sandr037

I expect that someone following this blog has wondered why I’m wasting my time exploring graphical projections. They are not central to professional rendering. They are certainly not in the mainstream of architectural illustration. Graphical projection is not what springs to mind when you think about selling a design: it isn’t very dramatic or emotional; in fact it is a rather cold, abstract technique. But, I don’t think you can understand the modern movement of architecture without understanding graphical projections; and understanding the modern movement has been on my mind for a long time; and is what I’m after right now. Back in the hay-day of Beaux Arts building, architects used orthographic drawings (plans, sections and elevations) rendered in shade and shadow. They avoided graphical projection drawing. If a three dimensional view was necessary, a perspective was created. Even a simple diagram such as this vault study from Joseph Gwilt's Civil Architecture (1825) was drawn ...

Which of the above images seems to have the better shadows?  I ask because of the convergence of two bits of information today.  First, on the Freakonomics podcast there was a discussion on how your cultural background can affect your view of the world (e.g. pessimistic vs optimistic).   Professor of Psychology, Boaz Keysar, stated that he was “much more likely to invest in the stock market when I do it in English. If I think about it in Hebrew, I’m much more conservative.” My own experience with dual language friends agrees with that; the language used brought out a slightly different character.  Second, I had lunch with an old friend who taught architectural drawing for 20 years. He said that he gave an assignment for a drawing exercise, and stipulated that the light should come from the left. Two Israeli women turned in projects with the light coming from the right. They explained that it simply looked better that way. And, after finding that the rest of the Engl...