Monday, December 17, 2012

Another Artist Impression

Creating artist impressions is an enjoyable outlet for a few of the things that really interest me.

Firstly it’s drawing, but with a focus on architectural subjects. Drawing houses and buildings is probably about as close to actual property development as I’ll ever get. Although as a keen Do-it-yourself-er, I’ve tried building all sorts of things around my place from pergolas, garden sheds and sleepouts to landscaping stuff like retaining walls, decks and fences.

I don’t think I’ve built any of those things without drawing them first to make sure I like what I’m doing and to work out how much it’ll cost.

Secondly, I love working on landscaping projects, the whole gardening thing and the myriad of possibilities there are for beautifying a property with plants, shrubs and trees is just the icing on the cake. If you’ve read anything on my Garden Blog then you’ll know how much I enjoy that kind of thing.

So, although I’ve never actually studied architecture or horticulture and I’m not actually a builder, that hasn’t diminished my interest in those things. And the good thing about drawing them is I can dream big and it doesn’t cost me anything except a bit of time and imagination. So, what better way to put all those interests together than drawing artist’s impressions.

So this is what I do. The first thing I need is a set of architects drawings, a couple of elevations like so...



From those I create a 3D model and then add colour and detail to all the visible surfaces...



Then, using the architects site plan and a photo of the property as references...



I position the 3d model making sure the model is rotated to the correct viewing angle and scaled to the correct size. Then with a few landscaping features added like stone walls and garden planting, as well as 1 or 2  adjustments to colours and other minor details, the job was practically done.


It’s a worthwhile investment for any property developer to make, especially if financing the project is an issue. An artist’s impression like this can be used to arrange funding especially for spec building, where a buyer needs to be lined up first before the commitment is made to start building.