CONVERSATION FORMS
The above drawing depicts something that I call Conversation Forms. The idea is that each of our thoughts, precepts, etc. can be summarized by a three dimensional polygonal form. This form would be established...
Tagged: ANALOGUE DRAWING
RELATIVITY
We live in curved spacetime. At least this is what the theory of relativity tells us. Space is curved by gravity. Therefore the space upon which we inhabit the earth is curved. It is...
EARLY PERSPECTIVE THINKERS
During the 1620s, Francis Bacon, a Franciscan monk, composed the Opus Majus. This was intended to be a compendium of the knowledge of the world. As we may expect from a Franciscan monk, he...
ARCHITECT BLOGS OF NOTE
There are two architect blogs that pertain to sketching, watercolors and architecture that are fun to check out. Frank Harmon, who is an architect, has a nice blog titled Native Places. This link was...
VISUAL SERENDIPITY
A word that I keep coming back to is associative. If our drawings promote and foster associations in our minds, then they have added value. And we have mentioned Google Images as a medium...
DRAWING IS DEAD
I respectfully note the passing of Michael Graves, Architect, who died yesterday at the age of 80. The Postmodern Movement, which Graves championed, was gaining its’ full strength while I was in architecture school....
THE 3D SOLID PROBLEM
All we can draw are planes. We cannot render the volume inside a solid. In the drawing above, there is a solid and a void within the cube. The dark green solid part is...
DREAM DRAWING
Mr. Manish Udar, in a recent contribution to the LinkedIn conversation that can be found here, mentioned the phenomenon of analogue drawings triggering dreams. I wonder if any one else has had a dream...
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
To operate successfully in science, you first advance a hypothesis. And then you have to make a judgement on this hypothesis based on direct empirical observation. In design, our we make empirical observations based...
BETWEEN CONCEPTION AND REPRESENTATION
I have shown my clients Transparent Drawings, and this has only increased their enthusiasm and excitement toward the design. There is a competitive advantage to the presentation of rational and explanatory hand drawings. And...
TRANSPARENT THUMBNAILS
I like social media better than I used to. Because of the interesting discussion that has sprung up on a small corner of LinkedIn, as I mentioned earlier, I am starting to see a...
MATHEMATICAL DESIGN
Mathematics provides an interesting reflection on some of our favorite themes; knowledge, learning, abstraction, etc. Mathematics’ principal function is to problem solve. We use math if we need to know the area of a...
ELEMENTAL SHAPES
The square. The circle. The sphere. All are what we call elemental shapes, or elemental building blocks. Yet the primacy of these shapes and forms is merely our cultural construct. We are attracted to...
APPROXIMATIONS
Ideas require mental images. If you don’t have the former, you don’t have the latter. But what are these ideas in our mind? How exact are they? How real are they? They are best...
DRAWING TO SAVE THE WORLD
We have shown that thinking requires mental images. Images contain thought and visual facts. Therefore our drawings are hugely important. They are a testament to a logical and rigorous construction. If we consider that...
CARPENTER CENTER UNDERSTANDING
We made a pilgrimage to Le Corbusier’s Carpenter Center in Cambridge, MA recently. This might have been the third time that I was there. School had not started yet so we were able to...
DATA PROCESSING
Don’t draw like a camera. A camera merely records perceptual data. A camera records the surface data. Then at some distant point in time, the processing of that data occurs. Or is supposed to...
VISUAL SUPERIORITY
Have you ever thought about how lucky you are to be able to utilize and operate within the world of visual shapes, rather than rely instead on verbal language? The immense richness of our...
POWER TO THE PENCIL
With our focus on the power of the analogue pencil in these pages, it was amazing to see the protests in France use the pencil as a symbol for the murders at Charlie Hebdo....
ANCIENT OPERATING SYSTEM
Let’s face it. The operating system for Transparent Drawing is ancient. After all, we are talking about nothing more than a pencil and a piece of paper with some watercolor tones. So how long...
TERMS OF SERVICE
I read that everyone likes lists online as they are easier to read and then are more likely to be forwarded (hint). So I offer to you this short list of terms and definitions...
BEWARE OF THE MANIFOLDNESS
Over the centuries, we have developed nearly a cultural fear of the visual. A couple of links to past posts here and here for a bit more background. And if you don’t believe any...
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