To manually render a drawing is to make a still life of an exterior elevation or view of a building requires either a natural gift for art or a great deal of practice. It’s a subject most usually only taught in a university or higher learning technical school. Some high schools attempt to teach it, but usually in its most elementary form. These types of drawings can be rendered in various ways using pencil, pen and ink, and water color.
The first step is to draw the exterior elevation in a perspective view using vanishing point lines. These are lines that gradually from two single points ray out until they connect to the perspective lines from an opposite side of the paper.
After the perspective elevation’s been carefully drawn, and the shadows laid in outline, it’s ready to be rendered. Shadows on the perspectives can be easily determined if they are cast first on the elevations, and then applied to the perspective. Then trees, shrubs, people, and whatever else can be added to the drawing.
Rendering in pencil is probably the most simple way to do it. Use a sharp #2 lead pencil, and then start with firm, short lines. If done properly, the pencil rendering will resemble the pen and ink. If you have a steady hand you can also add water color to the drawing.
On the other hand, with modern technology and the advent of automated CAD (Computer Aided Drafting), rendering can also be completed in the drafting program. This is by far the fastest way, but call me a purist if you want, there’s nothing that looks better than a hand drawn rendering.
My name is Tim Davis and I draw architectural plans for a living. I also teach others how to draw house plans, site plans, mechanical and shop drawings and other types of drafting that I have been trained to do in a virtual classroom on the internet called The Online Drafting Course Access Board at http://draftingschool.net/
