When presenting concept designs, a little context goes a long way. When working on several candle concepts for an international candle company, I created some virtual sets so the decision makers could see the designs in the way their customers would see them.

One of the categories, seasonal candles, included some Halloween candles. A cozy front porch is the perfect place to display them. I quickly created a 3d front porch and rendered it with the jack-o-lantern candle concepts glowing on the front steps.

Another quick 3d model provided a warm place to display some tabletop candle holders. The background painting was a quick, colorful sketch painted freehand in Photoshop.

When large areas of empty space enter your layout, a simple gradient can be much more effective than just a solid color. As you see below, a subtle gradient added to these simple colors can add quite a bit of interest.

To arrive at just the right gradient, try applying the gradient as a layer effect. This will allow you to test different colors and tweak the ramp very quickly. When you arrive at one you like, but want to try another, copy the layer and adjust the new one. This keeps the old option intact, should you want to go back to it. Save your favorite gradients or save the layer effect for future designs.

Alone, iconic, and symmetrical, the design calls for a landscape feature at the center of a round about. As it will be seen from all sides, it must be the same on all sides. Themed and representative, the style must accentuate the identity while not being obtrusive. It must be highly visible while not blocking any views. The design answer is symmetrical and simple.

Like the design, the illustration portrays the same simplicity. Only a hint of background and a grass line foreground, suggest the environment but do not detract from the focus. The spray and fall of water provide compositional balance between the landscape’s features. The color palette is simple and light so as not to be a part of the design presentation.

When the design question calls for a simple answer, keep it simple. When the design is simple, quiet elegant artwork will keep the focus where it belongs: on the design. Symmetry between design and the representational artwork is a very, very effective strategy.

When designing and illustrating an isolated subject, it is not necessary, and possibly distracting to render the surrounding area. Simply suggesting a background and foreground can really make the subject stand out.

Abstractly edging the illustration, creating a vignette, can further simplify the graphic. The sketched white overlay on the background and side landscaping saved a lot of rendering time as well as creating a unique border around the subject.

When working in conceptual art, a project sometimes requires the design to be represented as a nice piece of artwork. Sometimes, however, the message needs to be communicated in a more detailed, technical illustration. A technical illustration can still be a lot of fun, and it can also be an attractive graphic.

This particular illustration represents the design of a littoral shelf, which is the intersection of a man made body of water and the land. The area is landscaped with a variety of plant species, each serving a particular purpose in the sustainability of the shoreline.

Even though my business offers different services: concept design, art & illustration, and web design – it seems incoming projects will undoubtedly be for the same service at any particular time. For the last couple of months almost everything has been web design.

Thus, web design is on my mind right now. One of the projects on which I have been working, is a redesign of my blog and resource Art & Architecture. Since it is a project for myself, I have decided to design it for a minimum screen resolution of 1024 pixels wide. It looks better on a 1280×1024 resolution, and even better on the 1920×1200 resolution running on my monitor. I have taken some time to play with enhancements using the Spry Framework in Adobe Dreamweaver. I have also been messing around with jQuery. Both offer some very cool possibilities.

The content for all current projects is database driven with structural html markup, and styled with css; no tables. I have been improving my web programming skills by dropping hard earned money on reference books, and doing lots of research on the web, and one thing confuses me a little. I vowed to keep everything positive on this blog, but a little rant here, the “expert” programmers writing these references spend a lot of time talking about designing for people with ultra low res monitors, and how to create work-arounds for people using ten year old outdated browsers. The first thought that comes to my mind, why is anyone using Internet Explorer 5 for Mac? There are any number of browsers available, and they are all FREE!

So I have been testing my code on current browsers: Firefox, Safari, Opera, Flock, Avant, Maxthon, SeaMonkey, Chrome, and Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8. (If you are not using a current browser, here is your opportunity.) As I can only have one version of Internet Explorer on my system at one time, I use IE Tester for testing Explorer. Second rant for this post, as I write the code (as the “experts” instruct me), my pages work perfectly in everything except Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8. So the second stage of every page design seems to be butchering the code three different ways to get it to work in each of the three Microsoft products. And they write our operating system! Microsoft! Learn how to write a browser and quit holding back the web!

Enough said: I must dive back into a reference book and find a hack to make today’s web page work in Internet Explorer. Yeeha!

An inspiring book – Watercolors by Winslow Homer: The Color of Light – written by Martha Tedeschi with Kristi Dahm, has sent me once again on a new path. The book features many works by the great watercolorist, but more importantly, Homer’s techniques and materials are discussed as they related to each piece.

Of course, my mind began trying to develop digital techniques that would create some of these fantastic styles. Homer’s use of light and composition are also quite intriguing, causing me to rethink some of my own thoughts on highlights and subject relationships.

If you have never seen the works of Winslow Homer, the online National Gallery of Art Exhibition is very well done. The Art Institute of Chicago Exhibition also has very informative resources. You may want to check them out as well as this book, I recommend it highly.

I have been quite busy lately, producing various kinds of artwork, and even some website work. One project involved a concept and rendering of this small condominium unit.

Here are a couple of larger shots, details in architecture are very important. The additions of light fixtures and other stylized items add a little more realism to the concept.

I set the time of day at dusk just to add a little atmosphere. Used effectively, unusual weather or time of day can create additional mood in an architectural rendering. If you would like to see more of my work, check out my portfolio at www.BlueNoseGopher.com

This is just a little tip to provide some options in design and art. Instead of using a solid color, try using a gradient, even if the color variation is subtle. In graphic design, it can add a little more visual interest to a page layout or a web design.

When added to your artwork, it can add a little more realism to an otherwise flat element. A gradient can also form the basis for the sky in a concept that appears outdoors. A gradient can help develop some inexpensive radiosity when doing 3d work. It can be part of the map used in a material, or it can be added afterwards in Adobe Photoshop or Painter.

As with most elements, I will often develop gradients and add them to my library. Then when the design calls for a gradient, I have a whole collection from which to choose. This not only helps keep the mind focused on the design, but allows trying color combinations very quickly.

Everyone is familiar with Adobe Photoshop image editing capabilities, and also Photoshop’s painting features. I have actually been using it for something different: architectural concept creation. Instead of trying to develop elevations in cadd, where precision can get in the way of creativity, the freeform painting in Photoshop allows a much faster and simpler creative flow.

One great feature is the fixed aspect marquee tool. After setting up the proportions you want, you can scale the marquee box to the relationship that works with adjacent structure. Another advantage is working with solid color. Filled geometric shapes are easier to work with than line based graphics. The transform tool can be used to vary the solid shapes and relationships, visually adjusting the design. After adding some details, a full color graphic is ready to present to the client.