John Hiemstra Creative » Architectural Drawing

trompe l’oeil detail

John — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:43:25 +0000

trompe l’oeil detail, a photo by John Hiemstra on Flickr.

The other side of the arched window architectural detail from the Tuscan wine room project painted back in San Diego in 2003. Everything in this shot is (in reality) painted on the same plane, on the same flat wall, making it a pleasant mix of faux painting, landscape mural painting, and architectural trompe l’oeil.

The corbels were designed from historical references and drawn on paper until perfect, then perforated and transferred cleanly and quickly to the wall in traditional spolvero style that would have made Michelangelo proud.

The Tuscan vineyard landscape was developed from client research mingled with my travel pictures, which I mostly drew and painted directly onto the wall– even if Michelangelo thought landscape painting was a soft discipline for a true artist, I love the hazy feel of the far away bits of this painting and the distance evoked “outside” the arched window.

Tuscan wine room detail

John — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 02:51:37 +0000

Tuscan wine room detail, a photo by John Hiemstra on Flickr.

Detail from the first of several Tuscan themed painting projects in San Diego. Everything in this shot is (in reality) painted on the same plane, on the same flat wall, making it a pleasant mix of faux painting, landscape mural painting, and architectural trompe l’oeil.

I created a two-step faux glaze treatment for the entire room (more orange than I would have liked, but the client was happy to get exactly what he asked for. (Guess which of us had actually been to Tuscany when I painted this. :)

The corbels were designed form historical references and drawn on paper until perfect, then perforated and transferred cleanly and quickly to the wall in traditional spolvero style that would have made Michelangelo proud.

The Tuscan vineyard landscape was developed from client research mingled with my travel pictures and I created the town architecture in the same way as the corbels, ahead of time on paper and transferred exactly onto the wall. The rest of the landscape I blocked out in the design process, but drew and painted directly onto the wall-- Michelangelo would have appreciated that, too, thinking as he did that landscape painting was a soft discipline for the true artist.

See the completed Tuscan wall mural here.

San Diego Mural Video Trailer #1

John — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 22:58:16 +0000

So just in time for tonight’s “premiere” of full time lapse film of my architectural mural painting at Orchids and Onions back in San Diego, I finally finished editing up the first of three trailers I’m doing to assemble material for final “director’s cut” that incorporates photographer Mike Brown‘s time-lapse document along with my own pictures and process video.

I’m trying to set up an understandable context for the explosion of imagery that happens in Mike’s eight minute film that covers four weeks of me working large in a temporary commercial studio space in San Diego last September and October. Check it out!

San Diego Cityscape Mural on Vertical Blinds from John Hiemstra on Vimeo.

Mural painting film preview & premiere

John — Fri, 29 Oct 2010 16:00:53 +0000

Most of my friends and fans know I am passionate about good architectural design and architectural history, and that architectural rendering has been central to my work in the entertainment industry and much of the trompe l’oeil mural painting I’ve designed and produced as an independent contractor.

Naturally, one of my favorite institutions in San Diego is the annual Orchids and Onions awards ceremony sponsored by the San Diego Architectural Foundation, which both honors the best new work in San Diego as voted by the community (orchids), and properly pillories the worst design and architecture moves that slip past San Diego city planners and concerned citizens (Onions).

So I was really pleased to give the okay for the time lapse film of my last large scale architectural mural project (a panorama of the downtown San Diego city skyline painted on vertical blinds for a downtown San Diego penthouse suite) to be looped on a big screen in the background of this year’s Orchids and Onions event next week on November 4!

My good friend and photographer Mike Brown recorded almost four weeks of me working with hi-def time lapse stills photographs-- over 60,000 of them-- and edited it all down into an eight-minute film that we’ve been working into a proper documentary with narration and additional process images and footage I took with my own camera.

Next week we’re going to release a couple of trailers before the event and finalize a couple other donations to the SDAF, but as a preview before the weekend I captured some stills from the finished part of the film for a slideshow here-- enjoy! (If you’re unfamiliar with the project, please see this project overview post I put up almost exactly a year ago upon completion).

cityscape mural | early stages

John — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 07:07:51 +0000

I like this picture to remind me of how many steps there really were in pulling this mural project off. Here, the sky has already been painted and then masked off. The architectural drawing has been transferred to the vertical blinds in chalk, and the initial lay-in of teh buildings is well underway.

Cityscape mural drawings go full size.

John — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 17:48:37 +0000

Here are a few of the initial pics of the cityscape mural in progress. No painting yet, but creating full size drawings of the project to be used as templates/tools/patterns to produce a tight, accurate architectural drawing on a regularly uneven surface.

I’m using a mix of technologies in these pictures. The first marks on the paper are drawn just like on the (hand) drafting table, trading the parallel rule for a level but making the same choices of horizon line, vanishing points, etc.

I block in the shapes so that they are accurate in the full scale drawing, then use the projected image to accurately “fill in” these subdivisions. My blocking decisions in the scale drawings have been about 70% accurate, meaning I’m re-see-ing my photo references with more clarity and perfecting the final design at full size, a nice luxury to have in terms of process.

I use printed versions of the drawings at full 1″ scale while working as well as the projected roadmap. Ultimately the full size drawing is its own creation that involves some tracing, but really revolves around the mindful allocation of space, especially when you’re doing architecture.

Mural drawings approved!

John — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 20:16:08 +0000

Now its time for full size drawings and paint samples!

Real quick, here are the drawings approved today to proceed. Both are hand drawn in 1′ scale on 11 x 17 paper, and manipulated old school with xerox machines, pencil on tracing vellum and ink pens over a final printout.

San Diego mural design with a side trip to Pittsburgh

John — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 11:46:06 +0000

(This should have published yesterday but didn’t-- go figure.)

Red and purple sunrise, Charlotte International Airport, North Carolina.

My time-zone challenged body sits here typing and gathering up pics and threads of last few days while waiting for connection to Pittsburgh after red-eye flight from San Diego.

Yes I just flew the other way on Wednesday to take up the new vertical blind cityscape mural gig and finish the Cafe Mundo mural, too-- this trip isn’t for art but for family as our moving truck finally arrives today at our Pittsburgh new place, only a week late and inconveniently after I had booked the return to SD.

Since I packed it, I figured I should be the one to unpack it (both with help of course)-- its the puzzle piece organization I wouldn’t wish on anyone else to deconstruct.

Its been a little crazy, for sure, but this was a project I couldn’t pass up, here’s the first pictures.

Initial paste-ups of reference photos taken by my friend Mike Brown:

Now here are my preliminary cartoons for the mural panels, drawn to scale (1/2″ to 1’0″) for blocking/massing purposes, not for production yet.

If you look close, you’ll see I’ve already edited out one building per the client’s request, but need more research to fill in the view--> see the next post for Friday night mural research pix, or what I did on the ten year anniversary of 9/11.

Mural drawing pictures from this morning at Cafe Mundo

John — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 20:27:23 +0000

I’m going to put up more of this stuff on my actual mural and faux painting blog, but since I started here and I’m still screwing with the social media hook ups, I’m putting these up here first as an antidote to the iPhone pics I sent form the jobsite this morning.

Except for the “straight line details” inside the architectural bits, drawing and inking complete, painting starts tomorrow.

If you’re in San Diego, come by Cafe Mundo, 121 Juniper Street in Banker’s Hill tomorrow morning for coffee from 8-10am and check it out.

Cafe Mundo mural in Banker's Hill, San Diego

Here’s the rendering sketch again from the last post about this mural project:

black and white concept sketch for Cafe Mundo mural