I put this illustration together this morning in hopes of showing how crucial landscaping is to an architectural illustration. This is something that always seems to be overlooked by a lot of students, and something I didn’t take seriously until grad school.  I never left enough time for adding landscaping, focusing more on making the building look good. However, I have come to realize, especially from projects at work, that just as much time should be put into the landscaping as the architecture. From the set of images below, you can see how much the atmosphere changes from adding a few trees, water, and ivy growing on the facade. It sets the building into the site and gives it the feeling that it belongs there. In a few occasions, these subtle moves have changed the clients perception of the project in a positive way.

 

 

 

Below are some images outlining the progression of the illustration; from the Sketchup model to the final Photoshopped image. I started the image about 9:00 this morning and finished it 4 hours later (including rendering time). I was hoping to have more of a tutorial explaining how I added the landscape elements but ran out of time. I will see if I can put something together at a later date.

 

 

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Sketchup Model line work export

 

 

 

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Sketchup Model image export (not used in the actual rendering but better shows what the SU model looked like).

 

 

 

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Kerkythea rendering (About 15 minute rendering time).

 

 

 

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The base rendering with some tall grass Photoshopped in. The water is from a photograph of the actual pond on the site.

 

 

 

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Finally, some trees and ivy added. A little color was overlaid to unify all of the different Photoshopped elements and give warmth to the image.