CHING AND TRANSPARENCY

A book that we have all been given as a basic drawing resource is Architectural Graphics, by Francis Ching.  Almost every drawing in the book is opaquely drawn.  Yet Ching does address transparency in the following three ways.

1.  Cutaway Views as shown above.  This is defined where an outer element is removed so you can see the interior.  This technique gets us part of the way toward transparency.  Elements which are not removed continue to be drawn opaquely.  In our transparent drawings, we will be making all of the outer elements transparent.  p84.

2.  Exploded Views shown above.  As the name suggests, the interior of the object is revealed when we pull away certain exterior elements.  In Ching’s depiction, we continue to show the elements in their proper alignment with the object, it is just that they are pulled away so we can see inside.  Yet all of the planes remain opaque.

3.  Another applicable technique that Ching gives us is what he calls Phantom Views.  Here he gets close to the transparency that we are aiming for.  A Phantom View is created by indicating enclosure elements with dashed lines.  The form is readable and you can see how the interior works with the exterior form.  In his drawings, the interior elements are shown with solid lines and the interior construction is shown representationally.  Indeed, Ching’s Phantom Views gets us the closest to where we want to go with our transparent drawing.  p85.

The page numbers refer to the fourth addition.