Guide to Working with an Architectural Illustrator

Illustration by Dennis Allain of Good Food in Wai Kai Retail Resort. Merchandised and art direted by Rick Hill.

Early in my career, and as a former studio art major in college, I was amazed by illustrators like Carlos Diniz who produced incredibly detailed pen-and-ink illustrations, colored from the metal box sets of prismatic pencils for projects like Boston’s Faneuil Marketplace, Chicago’s Navy Pier, and New York’s South Street Seaport. His illustrations were richly detailed and filled with promise and made great marketing posters.

Today, good architectural illustrations are an investment in time, money, and communication and far beyond a few clicks in ChatGPT.

I have learned from architectural illustrators, including the late Scott Lockard and Dennis Allain, that by clearly defining a vision and emotion, and engaging in a thoughtful collaborative process, it is possible to create evocative illustrations that resonate with both detail and feeling.

1. Define the Look and Feel

Start by determining the desired look of your illustration and find an illustrator that consistently creates the look you desire. Conversely, don’t try to force an illustrator to change his style to create your look.

Do you want it to look:

×         Photorealistic: detailed and photo-like?

×         Impressionistic: emotive with expressive painterly techniques?

×         Hand-crafted—showing distinct manual artistry through line work, and a warm, personal touch?

For emotionally impactful visuals, I prefer a balanced approach that incorporates hand-drawn details with digital enhancements that do not look like video-game aesthetics.

2. Review Portfolios Critically

I have learned the hard way to examine the illustrator’s process to get to the final image. It’s important to understand where the illustrator typically starts and what was provided.

Did the illustrator:

×         Work from wireframes and fully realized architectural elevations.

×         Work from photos.

×         Add in the final details.  

×         Paste-in people, culturally appropriate elements, landscaping, and textures?

3. Seek Illustrators with Design Insight

I have found the best illustrators have backgrounds in architecture and technical design, allowing them to:

×         Identify and correct scaling issues.

×         Adjust focal points to enhance visual storytelling.

×         Add clarity to poorly defined details.

×         Advance designs beyond what has been drawn.

4. Avoid Quick Prompt Products

Avoid computer-generated methods that result in washed-out details, overuse of bright whites, create excessive dark shadows, or superficial textures to mask design flaws or lack of design.

5. Look for the eye of camera lens

A great illustrator often sees the built project more clearly than architects.

They:

×        Notice discrepancies in scale and proportion.

×         Address weak focal points or unbalanced views.

×         Can refine the design and enhance the final product.

×         Know when to zoom in, how to bring the background forward, and create wide-angle perspectives to create compelling compositions.

6. Emphasize the Creative Process

There are many ways to get to the final result, but my best outcomes follow this general process.

×        Exchange of visual references: Start by sharing comparable photographs or sketches to set expectations for mood, scale, and style.

×        Wireframes: The wireframes and floor plans of architectural drawings are analyzed that often reveal issues with scale, proportions, views, and terminated vistas.

×        Quick hand sketches: The illustrator creates preliminary drawings to establish views and subject matter and to correct scale and relationship challenges

×        It’s an Iterative Process: Be careful with an illustrator that goes from 0 to 60 in two or three quick steps.

The process continues with:

×        Initial line work.

×        Rough color blocking to convey mood, time of day, and highlights.

×        Line work is refined and details added.

×        The final rendering is painted in the computer with a blending of hand-drawn and digital elements.

Summary

Working with an architectural illustrator is a creative partnership between your lead design architect, the illustrator, and you - the end client.

Engage your team in a thoughtful collaborative process.

Take it one step at a time.

Before you hire your architect be clear that you need world-class illustrations to market your project and agree on what is truly world-class and discuss how they will be created.

Don’t be afraid to mark up an early draft of an illustration – even if your drawing skills are limited to doodles. I always told Scott Lockard he was my seeing eye dog and the drawing hand I lacked.

Demand evocative illustration that resonates with emotion and detail. The result is a visual story that brings your project to life.