Architectural Sketching: Streetscape

Streetscape by Jigsketch

Architectural sketches come in many types though the street can be considered a very important aspect of any built environment. The threshold between a building and the street has always been an important aspect to any design which is why architects have been concerned with facades for centuries.

Being able to sketch a section through the streetscape to show how your building relates to its surroundings is an important means to convey your design. You can also diagram over these sketches to show views, solar exposures, etc. Check out these videos by Jigsketch on YouTube where he sketches some great streetscapes in Australia. The first video also gives you some insight into style and how to color. A great way to show different street typologies and explore how they interact with vehicles and pedestrians.

Tutorial: Pencils and Leads

Pencil Grading Chart

Pencil cores are generally made of graphite mixed with a clay binder which creates easily erased grey or black marks. Graphite pencils are used for both writing and drawing which provides a durable mark, resistant to moisture, ultraviolet radiation, and aging.

Pencils come with either numbers or letters on them. From the image right, we can see that the letter B signifies the blackness of the pencil, the letter H signifies the hardness, and the letter F stands for 'fine.' In the United States, we use a different system using numbers to identify pencil hardness, ranging from #1 to #4. A #2 pencil, all to familiar to those that grew up in the US is the equivalent to the European HB.

The B's get darker and as you get to 9B they become more and more charcoal like. B's are tougher to erase than H leads so remember what type of sketch or drawing you are doing. Quick sketches using a B lead are very vibrant with more emotion then with an H lead. H leads are harder and make then easier to erase. Just remember that the harder you press down, they will indent the paper making them tough to erase, just watch the amount of pressure you use. I tend to use an H lead, such as a 2H, 4H, or even 6H to start my drawings, sketch it out, and use an HB or a B lead to go over it, just remember B leads are tougher to erase. You can always use as many leads as you want and layer over it. You can even use the leads to color your drawing or sketch using the leads. A 4H lead for example is very grey, I sometimes use this for metal, while an HB can be used for shadows with a 6B can be used for deep shadows or whatever you want to be black. Look at the image above again and you will see what I mean.

I recommend buying a cheap electric pencil sharpener and a few pencil sharpeners to make sketching easier. A scrap piece of paper can also work well to help keep the ideal edge or point on your pencil. Using conventional leads to draft can be difficult, but not impossible. It is better to use a lead holder and sharpener, as the leads are much sharper which gives you a cleaner, sharper drawing. You can also use lead holders for sketching and drawing. Mechanical pencils can also be used for drafting, however I prefer to use them to do homework as they don't need sharpening.

Beginners

If you are just starting to draw, you might one to pick up just a few pencils to get a feel for them. You don't necessarily need pencils of each type, opt to get a few: 4B, 2B, HB, 2H, 4H will suffice and will save you a little money. A combo pack or starter set gets you the best bang for your buck, just be sure you check which leads they come with. As an architecture student, you probably want ones in the middle (6B through 4H), though a 9B you might like for some quick sketches now and again.

Staedtler Starter Set

Quality

The last thing that you should be aware of is pencil quality. If you buy pencils that are not high quality, the leads are more prone to break with a wood casing of questionable quality. I have been drawing for about 30 years and I recommend using Staedtler pencils, they are my favorite brand. However, Koh-i-Noor, Faber-Castell, Derwent, and Turquoise are all my second choices. General pencils I found not too be too great however they make great charcoal pencils. To start, buy a pencil set of some sort and play with them. Once you figure out which leads you prefer, you can always buy replacement pencils later as you use them up.

Staedler Pencil Set

Jumbo Pencils

Other then the standard type of pencil, they do have thick lead pencils. They might look like they are the kind that children use to learn to write since they are thicker and easier to grip. I find this type of pencils quick comfortable to use and great for sketching. The thick leads are great for sketching, especially quick sketches aimed at capturing the feeling of what you are drawing. Koh-i-Noor makes triangular ones which are very comfortable to hold but you will need to sharpen them with a knife. Faber Castell makes some that are round and thicker referred to as their Jumbo pencils.They are designed to be used with those jumbo pencil sharpeners we used as kids.

Koh-i-Noor Triograph Pencils

Faber Castell Jumbo

Woodless Pencils

Another type of pencil is the woodless pencil. Instead of having wood, the whole pencil is a lead. They can be expensive, though they are similar to using charcoal and you can use the edge of it for gestures. They can be messy to use, I recommend buying something in the 4B to 2H range. If you get a 9B, it will be tough to use as it will smudge easily. These type of pencils are great for quick sketches. Careful how you store them, they can break much easier than a wood pencil.

Woodless Pencils

Storage

Personally, I have all my pencils in a Yasutomo Niji pencil Roll. This way I have easy access to whichever pencil I need while working. I have many types of pencils, a set of Staedtler pencils, some woodless pencils, some jumbo pencils, blenders, a few erasers (pink, white, wood and mechanical eraser) and a mechanical pencil for good measure (i.e. for taking notes, doing homework ), or writing something down). Check out my pencil roll below.

You can also store them in a pencil bag or case. You can also just keep them in the original tin, if you purchase a pencil set. Use whatever works for you. Hunt around your local or online art supply store to see what might work for you. I use Amazon myself.

Drafting

Drafting leads are a bit different and you'll need some additional supplies. Check out our Tutorial on Drafting Necessities. If you are looking for information on drafting techniques and workflows, please see our Hand Drafting Tutorial.

Pencil Textures

Now that you know all about pencil leads. Check out the following video that will show you how to use your pencils to create basic textures in your drawings.

I hope you found this post informative. Please post any questions or comments below.

Tutorial: Pencils and Leads

Pencil Grading Chart

Pencil cores are generally made of graphite mixed with a clay binder which creates easily erased grey or black marks. Graphite pencils are used for both writing and drawing which provides a durable mark, resistant to moisture, ultraviolet radiation, and aging.

Pencils come with either numbers or letters on them. From the image right, we can see that the letter B signifies the blackness of the pencil, the letter H signifies the hardness, and the letter F stands for 'fine.' In the United States, we use a different system using numbers to identify pencil hardness, ranging from #1 to #4. A #2 pencil, all to familiar to those that grew up in the US is the equivalent to the European HB.

The B's get darker and as you get to 9B they become more and more charcoal like. B's are tougher to erase than H leads so remember what type of sketch or drawing you are doing. Quick sketches using a B lead are very vibrant with more emotion then with an H lead. H leads are harder and make then easier to erase. Just remember that the harder you press down, they will indent the paper making them tough to erase, just watch the amount of pressure you use. I tend to use an H lead, such as a 2H, 4H, or even 6H to start my drawings, sketch it out, and use an HB or a B lead to go over it, just remember B leads are tougher to erase. You can always use as many leads as you want and layer over it. You can even use the leads to color your drawing or sketch using the leads. A 4H lead for example is very grey, I sometimes use this for metal, while an HB can be used for shadows with a 6B can be used for deep shadows or whatever you want to be black. Look at the image above again and you will see what I mean.

I recommend buying a cheap electric pencil sharpener and a few pencil sharpeners to make sketching easier. A scrap piece of paper can also work well to help keep the ideal edge or point on your pencil. Using conventional leads to draft can be difficult, but not impossible. It is better to use a lead holder and sharpener, as the leads are much sharper which gives you a cleaner, sharper drawing. You can also use lead holders for sketching and drawing. Mechanical pencils can also be used for drafting, however I prefer to use them to do homework as they don't need sharpening.

Beginners

If you are just starting to draw, you might one to pick up just a few pencils to get a feel for them. You don't necessarily need pencils of each type, opt to get a few: 4B, 2B, HB, 2H, 4H will suffice and will save you a little money. A combo pack or starter set gets you the best bang for your buck, just be sure you check which leads they come with. As an architecture student, you probably want ones in the middle (6B through 4H), though a 9B you might like for some quick sketches now and again.

Staedtler Starter Set

Quality

The last thing that you should be aware of is pencil quality. If you buy pencils that are not high quality, the leads are more prone to break with a wood casing of questionable quality. I have been drawing for about 30 years and I recommend using Staedtler pencils, they are my favorite brand. However, Koh-i-Noor, Faber-Castell, Derwent, and Turquoise are all my second choices. General pencils I found not too be too great however they make great charcoal pencils. To start, buy a pencil set of some sort and play with them. Once you figure out which leads you prefer, you can always buy replacement pencils later as you use them up.

Staedler Pencil Set

Jumbo Pencils

Other then the standard type of pencil, they do have thick lead pencils. They might look like they are the kind that children use to learn to write since they are thicker and easier to grip. I find this type of pencils quick comfortable to use and great for sketching. The thick leads are great for sketching, especially quick sketches aimed at capturing the feeling of what you are drawing. Koh-i-Noor makes triangular ones which are very comfortable to hold but you will need to sharpen them with a knife. Faber Castell makes some that are round and thicker referred to as their Jumbo pencils.They are designed to be used with those jumbo pencil sharpeners we used as kids.

Koh-i-Noor Triograph Pencils

Faber Castell Jumbo

Woodless Pencils

Another type of pencil is the woodless pencil. Instead of having wood, the whole pencil is a lead. They can be expensive, though they are similar to using charcoal and you can use the edge of it for gestures. They can be messy to use, I recommend buying something in the 4B to 2H range. If you get a 9B, it will be tough to use as it will smudge easily. These type of pencils are great for quick sketches. Careful how you store them, they can break much easier than a wood pencil.

Woodless Pencils

Storage

Personally, I have all my pencils in a Yasutomo Niji pencil Roll. This way I have easy access to whichever pencil I need while working. I have many types of pencils, a set of Staedtler pencils, some woodless pencils, some jumbo pencils, blenders, a few erasers (pink, white, wood and mechanical eraser) and a mechanical pencil for good measure (i.e. for taking notes, doing homework ), or writing something down). Check out my pencil roll below.

You can also store them in a pencil bag or case. You can also just keep them in the original tin, if you purchase a pencil set. Use whatever works for you. Hunt around your local or online art supply store to see what might work for you. I use Amazon myself.

Drafting

Drafting leads are a bit different and you'll need some additional supplies. Check out our Tutorial on Drafting Necessities. If you are looking for information on drafting techniques and workflows, please see our Hand Drafting Tutorial.

Pencil Textures

Now that you know all about pencil leads. Check out the following video that will show you how to use your pencils to create basic textures in your drawings.

I hope you found this post informative. Please post any questions or comments below.

Living Machines: SFPUB Waste Water Treatment

System Diagram src

Dwell has an interesting article, A Look at Living Machine Systems, in which they toured the San Franscisco Public Utilities Building, a LEED Platnium building where a biological waste water treatment system referred to as the "Living Machine" was installed.

The video below explains how the living machines works to process waste water into water for irrigation.

Tutorial: Setting up AutoCAD Lineweights

Lineweights in CAD can be a bit difficult until you learn the tricks. At my school they taught us that you can set up lineweights in two ways; by layer and by color. You can also use both to setup lineweights, though sometimes they can cause issues when printing. This tutorial goes through the basics of setting up your lineweights in AutoCAD using these two methods.

Lineweights by Layer

To set your lineweights by layer you need to open the Layer Properties window.

Now you need to set up your layers. Add as many layers as you want lineweights, name the layers so you know which lineweight is which, then set the lineweight of that layer to the desired lineweight.

This is the simplest way to set the lineweights of your drawing. The hardest part is to be sure that each line is the proper weight as you are drafting. To visually see the different lineweights, click on the show/hide lineweight button is pressed on the bottom of the window.

Using simple lineweights like this, you do not need to worry about the plotstyle since all the layer colors are white / black (depending on your background color). Once colors are selected for each layer, you will need to edit the plot style table so line colors will be correct. If you are having issues with color, try selecting the greyscale plot style table. It is only a quick fix, though I will discuss layers colors and plot styles in the next section to help you get it to look correct.

Lineweights by Color

Using layer colors can make setting up lineweights much easier. If you work in a firm, ask a fellow employee to explain the standards the firm uses and use those for your school work. This will make your life easier and avoid confusion. Of course you can always create your own simple styles like I have.

To start creating your own, we need to talk about AutoCAD colors. There are many colors in AutoCAD and to create different colors, there are only a few that are generally used as to not make it so difficult. The AutoCAD Colors are below.

The colors highlighted above are colors 1-9 and are the ones generally used. The best approach is to create an order of layer colors, from the smallest lineweight to the largest lineweight and keep this hierarchy in mind when you draft in AutoCAD. The lineweight of the layer (as seen in the previous section) will remain default while the plotstyle file will dictate the lineweight and printed color of each color you select. Make sense? Basically, the colors, no matter which you select, you can have them print in any color and set any color to be a certain weight. More on plotstyles later.

At this point you should understand the hierarchy of lineweights used in an architectural drawing so begin creating layers of different colors, from colors 1-9. I use the following, from the smallest to the largest:

blue - white - green - red - cyan - magenta

Yellow is reserved for text and dimensions only, while grey (color 9) is reserved for furniture, people, etc and usually is printed grey rather than black. You can always use blue for furniture and people rather than grey depending on what you are going for and print it black and use grey for something else. It is up to you to figure out your own style. I do recommend using yellow for text and reserve grey for something you might want grey.

Next, set up your layers much like you did before. This time make sure the lineweights are set to default so the plotstyle lineweights will be used.

Plot Style Table

Now that you have your layers set up, now get into the plot window, click on the plot style table and select new.

Now there are a few things you need to click through. Since you are going to customize your plot styles, in the first window you will click on Start from scratch and click next.

Next you need to name your new plot style and click next.

Lastly you will click on the Plot Style Table Editor button in order to customize your lineweights which will open the editor for you.

The Plot Style Table Editor window is where you set the print color and the lineweight of each color. Select each color you used on the left and set its color and lineweight on the right. You don't need to worry about the rest if you are a novice.

Once you are done save and close the Plot Style Table Editor. You can update this new plot style file whenever you want. My trick is to create a Plot Style for each scale or group of scales you are printing. This way the lineweights appear correct no matter the scale and all you have to do is set the plot style to the layout. Once you have done a couple test prints, you will not have to think about your lineweights and just simply use the colors to dictate which ones are smaller and bigger. It is much like assigning a color to your drafting leads and when they print, they print in the correct weight so you can see the lineweight by color rather than by thickness as you draft. As you complete a layout and you would like to check your work, you can see my other tutorial on how to see Plot Styles and Lineweights in AutoCAD's Layout Tab. Below you can see a before and after from the tutorial.

I hope you have found this tutorial helpful. AutoCAD can be unfriendly when it comes to printing and these tips can help save you time and effort.

Tutorial: Hand Rendering Elevations

Hand Rendered Elevation

Elevations are an important part of architectural design. There are many ways to create elevations. You can use Sketchup, AutoCAD, Revit or one of the many other rendering programs out there. Creating a three dimensional model for elevations is very time consuming and creating a two dimensional elevations in AutoCAD also requires a lot of time and effort to get the right textures and line weights, much less taking the time to render them in Photoshop. Thus, the quickest way to create an elevation is to complete them by hand. This way you can also choose the detail of the rendering depending on the amount of time you have as well as work through elevation iterations to define your ideas without the hassle of computer rendering.

Since a studio or professional project involves the creation of scale plans in whichever program you use, you can use these primarily plans to create rough elevations of your proposed building. These rough elevations can also be used later to create final elevations of your building or if you have them already done, use them to create hand rendered elevations.


You will need

• CAD Print (preferably printed to scale)
• Drafting Tape or Drafting Dots
• Vellum or Trace (white)
• Pens (at least 3 thicknesses) or Pencils (at least two lead types)
• Markers or colored pencils 
• Scanner

Original CAD Printout

Scale Printout

Print your elevation to be rendered to scale using whichever program you use. Take the print and put trace paper or vellum over it to trace the lines. You can have all the windows or doors already placed in the elevation or use it as a background to help you play around with your design. If you don't have a scaled drawing, either start drafting them, or freehand a sketch of them will work just as well.

At this point you should be familiar with creating an elevation from plans or from your head. If you are still starting to conceptualize your building's exterior, create a rough version of your facade either on the computer or on the paper. It is good to put in floor heights (dashed) with heights, as well as any defining features you want to implement so anyone reviewing them with you can see your thinking. This will help you formulate window openings on the facade. Be sure not to forget how thick your floors will end up being so don't make your windows too tall, unless of course, that is your intention.


Tracing

CAD Hand Tracing (on trace)

Tape your original down on two opposite sides to keep it in place then tape your vellum or trace paper on the 4 corners. I say this only because I have had the paper I was tracing on rip, fold or even become misaligned. Now before you start tracing you need to decide whether or not you want to make a hard-lined (drawn with a ruler) or sketchy elevation. If you aren't doing a final drawing, go sketchy (no ruler) and it will be more artistic and much quicker. You can also hard-line only some of the lines, such as the ground plane, building boundary, or whatever you think would benefit the intent of your drawing.

When tracing or sketching you should ideally use 3 different pen thicknesses or at least 2 different pencil leads (click here for pencil lead help) depending on the detail you are going for, varying pressure on the pen or pencil will also give you different line thicknesses. Use different line weights to highlight the fenestration, overhangs, etc. within your building. When going sketchy, show your style, if you are going hard-lined, make sure your line weights look right. Going back over them again can be a waste of time. When using pen, use an edge that is made for pen, which will help with smudging.

For this drawing I used Pelikan Techno Liner Pens which are fairly cheap, come 8 in a pack (0.1mm - 0.8mm) and are great for sketching. I use them a lot when working on studio stuff. I used 0.1mm, 0.2mm, and a 0.5mm for this trace, however I think they don't make them anymore. I would instead recommend getting a set of Prismacolor Premiere Fine Line Markers as a bit of a higher quality substitute. You can use Pigma Micron Ink Pens as well. I find they work better on ink or drawing paper rather than on vellum or trace. I also used white trace paper which is much cheaper than velum and comes in 20 or 50 yard rolls. If you are new to architecture, you will use trace more than you could possible imagine.

Coloring

Pen trace with shading on front and color on back

After you have completed the tracing part it is time to color. Here is the trick, color on the back of the page. If you do, the color will be muted, the line work will be more readable and help reduce smudging. This will also help to mute loud colors, as well as give the color more of the paper's texture. To color I use either marker or colored pencil though I find marker to be much faster than pencil and easier to color consistently once you are use to it. A big collection of markers and/or colored pencils are recommended to make the process easier.

In this example I used Prismacolor Premier Double Ended Art Markers. Always take out the colors you might want to use and try them together on a piece of scrap of the same type of paper to see what they look like. Of course you can just shade the elevation rather than color it and call it done. When using marker, you can create the shading by making the colors darker under overhangs. Another way is to shade the elevation on the front using a gray marker and use the color on the back, this way the color and shading won't run together and help to define your facade. If you are using colored pencil you can blend the shading with the color on the back of the paper without and issue since colored pencil is actually wax, just remember you can't erase it too well. I suggest adding the shading last when using pencil, do whichever with marker, just be sure to let it dry before you move onto another color or they will smudge together. It is up to you to decide what you want the final product to be, so experiment.

CAD Sketch Layered over Color Trace

Layers: CAD Trace, Shadows, and Color

Another coloring trick is to color over your traced elevation using a separate piece of trace or velum (preferably use trace since the paper is much cheaper). If you use this method you can change the coloring of the elevations if you decide to, or you can also add more layers to it. For one final drawing I used 3 layers of color behind the original tracing of the elevation; the new building's color, building shading and street color. This way, the important colors are more vibrant than the less important colors like the trees in front of the building or on the street. Just be sure to place them behind the traced layer before scanning or before class. I use drafting tape to tape them together at the edges. I generally use this layering method if I think I might change the material or add to the elevation later. This method take a bit longer and aligning the pages together can become difficult. It is important to note that if you get a final sketch in pen and you are afraid of messing it up, use this technique to figure out how you want your building to look and you can scan it anyway and if you mess it up, you can always coloring another piece of trace rather then waste the time tracing the elevation all over again.

When coloring, I recommend coloring in the direction of the material. What I mean is that if your building is brick, color horizontally using the small tip in order to get the feel of brick. Do the same thing for which ever material you are using. While using marker, having a tissue or paper towel handy will help you blot up any pools of color left when you lift up the marker. You can also plan ahead and pick up the marker in a place where you want it darker. Ending where there is a shadow will also help you define the building facade further. Again, this is all about your personal style, so play around and figure out what works best for you.


Scanning
 
For whatever reason a scan looks even better than the original. I only have a 9x12 inch scanner yet I get great results blowing up the renders to triple their original size. The trick there is to scan the original at 150% or 200% the size which will get you a very clear scan.

Once you have it scanned, play with it in Photoshop a bit to get the colors right or you can even leave it alone. I tend to edit my scans so the background becomes white. Be sure to save any changes to a new edited file so you always have the original scan to edit if you need to. Below is the before and after of my work. You can see the tape holding the layers of trace together in the scan keeping them aligned.

Original scanned elevation and after being Photoshop

I hope this post was helpful. It took me a while to figure it all out myself. If you have any comments, questions, or additional tips, feel free to comment below or send me an e-mail.

More Tutorials
 
You can also use pencil to create elevations. If you are new to the architecture field and are interested in knowing more about pencils, their different leads and types, check our the Architectural Student's Tutorial on Pencils and Leads. If you are interested in learning more about drafting techniques, please see our Hand Drafting Tutorial.

Jane Jacobs: The Life and Death of Great American Cities

5th Avenue New York City

In Jane Jacobs’ book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, she discusses the particular nature of cities. The introduction focuses on how City Beautiful and the Radiant City differs from how cities truly work and how cities have suffered as a result of these ideals.

Part 1

In part one of her book she discusses city sidewalks at length talking about how safety, contact and how they work to assimilate children. She talks about three specific attributes that a street must have to create safety. A street must have a clear separation between public and private, watchful eyes of storekeepers, residents and those passing by and a sidewalk must have users on it fairly continuously. The prerequisite to surveillance is a “substantial quantity of stores and other public places sprinkled along the sidewalks.” This gives people a reason for using the sidewalks and also draws people past private places while keeping them well traveled. Storekeepers also help to keep order and peace while their establishments help to attract people and increase the numbers of people on the sidewalks. Lighting is also a very important characteristic of safety, though without effective eyes to see, crimes can occur in even well lighted areas.

The social structure of the sidewalk hinges partly on so called self-appointed public figures. One whom is in frequent contact with a wide circle of people such as storekeepers. They essentially enhance the  social structure by learning news at street level and spreading the information. She argues that this type of trust can not be established in community rooms. Rather, trust can be created with sidewalk contact and safety.

Jane Jacobs, 1962

The third function of the sidewalk is to assimilate children, that is to provide a non-matriarchy environment in which they can play. This section I found the most interesting when she compared the supposed ‘unsafe’ sidewalks with the presumably ‘safe’ parks. She referred to documentary maker Charles Guggenheim and his film investigating a St. Louis day-care where he discovered that roughly half of the children didn’t want to walk home afterwards, while the other half did. Those that left willingly lived in the old ‘slum’ streets whilst those that did not want to leave lived in the projects. Jacobs argued that those that lived in the projects had to deal with bullies while those that lived on the old streets were safe from extortion since those that lived in the projects had to pass by the presumably ‘safe’ parks in which had been removed from the public eye thus rendering them unsafe. Those living in the old streets had the opportunity to circumvent trouble unlike those that walk to the projects. She went on to talk about parks and how parks should posses four characteristics: intricacy, centering, sun, and enclosure. Intricacy is the reason thereby people use parks. Every park should have a center. Every park needs sun and buildings should be built up to the park without any windowless walls.

Part 2

In Part Two, Jacobs discusses that human beings live within a community that is characterized by many layers that seem chaotic and planners like Moses use deductive reasoning to find principles to dictate principles by which to plan cities thereby taking out the human portion of the equation. Urban renewal is the separation of uses like residential, industrial and commercial from each other thereby decreasing diversity of cities. Districts must serve mixed use functions to activate the streets at different times of the day. Blocks must be short to increase pedestrian path options and as a result enhance social and economic development. Buildings should also be of different ages so that they might be able to support businesses and residents of different wealth and also there should be a dense concentration of people to provide eyes on the street.

Jane Jacobs vs. Robert Moses

Book

Jane Jacobs' book, The Death and Life of Great American Cities, is a fantastic read and a great addition to your library. It is a truly insightful book on the inter-workings of cities.

Additional Information

The City Builder Bookclub - Great insight into each section of the book.

William H. Whyte - Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces

William H. Whyte (1917-1999) was an American urbanist, organizational analyst, journalist and people-watcher.After writing a book about corporate culture, he started to research human behavior in urban settings. He wrote many books on the subject as well as created the following video on the social life of small urban spaces. Released in 1988, this witty and original film documents the research him and his researchers performed on social interactions within the city mainly looking at which spaces work and which ones do not. Starting with New York's Seagram Plaza the film analyzes why the space is so popular and compares them to other open areas in New York and other cities. This film is an engaging tour of the urban landscape and looks at how it can be transformed into a more habitable place for the urban dweller. The following video is a small fragment from his original documentary, Social Life of Small Urban Spaces, a must see for any urban designer or architecture student.

Additional Reading

After completing the documentary of the social life of small urban spaces, Whyte wrote a follow up book by the same name as the video, The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces. A great resource for urban research.

Learn How To Create Colored Eagle Manipulation in Photoshop

Learn How To Create Colored Eagle Manipulation in Photoshop:

In this tutorial you will learn how to create colorful effect in Photoshop. We will use few stock images and shapes. We will go through the process how to add to an object light effects using basic Adobe Photoshop tools. Photoshop techniques that you’ll learn in this tutorial, you can use in creation of advertising posters or creating your own stylish photo effect.



You May Be Interested In The Following Posts
Final Image Preview



Stocks Used
Eagle Stock
Color Stock
Circle Shapes

Step 1 – Creating a new file

First create a new layer with w:2560px and h:1600px with color:000000 (black), name this layer as “Background”.

Step 2 – Place the image of bird

Open the image of bird and place in your document. Place the image in the middle of the document. Name this layer “Eagle”.



Step 3 – Preparing to the main effect

Create a new folder below the eagle image and name this folder “Lights effects”. We’ll create the main effect of this tutorial. Now choose brush tool (press b) with a soft round brush color e20000 and 1000px size paint in the middle of your document and use hard light to blend mode. Create a new layer below this layer and again use a soft round brush but now with 500px size and use color white. See the images below.







Step 4 – Add more color

Add more color to your document. Just create a new layer and use a soft round brush with 1000px color 832380 and place like the example below.



Step 5 – Creating circular shapes

We need more effects. Let’s create some circular shapes using the brush tool (b). Use a hard round brush with different sizes and colors to do this. After creating the circle press ctrl and click on the circle with the layer to create a circular selection. In a separate layer add a stroke (Edit >Stroke) with a lighter color and 4px or 5px. Return to the first circle shape and add a Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur, with 7px or 8px. Now, in the stroke layer add the same effect but now with 3px or 4px blur. Then marge both layers together. I created more circles and erased some areas. Look the images below.





Step 6 – Using liquify filter

Still in the lights effects folder create a new layer and use a yellow brush (b) then apply Filter>Liquify, and use forward warp tool to create a distorted shape like images bellow.



Step 7 – Adding more stock

Now I used a image of stock to add more lights effects (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=mmmm6fkg). Resize the image and change the layer mode to screen. Mask or erase some areas if necessary.





Step 8 – Creating splatter effect

Create a new layer above the eagle image then use any splatter brush to create this splatter effect. With your splatter brush paint over the eagle image, then press ctrl+click in this splatter layer to load a selection. Go to eagle image and press ctrl+c to cut and ctrl+v to paste this selection in a new layer. Now you can delete the original splatter layer, we do not need this layer.







Step 9 – Creating circular line shape

Create another layer above the eagle image. I created a circular line shape to do this simple effect. You can download this pack containing the shapes here (http://www.megaupload.com/?d=73gm7gs1). Now, just draw a shape like the image below. I use color #ff006c with overlay mode and 15% opacity.





Step 10 – Creating abstracts shapes

Create another layer above lights effects folder. Time to create some abstracts shapes. In this step I used some renders stock then I simply use liquify tool to distort the renders (Filter>Liquify>Forward warp tool). I don’t remember where I found the stock renders, but you can easily find these stock in Devianart. See below how were the renders after liquify tool. Use hue saturation (ctrl+u) to adjust the colors if necessary and burn tool (o) to darken the colors.



Step 11 – Apply a light effect on the wings

Now I create another layer above the eagle image. I will apply a light effect on the wings. To do this i draw i line with pen tool (p) and apply a layer style as you can see below, use outer glow with color #ab023a and let others settings standard. Then to finish the effect i apply a Filter>Blur>Motion blur, angle 0 and 10px or 15 px. See image below as reference. Do the same in the other wing.





Step 12 – Creating more lines

Create another layer and use pen tool (p) again to create more lines, but this time without layer style applied. Just use white color and choose simulate pressure. Choose a hard round brush 2px then press (p), right clickselect simulate pressure and hit OK.



Step 13 – Creating pink circles

I create in a new layer more pink circles and then I apply a Gaussian blur effect (Filter>Blur>Gaussian blur) with 5px. Then I have grouped all this circles together. Use soft light to layer mode and reduce the opacity to 20% or 15%. See the image below again.



Step 14 – Adding typography

I just use Illustrator to create a simple typography. Use type tool in Illustrator and add Effect>3d>Extrude & bevel and use the standard settings as you can see below.





Step 15 – Last step – Adding additional effects

For the last step feel free to create additional shapes and effects. I just paint some blue small dots with brush tool (b) and also I create some triangular shapes and I put diagonal lines to finish this job.

Thats all folks, hope you all enjoy it.

Final Result: Colored Eagle Manipulation in Photoshop