sandr037

At first glance this image looks like a rather boring aerial photo of western Kansas.   But the sky is queer, with rectangular clouds.    Actually, the sky is a chunk of land from Google Earth, desaturated, cooled and flipped.   It illustrates the similarity between land and sky in that each follows the rules of perspective, diminishing and flattening as field or cloud approach the horizon. A one point perspective grid using a diagonal vanishing point can be the basis for any simple landscape view.   Not only clouds, but roads, rivers and ocean waves can be worked out over such a grid.   Actual scale is unnecessary in such a grid; just mark off a horizontal line, connect each mark to a central vanishing point, and a diagonal will mark the receding horizontals at the intersection points. Of course the grid is simply a general framework to keep the image believable.   Clouds vary in size and shape.   They may be lined up in some orderly manner, or ...

A review of the truth, or lack of truth in architectural renderings. Truth in Advertising...  We are always “spinning.”  Humans tend to exaggerate, massage and forget the past, and the same applies to the way we present ourselves and our work to others.  I once knew a couple who always acted insanely happy with their marriage, children, house, careers… everything.  I later learned that they had all the same trouble and disappointments as the rest of us; they simply “sold” it all as wonderful.  There have been few projects I have worked on that were strictly honest.  The preliminary sketch below was part of a legal presentation to prospective owners, and was truthful in all aspects from the brick color to the placement of streetlights to the typical angle of the afternoon sun.  It is hardly my favorite rendering, but accurate it is. A typical honest lie is the use of axonometric drawings.  There are times, such as the long street shown below, when ...

“I think it’s much more interesting to live not knowing than to have answers which might be wrong.”   - Richard Feynman The previous post on beauty leads to the obvious question of truth in human existence.   The following are some personal notes suitable for cutting through the mental thickets surrounding Truth. Truth would seem to be a nice simple idea compared with “everybody has their own idea of” Beauty. However, looking at some quotes I dug up suggests otherwise.   The Bible talks of misleading external appearances, the “whited sepulchers,” suggesting beauty can camouflage what is ugly and evil.   Which is just another way of saying that beauty is “skin deep.”   The beautiful “gold digger” and the “diamond in the rough” are well worn phrases describing the disconnect between truth and beauty.   “In vino veritas”, suggests that truth comes from honesty and transparency, not to mention drunkenness.   Occam’s razor states that truth is related to s...