THE ELECTROMAGNET AND THE GREEK REVIVAL
Think of a Greek Revival house as a scientific experiment. Difficult if next to impossible? Then let’s compare a Greek Revival to an electromagnet to see if this becomes clearer. ELECTROMAGNET AS PARADIGM...
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PUZZLES AND PROBLEMS
Science is devoted to puzzle solving, not problem solving. We are conditioned to think of science as solving enormously complex problems. We romanticize about Salk or Madame Curie heroically making life better for all...
GROWTH MINDSET
I am amazed by what gets published as a book. For whatever reason, I picked up Mindset by Carol S. Dweck. This is a book that you can read in about an hour, as...
BACKGROUNDS
Putting a background tone on drawings is a great thing. A background can serve as a contrast to the content of a drawing. When you fill the entire page with a tone, the graphic...
SCIENTIFIC CREATIVE URGE
Science is driven by the creative urge. This may seem antithetical. Our conventional understanding of science and it’s methods revolves typically around understanding. Galileo, with his telescope, looked to the heavens. And with his...
TRANSPARENT DRAWING MANIFESTO
We launch this manifesto of tumbling and incendiary sight, this manifesto through which today we set up Transparent Drawing, because we want to deliver problem solvers from their gangrene of representation, perspective construction, and...
GRAPHITE AND DIAMOND
Graphite and diamond are both forms of pure carbon. The graphite that we use in our pencils and the diamond that we wear on our fingers is the same stuff. It is just that...
DRAWING FROM DRAWING
I look at a lot of art when I am making my drawings. Artists that I have found inspirational are Amy Sillman, Richard Serra, Frank Stella, and Picasso, to name a few. I thought...
GUINET FARMHOUSE
Three views of an ordinary building. I was leafing thru Form Function and Design by Jacques Grillo. On page 108, he includes three views of an ordinary building. And two of the three views...
DESIGN MONEY
Money. Money is the talisman of our self-regard. We carefully monitor the quantity as a way to shape our actions. It is a fundamental societal currency. It is a proxy for gauging societal achievement....
SCARPA SYNESTHETICS
Carlos Scarpa has always been a hero. So it was with great interest when I came across this passage in Harry Mallgrave’s The Architect’s Brain; Neuroscience, Creativity and Architecture. This quote is attributed to...
CORB IN THE M’ZAB VALLEY
In the 23 May 2016 issue of The New Yorker, Julie Belcove writes about a new architectural exhibition that is being constructed in the Guggenheim. The artist is Kader Attia, and he has set...
SPECTATOR CULTURE
The other evening, we made a design presentation in front of a municipal board for a new building. As usual, we brought in an architectural massing model. And we always work to give the...
AMAZING TRANSPARENCY
Art Qlate commented on Facebook about, to use their term, amazing transparency. They ask which brand of watercolors I use. First of all, thanks to Art for their very kind comments. The short answer...
SPECTATOR THEORY AND JOHN DEWEY
We are not spectators. We are dynamic beings. We move around. We engage with the world in three dimensions. Yet our culture conditions us to be spectators. Spectator theory insists that the world is...
CREATIVE DETAIL
We need to share details of our creative methods and processes. A couple of pages ago, I lamented that we don’t share any of the creative details of how we are inspired. For example,...
WHAT IS AND WHAT WILL BE
In Transparent Drawing, you draw to solve what is to be built, and you draw to solve what has already been built. Either way it is the same problem that requires a solution. That...
HOW DOES IT FEEL?
I mentioned a couple of pages ago that I like the Staedtler Mars 4B pencils, which I use to draw in my Moleskine Watercolor sketchbooks. Of course there are thousands of pencil and paper...
CHEAP WATERCOLOR SETS
Two pages ago, I offered thoughts on watercolor sets. I also commented on the cost. The three sets that I highlighted were all around $70. In the whole scheme of things, when a tank...
PAINTS AND BRUSHES
Christian writes in with the following query: “Just found your site searching for La Tourette images. I was wondering what materials you use and in what order? I’ve been using a water brush and...
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