I don't know if they still make them, but remember those paint sets with the clear plastic cover that you flipped open to reveal the half dozen or so paint colors poured into perfect ovals, the thin brush clipped horizontally along the top of the case? I had one and loved it. Of course the colors ended up all getting mixed together to make that beautiful muck color and none of my paintings made is past the family frig.
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Computer renderings on the other hand do not want that veil. They want to be real, but in that process, cool as it is, the art of rendering and the appreciation of the design of the space is lost. With the efficiency of the digital age hand renderings of architecture and interior spaces are becoming more and more rare. They are time consuming and require skills some of us simply didn't learn how to do. I sure can't use watercolors the way I would like to! Not so long ago however hand renderings and watercolors were pretty standard in the design world. That same notion of detail and personal touch Audubon put into his work was put into creating renderings of architecture and interiors. Here are a few watercolors I recently stumbled upon when I was flipping through Sister Parish Design: On Decorating. These watercolors are not as intensely detailed as Audubon's work but they still give the space a sense of magic, a glow that is intriguing and dimensional. You want to study it, take it in a bit more, understand the nuances of it.
(Yes, I know the birds on the wall - ironic, yet so fitting.)
While you're studying the watercolor you start to appreciate all the details of the space that you miss when you look at computer renderings because the computer generated images appear so real you don't feel like you need to look more closely. That magic is lost, the art is gone.
That veil, the distance between the image of the space and the reality of the space is what I enjoy. One thing that is so exciting about design is making the reality happen, creating the feeling and atmosphere you have in your mind's eye with physical things. But before we get to the reality, let's take some time to enjoy the art of it, that dreamy not so perfect part that reminds us that what we are making when we design is itself art.