Why renderings should fall into these various groups is probably not difficult to ascertain : they do so by following the various per sonalities of the renderers. A draughtsman naturally draws that aspect of a building which he is by habit inclined to appreciate. From one renderer, we shall almost always get a very correct and cold drawing ; from another a very bold and incorrect drawing. This suggests the reason why a perfectly balanced rendering has never been produced. It also suggests a point of interest to the student of rendering. It may well be that he will develop his art not simply by cultivating whatever tendency he happened to exhibit in the beginning, but, rather, by seeking to add to his forces some tendency which was not habitual to him. For example, if he is in the way of being an excellent draughtsman, he might seek to acquire an emotional appreciation of architecture in addi tion ; just as, if he has always had strong feelings about buildings, he might seek to comprehend the pure logic by which all architec tural masterpieces are given form. When thus regarded, rendering becomes, for the renderer himself, not so much a matter of self expression as of self-development.
To answer the remaining question—how to make a rendering —it is necessary, since there are numerous equally promising methods of procedure, to describe the method employed in a specific case. In the case of the rendering reproduced in fig. 1-6 of Plate III. the procedure was as follows:— A sheet of mounted Whatman paper 27 by 4o in. was tacked to a slightly larger drawing board and placed on a vertical easel. The draughtsman standing before the easel, made the assumption that, for the moment, the paper represented space. With the inten tion of introducing into this space, the presence of mass, a number of lines were lightly sketched in, using a 3B Wolff crayon (see fig. ). These lines fall into three groups, according to their direction ; they proceed, respectively, from three previously as sumed "vanishing points" (see PERSPECTIVE). They serve the draughtsman as an adequate notation of the three-dimensionality which characterizes any mass in space. While sketching these generalized lines, he emphasized such as would tentatively indicate the particular form that he intended to give the mass—the form which, until now, had existed only in his mind. The next step was to confirm and solidify these outlines by introducing tone values— produced by drawing, rapidly, a number of freehand lines across the areas to be shaded (see fig. 2) and rubbing these lines together into a tone with a gloved finger or a paper "stump" (see fig. 3). In the rendering now under consideration, the degree of solidity which was desired at this stage was effected by producing three general tones—the background being the darkest, the planes of the building which face toward the left being intermediary, and the planes which face toward the right being the lightest. The last tone
was produced by cleaning the areas with a "kneaded" eraser (see fig. 4).
At this point, the draughtsman had before him a visualization, vivid enough for his own purposes, of the basic form of the build ing. His next step was to identify, in his mind, the principal sub divisions of his preconceived design and to indicate, on the paper, these modifications of the basic form. This involved a repetition, at a smaller scale, of his previous procedure ; that is to say, he first sketched in the minor forms in line and then solidified them with tone values, using glove, stump and eraser. At this point another tone value was added to contribute further to the effect of solidity; i.e., the cast shadows (see fig. 5). The same process of indicating form in line was repeated again and again—each time dealing with a category of smaller forms—until the building appeared in that degree of detail which seemed best calculated to serve the purposes for which the drawing was undertaken (see fig. 6).
Of renderings of this sort, it might be said that the draughts man begins his task in this spirit : he is, metaphorically, facing a building which, although it exists in its entirety, is completely hid den from him in a mist or fog. As he approaches his subject, how ever, he begins to discern the principal outlines of its mass. Soon its secondary and tertiary features appear. He is free to continue his approach until the most minute details have become plain. Nevertheless, it is important that he halt at that point where his subject has revealed all that is essential to his inquiry.
The numerous other methods of rendering, all equally useful, can best be studied in reproductions of actual renderings; such ma terial, with explanatory notes, is shown in the accompanying plates. They all point to the same conclusion—the draughtsman's best procedure is first to delineate the essentials of his subject, then to build all indication of detail on this foundation.
A. Gregg, Architectural Rendering in Pen and Ink (1891) ; F. F. Frederick, Architectural Rendering in Sepia (1892) ; Frank A. Hays, ed., Architectural Rendering in Pen and Ink (1915) ; A. L. Guptill, Sketching and Rendering in Pencil (1922) H. V. Magonigle, Architectural Rendering in Wash (1926) ; A. L. Guptill, Drawing with Pen and ink (1928). Articles on architectural rendering have also appeared in the following magazines during the years indicated: Arts and Decoration (New York, 192o) ; Pencil Points (New York, 1921-25) ; Architecture (New York, 1923). (H. FE.)