A Brief History of Bookmaking II

Posted on by

The process of handlettering and drawing camera-ready pages for my books continued throughout the 1980s. But in the early 1990s, armed with an Apple Macintosh SE, a laser printer, and digital typography, I made my first foray into using digital technology as I prepared A Visual Dictionary of Architecture.

After assembling and organizing the terms and definitions into sets, I laid the material out on oversized sheets in Aldus Pagemaker. It was fortuitous that Adobe had just recently scanned my handlettering and created the digital font, Tekton, which I used for the dictionary terms and definitions. After printing the pages out, I laid tracing paper over each page and roughed out the size and position of each illustration to fit. I would then work back and forth, adjusting the placement of text in Pagemaker as necessary to accommodate the illustrations before doing the final drawings by hand on Clearprint vellum. After having the drawings scanned, I placed the .tiff files into the Pagemaker files.

VDA

 

VDA2

In 2000, I began working with Steve Winkel on the first edition of Building Codes Illustrated. Knowing that the International Building Code, on which the text was based, was going to be updated every three years, I decided to do all of the drawings in Adobe Illustrator, learning the program on the fly.

I use Illustrator basically as a drafting tool to create the visual ideas I have in mind. The many benefits of vector graphics include: using the Save As capability to try out different options; having precise control over line weights and tonal values; being able to resize drawings easily to fit a page layout; and reusing elements that I had already drawn. Most importantly, when working on a revision, instead of having to completely redo a hand drawing, I can open an existing drawing file and make the necessary changes to create the updated version.

IBC

Because I am using digital tools more and more in my bookmaking, I cherish even more the opportunities to draw by hand when out on location. Even as I experiment with drawing on my iPad, the connection between eye, mind, and hand when I draw with a fountain pen in a sketchbook remains a pleasure.

A Brief History of Bookmaking

Posted on by

Following up on a previous post about the making of Green Building Illustrated, here is a brief history of my publications.

My first book, Architectural Graphics, was published 38 years ago, in 1975. Due to the efforts of Forrest Wilson, Van Nostrand Reinhold offered me a contract based on of over 400 pages of notes I had prepared for the very first class I taught at Ohio University. I still remember condensing those notes and handlettering and drawing the final camera-ready pages with a Scripto lead pencil, a triangle, and a scale. I completed all 128 pages in a little over three weeks. Here is a sample page.

AG

Building Construction Illustrated soon followed, using the same tools and process. But this time I worked on tabloid-size paper instead of letter-size bond paper. Interestingly, after a few years of complaints from bookstores, the pages were reduced to letter-size.

BCI

Wanting to use more subtle hatching and shades of gray, I used a 0.3 mm lead pencil to handletter and draw the images on Clearprint vellum for the camera-ready pages of my third book—Architecture: Form, Space and Order. Here are a couple of screen shots for a visual comparison.

AFSO AFSO2

My next post will describe the first time I used digital technology in my bookmaking.

Under the Viaduct

Posted on by

UnderViaduct

Here is a view from beneath the Alaskan Way Viaduct where University Avenue meets Alaskan Way, drawn at the monthly meeting of the Seattle Urban Sketchers yesterday. Built in the 1950s, the two-level highway is a critical connector to Fremont, Ballard, and other points in northwest Seattle. And driving on the northbound upper deck offers impressive views of downtown Seattle and across Puget Sound to Bainbridge Island the Olympic Mountains beyond.

After the 2001 earthquake, civic leaders decided that the viaduct needed to be replaced for safety concerns. After studying various alternatives, including surface streets and bridges, it was finally decided after a long public process that a 2-mile long tunnel beneath downtown Seattle was the best option. On July 30th, Bertha, the world’s largest tunnel boring machine, began drilling operations.

The viaduct is scheduled for demolition in 2016. I will miss it.

Green Building Illustrated

Posted on by

I’ve been busy this summer developing a new textbook, Green Building Illustrated, which attempts to explain the theory, practices, and complexities of sustainable design. Working with excellent material written by engineer and researcher Ian M. Shapiro, my focus is on presenting the ideas and information in graphic form, as I have done with my previous Illustrated texts. Here is a few drafts of page spreads that I hope will whet your appetite.

GBI_S1

GBI_S2 GBI_S3

I’m laying out the book in Adobe InDesign and producing the drawings in Adobe Illustrator. Even before I begin work in Illustrator, however, I usually have a pretty good idea in mind of the image I want to produce and sometimes use freehand sketches to review and refine the possibilities I will be exploring.

GBI_Freehand

In a future post, I will explain the reasons for my use of digital media to produce the drawings.

Seattle Workshop II

Posted on by

Gail Wong and I will be offering a second Line to Color workshop in Seattle September 6–8. As in our spring workshop, we’ll begin on Friday evening with an introductory sketching session followed by dinner and presentations at the Ballard Pizza Co. On Saturday, we’ll work in the Fremont neighborhood and at Gasworks Park. Then on Sunday, we’ll meet the Seattle Urban Sketchers at either Pike Place Market or Pioneer Square. As always, it should be fun. And beginners are certainly welcome!

Here is a pdf offering a complete schedule and more information.

SeattleWorkshopII

If you’re interested or have any questions, please contact Gail at gail@glwarc.com.

Fremont Mischief Distillery

Posted on by

Mike and Patti Sherlock started making rye whiskey in the late 1990s from a recipe from the journals of John Jacob, an immigrant from Holland and Patti’s great-grandfather. When Washington state passed the craft law in 2008, Mike and Patti founded Fremont Mischief Distillery. Here is a view of the distillery with its retail shop and tasting room fronting the Ship Canal.

MischiefDistillery

Fremont Mischief distills whiskey, gin and vodka using winter wheat grown on Whidbey Island and rye from small Washington State farms and the Willamette Valley in Oregon. Quoting from the distillery’s website:

“Fremont Mischief is a full-circle distillery. We begin by selecting the finest organic, heirloom and small farm conventional grains & botanicals. Together with pure artesian waters, these ingredients are skillfully crafted into fine spirits with the help of our artisan stills. Then, our spent grain is reused and ultimately returns, full-circle, as organic compost for farms and gardens. We recognize the artistry in crafting fine spirits. Our stills are a work of art themselves. They are hand-made by Arnold Holstein Co., a German family that’s been building distilleries for many decades. We worked closely with the still-maker, to incorporate proprietary technology into our columns stills. No need for twelve times distilled or even three.  Our stills allow us to distill pure, flavorful spirits the very first run.”

Mukilteo Lighthouse

Posted on by

The Seattle UrbanSketchers met at the Mukilteo Lighthouse on a cool, foggy morning this past Sunday. Surprisingly, the lighthouse is rather diminutive, only 38 feet tall and constructed of wood. It began operations in 1906 to guide ships on their way to Everett, Washington, as well as those traveling up Possession Sound and the Saratoga Passage.

Mukilteo1

Because the lighthouse grounds didn’t open until noon, I walked along the beach at low tide, and climbed up on some rocks until I could capture this view from the top of the seawall.

The Mukilteo Light Station was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1977 and is now maintained by the Mukilteo Historical Society, although the navigational equipment is still maintained by the Coast Guard.

The Tar Paper Shacks

Posted on by

These humble gable structures wrapped in tar paper have been around ever since I moved to the Fremont neighborhood in 1982. I don’t mean to demean the place by calling it the Tar Paper Shack; I actually admire the simplicity of the gable forms and how they manage to fit into the tight corner site in a rather graceful manner.

TarPaperShacks

I don’t know much about their history or story, nor anything about who might be living there. Nevertheless, I am sure those driving along Leary Avenue NW where it turns into NW 36th Street will recognize it, and maybe even miss it if it is ever replaced.

Drawing a Self-Portrait

Posted on by

Drawing a self-portrait was the initial assignment we used to give students at the outset of our design drawing class. The process we outlined was as follows:

“Have available a fine-tipped black pen capable of marking a sheet of clear acetate. Select a comfortable, seated position in front of a mirror and tape the acetate sheet to the mirror where your face appears. Carefully consider the shape, proportion, and features of your face.

With the pen and using a line technique, draw your portrait directly on the sheet of acetate. To do this, you must look through only one eye—your dominant eye. To find out which is your dominant eye, mark the tip of your nose on the mirror with both eyes open and then shutting each eye in turn. Seen through your dominant eye, the mark will hardly move; through the weaker one, the mark will shift considerably.”

SelfPortrait

This is my attempt, which I’ve flipped so that the image is as you would see me. It seems that I’m looking to my right but I was actually looking straight ahead. While the task itself does not take very long, it is difficult to keep your head steady while trying to trace the contours of your face. You also learn after a few tries not to draw every line you see! This was a fun exercise that not only introduced the students to drawing from observation but also helped us identify students before the age of digital cameras.