start small, add linework, scan and blow up in photoshop

print on 8-1/2 X 11 sheets, add detail

scan those, blow that up print on 11 X 17

add more detail, scan those, blow them up

print on plotter E size with light lineweight (reduce opacity in pshop), then add more detail on that with big GWB t square?

I would use a parallel bar instead of a T square. They are a lot easier to use

I would use a parallel bar instead of a T square. They are a lot easier to use

my largest yet has been a 5'x9'
Damn hard just to find paper that big.
i retrofitted my desk with a large sheet of particle board and installed the hardware off my mayline (bearings, cable guide, bottom half including rollers) onto the longest piece of straight wood i could find.
you can also draft on a wall.

i vaguely recall a photo of mies doing classical columns or something on a huge stand-up drafting board for one-to-one construction drawings. for his da when he still helped out with the drawings...

get yosef one of those and youd be set...:-)

I'll give ya five bucks if you also use one of those giant gag pencils and huge erasers.

I had a classmate who had an 8' mayline. That helps.

My final drawings in my 4th year 1st sem studio were huge. I did ink on arches - had 8 tiles, each 30 x 42 - with my 48" mayline on a solidcore 3'0" door. I didn't scan or trace anything. Just sketched it all on trace, then established dimensions and worked up in scale slowly.

It helps to make a "storyboard" - small scale compositional intent drawings.

Drew it all with a 4h and included construction lines to assist in composition. Then started from left to right, inking the work. Covered the fresh drawings with trace and used lots of pen cleaner and drafting powder.

DON'T use mdf - it will warp. Use a 3'6" solid core door. It's much more rigid.

You can fine 2' - 3' triangles, but I found a large, cork-backed straight edge, a mayline and a 18" triangle worked fine.

I think arches makes a portfolio sheet as well - it's like $30 for a 4' x 8' sheet of cold press.

xietao - great idea with the DIY mayline, it actually works? I'll have to try that. I'm just a mayline nerd, I love those things.

If anyone happens to find an 8' mayline for sale, let me know, ha.

Man, I love drawing.

-andrew

inking from left to right....you must be left-handed JohnProlly?

No, right handed. Left side of the page to right. This way you dont smear your already-inked work.

Our office actually works on 3' solidcore doors as large worktops. I love it. I will be doing this in my own office eventually.

Otherwise, I second JohnProlly's recommendations. Had to do this myself a couple times and did it much the same way only on bond (I love the look of ink and colored pencil and pencil overlays on bond). Had a storyboard too, it helped tremendously.

i'm right-handed and ink(ed) from the upper right to lower-left so it wouldn't smear. that way the triangles never (hopefully) go over the inked areas.
how do you ink from left to right without your instruments covering what you just inked unless you draw on the left-sde of the instruments?

Yes, if you are right handed you are supposed to draft on the left side. It allows for a more accurate line.

Stablize the triangle with the left hand, cross your right hand over and draw your line. Move from upper left of page to the lower right.

so you pull the line from bottom to top on the left side....i gotta give that a try.

Yeah, it gives you much more control. I had a First Year Professor who still draws everything by hand. He was a bit of a nazi when it came to lineweights and argued the "only" way to get an even line was to use that procedure. He even watched our posture.

and i thought andy zago was tough enough making us 000 on cold-press arches..

andy, as nice as cad is you cant beat a nicely hand crafted drawing.
maylines are incredibly failsafe; even if the rule is off 90 you can be damn sure all those off angle lines will be parallel.
i want to find a nice piece of thinner wood and make my own with exposed chrome hardware

I've always wanted to get a storage tube for the end of my drafting table. Do you know what I mean? It has a slit down the side which lets you roll and unroll long drawings like a window shade while drafting.

Sounds like what rabbits really needs is an archaeologist...

Can any IIT students tell me whether you still have to draw with ink on mylar on flat drawing boards, so the ink line will not dry being unequally weighted to the downward side of your table, thus being uneven? I heard that used to be the case there. Talk about learning from a drawing nazi!

But man, nothing is as beautiful as a perfect hand drawing.

Contradiction in terms liberty? There is never a "perfect" hand drawing - that's the beauty of them!

;-)

The work seeks it own perfection, Grasshoppa...

Yes, JohnProlly, it is a contradiction. Perfect in the Platonic way, meaning in your mind's eye you see the slight imperfections that allow you to more easliy imagine that it is flawless.

Like how this Japanese cup is a perfect cylinder:

It's true -- in fact, most of my work is so screwed up that it's actually perceived as beautiful.

Sometimes, I make mistakes on drawings just so the contractors will find them beautiful.

heh.

about ten years ago the local print shop had a couple huge (6+ x larger width) boards bought used from an electronics co. my impression was that they were relatively inexpensive. (<$1k?) the boards had that green pad (name now eludes my lazy brain). that pad appeared to be one piece, but i didn't look closely. i don't remember if there was any kind of parallel bar.

i've never done a 5' tall dwg. for long dwgs, i leave the paper in the roll on a stick.

i use a hollow veneer closet door (recess grip facing downward).

at most, i put only my upper body weight on it, so i've never noticed any warp at all.

its hinges are mounted on blocks on the wall to allow it to lean slightly (also hooked) when folded up.

the worst thing about it is that someone shaved almost all of the bottom frame to fit it over a carpet, so the end is a bit loose. but i never work at that end, so haven't looked for a replacement.

sounds similar to those awnings that roll into a case.

??

You might want to venture to Brookline, Massachusetts. It iw Where the Olmsted's had there office. They had these giant drafting tables,
where all the edges were rounded, just to discourage the use of
T-squares....no straight lines my friend.....no straight lines but could they ever design parks...

Jeffe, glad to hear that Andy Zago is still inflicting his pain on students. The most unforgiving combination of media ever. Oddly, I still liked that class.

The tube at the bottom of the desk to take up the extra paper is a Spiroll. Great way to keep you from creasing the drawing when you lean over the table.

a-ha! That's what I had in mind, adso. Thanks.

Spiroll....was actually invented by an Architect.

Just wondering...does anyone here in any firm do any work at all by hand ..any thing ..sketches,drafting or even writing a transmittal record ?

any work by hand at all or none whatsoever ?

I used to sketch very well in college,freehand perspectives and views..Thankfully I have found out that my abilities with the pencil havent rusted yet .....
the other day i was sketching in my office and suddenly found myself searching for the erase command at the edge of the tracing paper.


as FLW once said : "If this continues , man shall have atrophied all his limbs except his push button finger !"

I dont know if this is good or bad ?

nevermore: My office of two partners uses hand sketches every day. We usually present schematic design with hand drawings - rough Sharpie sketches we do on trace over cad plans, with marker for color, then a color copy for presentation. Lots of construction sketches are hand drawn on 8.5x11 and faxed. Hand written transmittals are the norm.

Part of this is I do not have a software program to convert a computer drawing to a .pdf, so I can't really email drawings. A hand fax is soooo easy and quick to do!

The downside to this is we don't have a comprehensive record of everything - except in crazy stacks of loose paper all over the office. But we work with individual clients (residential) and mainly with small contractors we have worked with before, so the paper trail isn't as important.

hey lib,

In another job I was once working on a project designed by the swiss italian architect Mario Botta...Their staff used to sometimes email or fax details drawn on coffee shop paper tissues..I got damn impressed and all.

yea a hand fax does get convenient..although records must be maintained.

maybe next: try faxing a sketch on used coffee filter.
except in crazy stacks of loose paper all over the office.
binders are too expensive? :-)
i keep a "handwritten" log of both paper and digital correspondence. little codes help keep it compact. i also try to "back annotate" to help later traipsing of that paper trail.