BUILDING A DRAWING
• To help us frame and compose a view as well as gauge the
relative lengths and angles of lines, we can construct a
viewfinder out of dark gray or black cardboard.
• Another convenient sighting device is the shaft; of the
pencil or pen with which we are drawing.
• We hold the pen or penci l out at arm's length, in a plane
parallel w our eyes and perpendicular to our line of
ith
sight.
• To make alinear measurement, we can align the tip of the
pen or pencil with one end of an observed line and use our
thumb to mark the other end. Then we shift the pencil to
another line and use the initial measurement to gauge the
length of the second line.
• To gauge the apparent slope of a line, we can alignone end
of an inclined line w the shaft of thepen or pencil held
ith
vertically or horizontally. We gauge the angle between the
two visually. Then we transfer this angular measurement
to the drawing, using as guides the edges of the drawing
surface that correspond to the vertical or horizont al
reference line.
• We can use the same reference lines to see which points in
the image align vertically or horizontally with other points.
Checking alignments in this way effectively controlsthe
proportions and relations of both positive and negative
shapes.
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I ARCHlTECTURAL GRAPHICS