the river Forth with the iconic Forth Bridge to the west and Edinburgh to the east. We have been here for a number of years and just love it.

The countryside is on our doorstep and we can walk the length of Fife courtesy of the Fife Coastal Path, which is good when you have three dogs! Nature's constant shift provides endless inspiration for me as I strive to understand the symbiotic connections of all around me and man's marks on the landscape always fascinates me. [I have to say that some marks on our landscape are a disgrace, the plastic debris on the foreshore and litter in woodlands are one of my pet hates... but that is a subject for another day.]

 

 

Within a few hundred meters of my home lies the ancient monument of St Bridget's kirk. It stopped being used as a place of worship many years ago and is now part of Historic Scotland's gems. I walk past it every day and quite often linger in the grounds as my bairn's bairns play in the 'castle' walls. I say it stopped being a place of worship, however, the Dalgety Parish Church hold an open air service in the kirk on one Sunday every year. It is 'open air' as the kirk has no roof!

Further along the shore to the east of the bay lies Braefoot. An ancient woodland that hides the fortified buildings used to defend the Forth Bridge during the first world war. The gun placements and support buildings were upgraded and brought back into use during the second world war. Now listed as a group of buildings with special interest, but being reclaimed by the forces of nature.

 

 

The next village along the coast is the beautiful Aberdour, steeped in history and has just about everything you would want, or need, within its small, but perfectly formed, confines. I had the great privilege of living there for a few years and last year, and the year before that, I shared a little art gallery on the harbour wall with a few other artists and one very special maker. The photographs of the harbour and Hawkcraig Pier were taken from the gallery on the Gallery. Alas, the little Gallery is no more, however Aberdour has the fabulous Quay Gallery which is owned and run by Aberdour's very own Artist in residence, Alan Dawson.

Aberdour has inspired many of my watercolours and I am proud to say that the village baker and the McTaggarts café have adopted one of my works as their own.

'The Village Baker' features on mugs and magnets and other livery in both of these fine establishments. But, F C Lonie the bakers is up for sale....!  

What will life be without the famous Lonie pies?

 

Aberdour Art Festival is part of the summer festival and is where I started showing my work. It seems a long time ago, but just the blink of an eye. In 2016 I will again be featuring at the Aberdour Art Festival and have been asked to help organise the event... I am very pleased to be able to give back some of the joy I have received from exhibiting. I look forward to the challenges ahead.

 

In the meantime I will continue to be inspired as I walk the dogs on the foreshore of Dalgety.