Essentials to Be Rendered

It is usually held that when a viewpoint has once been selected, it is demanded by honesty that all items of the scene (including adjoining buildings) must be delineated exactly as they appear; that if one arbitrarily makes alterations (as, for example, showing adjoining buildings less prominently than they actually are) he is guilty of "faking." Undeniably, many renderings are "faked"; at the same time, there is a distinction to be made. If the altera tion has been made for the purpose of conveying a more favourable impression than the actual scene, then the charge of misrepre sentation is, obviously, sustained. It often happens, however, that a building possesses a very important feature which, while entirely visible from many points of view, may happen to be screened from the particular point of view that has been chosen. For instance, a building may possess a certain buttressing member which gives its tower integrity, and which may be visible from many view points, but this member may be hidden from the chosen viewpoint by some extraneous and perhaps temporary obstruction. We may assume at the same time, that the renderer's commission is to depict the building as truthfully and completely as possible in a single drawing. In such a case, it would appear that he is not so much permitted as actually required to slight incidental facts of his viewpoint in favour of the essential facts of the subject which he is viewing.

Perspective of Vertical Lines.

Another item demanding the renderer's attention is that all effects of perspective which a build ing presents to the human eye apply to its vertical as well as to its horizontal extension. Although this is obviously so, the cur rent convention of perspective generally disregards it, the hori zontal lines, only, being drawn to meet in a "vanishing point," but the vertical lines being arbitrarily drawn parallel to each other. In the case of very low buildings, the discrepancy is not impor tant; but in the cases, now so numerous, of very tall buildings, the inaccuracy is serious. The convention not only produces dis torted drawings, but so habituates onlookers to distortion that they become disinclined to recognize normal appearances.

Method of Construction.

The renderer may, to a consider able degree, express in his drawing such differences of appearance as exist, for example, between a building of solid masonry and one of steel grille construction. His medium allows considerable va riety of indication of texture characteristic of stone, brick, terra cotta, glass, etc.

Atmospheric Conditions.

Buildings are, of necessity, seen through a physical atmosphere and a suggestion of reality obvi ously cannot be conveyed in a drawing in which an atmospheric condition is not convincingly suggested ; some renderings, for instance, fail by conveying the suggestion that the subject was viewed through a vacuum.

The important question of colour belongs to a general study of the painter's art (see PAINTING; WATERCOLOUR PAINTING).

In addition to these material factors, an architectural subject presents others of a psychological nature. A realistic rendering may, indeed, be produced by dealing honestly with only the physical facts; an authentic rendering, however, demands a real istic treatment of intellectual and emotional aspects as well. In

this connection, the following experiment is illustrative. An exact perspective was laid out of the form of the Woolworth building, using the architect's blue prints as a basis. A second study was made, sketching from the building itself from an exactly corre sponding viewpoint. The building was then photographed from this viewpoint. On comparing the three results it was found that the principal proportions were different in each case. The more striking conclusion was that none of them conveyed the sense of structural logic which the disposition of the steel members them selves conveys to the thoughtful observer ; none of them suggested the emotion of soaring aspiration which the form itself suggests to the human onlooker. It becomes, indeed, one of the chief concerns of the renderer to comprehend the nature of the architectural idea which his subject embodies, the trend of thought the architect has expressed. Similarly, the renderer must especially aim to appreciate the emotional tone, the particular mood, of his subject.

On entering these outlying psychological domains rendering, like the other arts, may attain its happiest freedom of movement.

Yet just here, unfortunately, it must evade competent technical guidance. We have many paintings and drawings which succeed in conveying an isolated thought or an isolated emotion; but too often we find that the renderings which have attained this success have paid in distorted material proportions.

Viewed in this way, renderings as a whole fall into certain rather well-defined groups. The largest, and most familiar, in cludes those in which the renderer has made a competent presen tation of the material facts, but has failed to include any of those elements which, in architecture, stimulate the mind and arouse the emotions. It is as though he worked only with his hands, neither his thought nor feeling having been involved. The result is correct but chilling. A second group is that in which only an emotional aspect of the subject has been fully rendered, just as a third is that in which only an intellectual aspect has been emphasized. Such works, generally labelled "impressionistic," "futuristic," etc., often convey what was intended yet fail of permanent value in that they distort or omit the physical facts of the case. If, for example, the subject be a mausoleum which has, in actuality, an atmosphere of solemnity, such a rendering may—perhaps in a few dark washes—convey an emotion of solemnity but leave the mau soleum itself in doubt. Or, if the subject be a tower notable for its logical growth, the rendering may—perhaps in a few cold lines —suggest logical growth but refer to no particular tower. There follow, naturally, three further groups in which the result is more appealing or convincing : that in which the material facts have been accurately presented in a thoughtful manner; that in which they have been presented with appreciable emotion ; and that in which, while the material facts have been presented inexactly, a clear architectural thought appears accompanied by deep feeling. The ideal, which would constitute a seventh group, would be to convey the material, the emotional and the intellectual facts in the same rendering.