O: Al is a
fantastic architectural illustrator.
Give me some background on who you are and where you come from.
A.
I was born on the east coast but lived most of my life
in California. Had a Navy father in WWII but his profession later was being a
lawyer…moved to the Bay Area when I was in grammar school. I think as far as getting me to where I am
now you probably need to know I was the child of a crazy alcoholic parent –it
was difficult to study and I wasn’t a
very good student – I didn’t pay very much attention to school and then I took
a mechanical drawing class and it made a huge difference in the course of my
life up until this point – all of a sudden it made sense to me. I liked the act of drawing always, but solving
and ordering mechanical drawings really gave me direction. The instructor would call people around the
board and say look at how Al did it – and I’d never had any praise for anything
I’d done and he set me some tasks – I didn’t even have to finish the class – he
gave me the task of going out and measuring for remodeling the school – it was
all new to me to find some importance in what I did and what I could do – that headed
me towards the study of architecture. I
was pushed by my grandfather – he knew I was more artistic than mechanical so
he pushed me towards architecture. I was
going to join the Navy after high school because my grades weren’t very good
but my dad applied to some colleges for me and I was eventually accepted by the
University of Houston who had a good architecture program and that headed me in
the right direction. I remember being at
college for the first day or two and I walked into the lobby of the
architecture building and there was a presentation with models and illustration
boards full of plans and sections with trees – I saw that and I knew I had
arrived – I was in heaven – it was just the coolest thing to see and know that
was where I was headed.
O. So what did
you do right out of school – or maybe you worked while you were in school?
A.
I worked while I was in school for a couple different
firms. My old habits came back. I partied
too much – so after third year I dropped out. I lost my student deferment and
went into the Navy and spent 2 years./ I
had wanted to get into a computer drafting school, which I probably could have
but wound up on a ship and did two tours in Vietnam. I wouldn’t trade that
experience for anything. I got out in San Diego and I came up to Sea Ranch
because I’d known about it – I wanted to live here but I stayed in San Diego
and worked to try to come up here and 27 years went by. I started out doing design and supergraphics,
a lot of architectural remodels and additions and more and more I found that rendering
was the niche I wanted to pursue.
O. So the
rendering started once you were on your own rather than when working in an
office?
A.
Yes, more when I was on my own because that’s what I
wanted to get after. I did drafting and
rendering in offices, but once I was on my own I needed to develop some skills
that were marketable and worthy.
O. When you were
working in an office were you not working as a designer so much?
A. When I started
in San Diego I got a job for a large interior design firm and I was the main presentation
draftsman and renderer for 6 designers all on different projects and they would
come to me and we were doing restaurants, malls, offices, and residential
projects – I learned a lot – I had to do presentation drawings, technical drafting,
renderings – I honed my skills there and then I broke away from them and
started doing rendering, residential and commercial design, supergraphics,
advertising art illustration on my own – anything and everything.
O. A quick
little aside here – you mentioned your father being an alcoholic and…
A. It was my mother,
not my father.
O. I have
noticed a number of architects who have had alcoholic parents and I wonder if
you have any thoughts about that? Is
there any kind of link?
A. I had to go
inside myself for entertainment. I
couldn’t bring any friends by the house – it was just too risky and
embarrassing…so I learned to make decisions and play and satisfy my own needs
and I became pretty self-sufficient. I’m
not one to take lessons – I’m one to
figure out for myself and I think I end up knowing things more
thoroughly than if I’d taken a lesson. I
was never very good at that…sitting in a classroom. I usually like to figure things out for
myself – and being self-sufficient I don’t believe in practicing watercolor –
you sit down and you learn from your mistakes – it’s always been hollow to me
when you practice – there’s no pay off, there’s no risk.
O. I want to
jump in with a few questions here. I was
commenting about that rendering that was in your office that was so
unusual. It had a gold sky on one side
and an almost indigo blue sky on the other and had a definite quality about it
that strikes one above and beyond the imagery that the drawing or painting is
trying to communicate. It raises the question about illustration that are impressionistic
or have an emotional quality – like certain Hugh Ferris drawings – does that
kind of work have a place in architectural illustration – and for that matter
were those Hugh Ferris drawings actually shown to a client or were they just
done off in the studio for himself?
A. I don’t know
– I think one of the things I learned about rendering is that renderings are
art – a painted art form – and once I got that in my head I realized that I
could take some liberties and be a little more
…I tend to be too tight – I think it loosens me up a bit and allows me to
get away from that technical perfection, although I’m still sometimes a lot
tighter than I want to be – so I think architectural rendering – as opposed to
art for art’s sake, you have a goal in mind – and a set of conditions it has to
satisfy - so it has to pass muster first
and then it can explore the artistic and the artistic side can began to explain
some of the technical pieces that have to be sorted out.
O. Just as you
asked me about my processes out on a site – will you take me through your
processes – they seem quite precise although when
you focus in on any one piece it begins to dissolve and becomes impressionistic.
A.
These days I’m usually sent a sketch-up model with
perhaps 2 or 3 views or versions.
O. Excuse me,
are you talking about a computer program?
Ha, Ha, Ha…
A.
Mostly it has massing, not a lot of detail and if they
allow me to add my input and say that I think this one would make a better
rendering than that one – it becomes a base for the drawing. I have in my mind a vision of what I want the
final drawing to be and then I start to stage it – the entourage, the detail,
the back grounds, and so at that point my vision jumps ahead as to what I want
the color to look like – it’s not something I put into words…
O. What do you
mean “what you want the color to look like”?
A. I begin to
see how I want to paint the drawing and it’s not a script – it’s more of a
fuzzy vision in my head – when I want
and how I want the building to jump and to resolve – where I want the
lights and the darks…
O. Do you ever
do value studies?
A. No, I don’t
do any value studies.
O. All in your
head?
A. That tends to be a pretty solid guide for me – although foggy and hazy, it still works for me – I just jump in and go for it and if I run into trouble
– which I usually do – which all artists do – I hit the wall and work through
it. – you just find a way – you make it work.
That sky you like is a case in point – there was something in the sky I
didn’t like and I sat and stared and then picked up this brush and did some
bold color and you know you wouldn’t do something like that if the sky was going
well so it’s a much better drawing for it.
That sky is one of my favorite skies, but it’s not something I would do
if things were going well – I wouldn’t dream of going there – there was no reason
to have the cojones to pick up that brush and make that bold move and
hope it works – that drawing was done and if I’d really made a mess of it I may
have had to start over – and that’s not something I wanted to do.
