I apologize in advance that this is probably overly simplified, but I’m not even sure I fully understand my own process. Compared to many of you on here who have thousands of amazing drawings, I don’t have nearly as much experience, so my process is still “in-process”.
First, I gather dimensions from elevation drawings and type them out into excel. Usually, I do this to convert from feet to meters.
Next, I do what you do, Koops65 – creating an outline of the drawing. I don’t always create an outline, but I feel it helps for more complex buildings.
For example, if the building is comprised of more than one building I like to outline how the two buildings interact and meet up with each other (in this case it’s a building and a garage):
Originally, I would use InkScape for everything, but I didn’t like how my drawings would compress and distort when converting them down to the appropriate pixel height. If it weren’t for that, I would still prefer it for drawing since it’s much easier to make adjustments than Paint.net. I still use it from time-to-time to create the outline and then copy/paste it into Paint.net.
Here is my most recent, and I started with a basic outline. Here is the image I referenced, and my outline. I decided I wanted my diagram to be from the opposite side of the building (of which no rendering exists) because it has an L-Shape design as opposed to the flat side used in all the existing renders.
Outline:
After creating the outline, I like to work on the glass reflection. This building is glass, but it is covered with so many balconies it’s almost hard to work it into the drawing properly. I find a background I like, crop it, convert it to black and white, and usually make it a little bit blurry using Gaussian or Surface blur. I’ll make a new layer for this with an overlay setting until it looks good to me.
After that is where it gets complicated to explain, because I create tons of layers for everything (I like to obsess over little details, and I don’t want to be unable to change something later).
I’ll add in balconies and floors, as well as prominent design elements:
Next, I’ll add in shadows under individual balconies, and smaller shadows here and there to create depth where needed.
By this point, I have so many layers… Notice the scroll bar isn’t even showing half of it and this was well before I was finished…
Next, I add shadows and lighting. I literally shine a flashlight on books and boxes in my home office to figure out how the shadows are supposed to work. I have zero art background, so between shining my flashlight and researching pictures online, it’s the best I can do. I’ve only recently been experimenting with shadows and lighting in my diagrams, so I am still learning.
For lighting, I’ll use a white overlay on solid surfaces such as brick. First, I make a white rectangle over the brick, then I use a gradient tool to track the angle of the light. I’ll set the layer to “overlay” and turn the opacity up or down based on what I feel visually looks good.
For glass surfaces, depending on how reflective the surface is, I’ll use a mix of “Screen” or “Overlay” settings on my layers to get the desired effect.
Beyond that, I add final details such as pillars, additional shading, doors, etc. I also play around with shadows/lighting some more to make sure everything appears cohesive. I will add a green background for conversion before submitting to SSP.
Final result:
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Linear Mode
