How to Draw and Paint Fantasy Architecture: From Ancient Citadels and Gothic Castles to Subterranean Palaces and Floating Fortresses

Foamboards

Advice and instruction from a leading fantasy illustrator guides art students who intend to pursue careers illustrating computer games, children’s books, graphic novels, and other related media. This book’s opening chapter analyzes traditional architectural shapes that include arches, columns, towers, vaults, and buttresses. Chapters that follow apply principles of lighting, shadow, and perspective to the architectural forms, and discuss ways of creating surface textures and adding dramatic atmosphere to illustrations. Readers are then guided through a series of projects of increasing complexity in which they create illustrations dominated by fantasy castles, palaces, dungeons, and more. Here is comprehensive instruction in the techniques required for capturing fantastic buildings, alien architecture, and alternate realities. More than 250 enlightening color illustrations.

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Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture

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Architects: Holst Architecture
Location: Portland, OR, USA
Team: R&H Construction, Brightworks
Area: 76,000 sqm
Year: 2009
Photographs: Stephen Miller

From the architect. When renowned design consulting firm Ziba Design sought a new headquarters office in downtown Portland, Oregon, the challenge was to create a place that fostered cross-pollination in a company defined by its multidisciplinary culture.

For the long, narrow site, designed 55,000 square feet of office space that maximizes daylighting by incorporating a two-story glass curtain wall on the north facade and a light well on the south facade. An internal “street,” stretching the length of the north-facing curtain wall, is punctuated by a series of open and closed workspaces that provide ample opportunity for intermingling among employees.

Open spaces are organized into “tribes,” ideal for collaboration, while the closed spaces include conference rooms, project rooms, and an auditorium. Additional amenities consist of lounges for international clients, bike storage, a multimedia and materials library, and a full-service kitchen that opens onto a roof deck with stunning views of Portland.

The office’s ground floor features an interactive gallery space for rotating exhibits, while the double-height main lobby is flanked by display cases intended to showcase Ziba’s award-winning products. On the ground floor, 15,000 square feet of prime retail space is available for Ziba to lease out, and a public entrance opens to the auditorium, frequently used for lectures and forums.

Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture © Stephen Miller
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture Floor Plan
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture Diagram
Ziba Design World Headquarters / Holst Architecture Diagram

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Logan Graphic Products, Inc. Team System Mat Cutters 40 in.

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Logan 424 (24 in.) and Logan 440 (40 in.) Team System straight edge mat cutters. Heavy-duty aluminum straight edge Rubber straight edge base provides secure grip Nylon bearings make surring easier and more accurate Start and stop line eliminates over cutting corners Detailed scale makes measuring easier Can be used with Model 701 Straight Cutter or Model 500 Mat Knife for sizing sheets of mat board or foam board Includes 5 blades Use #270 replacement blades.

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Casa Altamira

Foamboards

Photography by Rodrigo Montoya / Joan Puigcorbé We conceive architecture as a language across which properties can express themselves such as: harmony, creativity, happiness, beauty, poetry, complexity, magic, provocation and culture. In our architecture we put emphasis on the quality of the experience of living; we look for pleasure in its deepest forms, a journey through the landscape where one finds the place of thought, the refuge of the mind and the satisfaction by means of sensory and ideal declarations. This house establishes an intimate, woven and direct relationship with the topography and with the existing vegetation. In a descending promenade the diverse spaces are articulated between water courtyards and vegetation, until one approaches the great room, which in only one gesture turns into a great porch, with seamless continuity between the interior and the exterior. Every bedroom, arranged step by step, has its own exterior private space and garden, protected and intimate, and at the same time links to a common open pathway through the landscape. The swimming pool acts as hinge between the built space and the garden. The garden is protected from inward external views and the views of the west, with a visual horizon that allows …

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blog wunderlust: 9th December 2013

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Architecture is exposed to life. If its body is sensitive enough it can assume a quality that bears witness to past life.
Peter Zumthor

Swiss superstars of architecture | Frank Gehry’s Grand vision to go before project committee | Lucid Stead: a mirage cabin made of mirrors | 100 Iconic Landmarks reduced to their negative space | Mockery of Kanye West’s design ambition is “racist” says African-American activist | A tower that looks like it’s built out of waterfalls | Entire New 13-Story Building Tips Over in Shanghai | The 12 Days of Architecture

last word: The Trinidad Arcade

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Parametric Building Design Using Autodesk Maya

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Due to its comprehensive tool-set and great potential for 3D modeling, more and more architectural design and interior design firms are adapting Autodesk Maya and integrating it into their practice. There has been no book aimed at architects and designers who wish to harness the opportunities presented by this software, until now…..

The book promotes parametric design. It integrates the theoretical research of computational design and Maya non-linear modeling techniques associated with simulation, animation, digital fabrication and form-finding within 2D & 3D design. Readers will learn:

How to use Maya polygon and NURBS modeling tools to create non-linear procedural model.

How to use Maya driver keys and relationship tools to generate parametrically negotiable solutions across various design professions.

The design logic and generative processes, as well as the potential of parametric thinking as a resourceful tool for achieving diversity and complexity in form generation and fabrication.

How to use Maya to prepare files for rapid prototyping and the integration of Maya into various fabrication techniques such as laser cutting, CNC milling, and 3D printing.

How to create a digital simulation to simulate all aspects of surface properties and dynamic forces with Maya physics engine.

How to use Maya skeleton system and animation tools to control complex architectural forms.

How to create photo-realistic renderings with Maya lighting, material and texture mapping. Using several real projects as examples, the book will go through the entire rendering process step by step.

How to combine Maya with various CAD/BIM tools to create an efficient design pipeline.

How to use Maya MEL script to create customized tools and interface.

The book includes case studies from Zaha Hadid Architects, Greg Lynn Form, Gage Clemenceau Architects, Tang & Yang Architects, as well as step by step exercises, demonstration projects and crucially a fantastic online resource which includes video tutorials, scripts, and Maya source files.

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