{"id":1208,"date":"2016-10-12T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2016-10-12T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/architizer.wpengine.com\/the-art-of-rendering-watercolor\/"},"modified":"2018-08-22T09:50:09","modified_gmt":"2018-08-22T13:50:09","slug":"the-art-of-rendering-watercolor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.arc.ht\/blog\/practice\/details\/the-art-of-rendering-watercolor\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art of Rendering: Create a Stunning Watercolor Visual Using SketchUp, AutoCAD and Photoshop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Ronen Bekerman<\/b><\/a> is an industry leader in Architectural Visualization who hosts in-depth tutorials on his specialist blog. Architizer is pleased to present a selection of these guides written by some of the world\u2019s best rendering artists.<\/i><\/p>\n

Atelier Crilo<\/a> is an interdisciplinary studio focused on architecture, co-founded and directed by Cristian Farinella and Lorena Greco. They develop unique solutions to design issues and provide a large range of services for design development and 3D visualization. Following on from our features on creating renderings using photographic principles<\/a> and the challenge of achieving real-time photorealism<\/a>, Atelier Crilo\u2019s guide looks at a more stylized, illustrative approach to architectural visualization, where traditional art meets the digital age.<\/p>\n

The firm posted some architectural watercolor visuals back in 2014 that immediately captured my eye. I like this approach in general, and their use of AutoCAD layers in this case was especially interesting. This is a traditional technique revisited with digital tools to produce architectural illustrations that have a watercolor feel as well as the precision of CAD drawing. Read on for Atelier Crilo\u2019s account of their creative process. Enjoy this one!<\/p>\n

Intro<\/h2>\n

We have been following Ronen\u2019s blog<\/a> for a long time now, and we admire the predominant quality achieved via 3D in the many posts published, even the ones by beginners. Just a few years ago it was a completely different story. There were very few that showcased really high levels of competence, but today \u2014 without underestimating the considerable effort required \u2014 you can get really good results following tutorials and making-of guides on the web. This would not be possible without a place like this blog, and we are very proud to offer our own contribution to it.<\/p>\n

Why Watercolors?<\/h2>\n

We began focusing on watercolors because of the desire to experiment with new representation techniques that come from other areas such as art, graphic design and comics, trying to cross and combine other disciplines with architectural visualization. This is the case all the time \u2014 working as architects and designers but also as graphic designers and illustrators. It\u2019s really helpful finding inspirations elsewhere.<\/p>\n

In this way, we rediscovered the watercolor where you least expect it \u2014 in the world of Italian comics that, today, seems to be going through a rebirth.<\/p>\n

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Dylan Dog with the forest as background (left) and the view of a narrow street in London (right) made with a few bold strokes, based on strong use of color, without any outline to the contours. The choice of the camera as well as the forced perspective given lends a strong dynamic sense to the two scenes.<\/i><\/p>\n

If we look at both graphic-novel and popular comics, it is possible to find great writers and artists like Gipi<\/a> (Gian Alfonso Pacinotti), but most significantly, we are witnessing the rebirth of Dylan Dog<\/a> with the new editorial line by Roberto Recchioni and with talented comic artists such as Gigi Cavenago. Architecture and comics are disciplines closely related, and the two positions \u2014 comic artist and architect \u2014 may be complementary even though they technically make drawings with very different goals.<\/p>\n

Looking at the depth of the cartoon drawing as well as at the expressive use of line and color can be a source of deep inspiration, complementing the technical knowledge required by any 3D visualizer that is called to represent buildings, illustrate perspective views and to tell the stories of unbuilt visions through his or her images.<\/p>\n

Modus Operandi<\/h2>\n

Broadly speaking, it\u2019s important to understand the following general structure. Drawings were intended to be a single board, whose reading should be seen as a whole. The layout is made by strips in a horizontal format, using a strong painted background of black \u2014 such as in the use of traditional ink in hand drawings \u2014 and using watercolors with a wide range of tone. These vary from dark colors with cold green and blue to the pure white that \u2014 as with the classic technique \u2014 is not obtained by using white paint, but by using the white of the paper.<\/p>\n

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Study model<\/i><\/p>\n

The design choices are immediately and clearly visible on the materials, joining together the step of texturing to the process of modeling as an element of control for the project.<\/p>\n

Starting From the Model<\/h2>\n

In our case, both the architectural project and the 3D visualization are managed by us. The positions of designer and 3D visualizer are the same, so we have developed a very detailed 3D model to better manage 2D drawings and sections. Generally, we design directly in 3D using textures and materials from the outset and considering camera angles for the interiors design.<\/p>\n

In this way, we try to keep a total control of the project from the very beginning. This can be hard especially in the early stages of design, but it has a great advantage in the rest of the workflow, as you can imagine. For modeling we use SketchUp, where it is possible to obtain a high level of detail and complexity even though it is a simple and immediate tool. At the same time, from the point of view of an architectural designer, it is unequaled when working with sections in real time. Other applications do not provide this option so well.<\/p>\n

To explain myself better, it\u2019s not about viewing the section planes, but to work on them, editing profiles and polygons in the rest of the model. The house is heavily based on the section, and this tool was a very useful one to manage the project with. The section tool allows you not only to display the section plane, but also to model inside.<\/p>\n

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The section<\/i><\/p>\n

Exporting<\/h2>\n

Once the model is built with a sufficient level of detail, there are two export options:<\/p>\n