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This is how I . . .
Build a Stream
A Rick Anderson Special
It’s a Oldie!
Early plaza layout renderings
About the second after I finished this page of sketches I received a phone call telling me the project went kaput. So that was that.
I think I was on to something here, but, alas . . . . .
Another rendering from this went nowhere.
Below is a rendering for a rather largestream and a series of waterfalls. The contractor I was doing this for had a track record of dragging his feet on starting projects on time.
In this case he didn’t even get these drawings and his proposal to the client before the homeowner accepted another for about half the price.
The finished project, I snuck in the backyard . . . was downright awful, I mean really bad. So bad, I almost drove home to get the camera, and sneak back in. wow it was bad . . . stream looked like a county drainage ditch full of rip-rap bad!
I think this is around 2002.
Eamon O’Kane’s oil painting of Americas most well known house. I have seen a lot of different interpretations of Fallingwater, this one really jumps.
It also seems the point of view is from a lower angle than the typical view of this side of the house with the waterfall.
Fallingwater in oil by Eamon O'Kane
From the acompanying text of the show:
In his first New York solo exhibition, entitled The Architect’s House, Eamon O’Kane presents new large-scale oil paintings that explore his fascination with architecture and landscape. Created during his residency at the Centre Culturel Irlandais in Paris from April to June 2008, these works recombine elements of Modernist masterpieces and set them in idyllic landscapes to give voice to a contemporary utopian ideal.
This was from the sketchbook(moleskine), and was done on-site so I could show the contractor what I was thinking about in reference to the space.
The idea for the space was to add a waterfall and a small body of water right up near the pool’s edge. The drawing in black and white was good for me but it did not show enough detail for the contractor.
What to do
The drawing needed to show some separation of stone . . . what’s in the water, what’s out of the water(liner). Plus what I was thinking when it came to “drops” in the stream, and how to show all that in a drawing.
So I went to my favorite way of adding quick color AND text in a program called paint(dot)net. Nothing more than a few suggestions and some detail ideas based on the stone he had for the project.
Very simple and pretty fast, even for an old geezer like me.
A how to build a waterfall drawing
Sad people
It just occured to me those folks look “sad”, or is it my imagination?
I have not seen photo’s of the finished work, and I am curious if the contractor followed my suggestions closely or in a more general matter.
I would happily post images but “J” is not a great photo taker. So we’ll just have to wait
It’s been awhile since we posted on one of my most favorite subjects-stone.
I thought I would remedy that with this image of a waterfall and stream bed of one of my former design projects. The job was installed in 2006 and I snapped the picture early last week.
[ Edge stone buried in help sell realism. ]
The taller flanking stones help frame the waterfall, making the falls appear ‘deeper’ than it actually is.
Those buried edge stone, variable depth, meandering stream lines, and plants that will grow(and filter water) and fill in-blurring the edge lines “all” help sell the naturalism of this project.
The goal is to get the observer to think that just ‘possibly’ this scene is “for real”.
[ Ash Cave in SE Ohio during the Summer season. ]
This is a perfect example of Blackhand Sandstone. The sandstone at the top of the formation is harder than the lower stone. Causing this wear pattern where the lower stone wears away leaving this spectacular overhang.
This unique formation of sandstone is called Ash Cave a name that came about by a discovery of the original settlers to the area.
Their discovery?
A mound of ashes over a hundred feet long and some 50 feet high. This site had been used by the local indians for 100’s of years as a mystical place of prayer and ceremony.
The height from the top of the ledge to the pool is 90 feet and a small waterfall spills over most of the year.
For me this is a place of magical intensity, scale, and reflection . . . a place of long ago.
[ This little stream was the #1topic. ]
A couple of post back I talked about the workshop I held on designing and building waterfeatures and of all the jobs we looked on this day the above stream was easily the most discussed waterfeature.
The workshop attendees had me go into great detail about how this job was built, transition, the stream edges, and the ripple efffects inside the stream.
There was also a lot of interest in how I was able to get to the stream to look so real. To sell the illusion of a natural waterfeature.
I was very pleased with the reaction of those in attendance. It was a really great opportunity to break down how something like this is built. The size of the class and the interest allowed us to work through the images very thoroughly, and allowed me to diagram and draw out many of the specifics in creating this type of stream.
6.5 hours of time really enabled us to really understand what goes into the process in the design, layout,and building of streams and waterfeatures.
This workshop has changed my thinking on the way I will give talks in the future(if I get the chance to do more) concerning water.
A divergence in my own stream of thought.
Attendees get shortchanged when they go to Conferences where everything is fed to them in 45 or 55minute doses. This may be enough time for a motivational talk, or a refresher course . . . but to actually learn something, to actually get inside the instructors thought process, to ask the un-explained —–no way.
I am still baffled why most of my industry still insist this is the way to do things.
The idea that hundreds of people herded from on room to another for a hour at a time for 2 or 3 days is a great teaching environment . . . doesn’t make sense.
This is not high school or college. We are not here for an entire semester of learning, at best we have those precious 2 or 3 days together.
Granted these industry associations have a narrow window of time to work with, and most attendees have few days to devote to these annual gatherings . . . added together this makes for limited opportunities to work in/with.
But does it always have to be the same thing?
Opening remarks, Headliner, multiple days of 1 hour seminars, with a keynote/closer to end the conference. Same thing . . . every conference . . . every year.
Sure the keynote/motivational guys are good, the 1-hour classes to keep up professional credits are needed also. Toss in a few food-for-thought talks . . . to me that’s enough of that. After that, it’s time for a change.
1 hour workshops just don’t cut it. I know; for me, that if a lecturer/teacher/presenter really has something to say/teach/divulge I can’t learn enough in one hour. I want some breakdown, some real knowledge imparted, to really delve deeply into the subject matter.
This cannot happen in one hour.
This cannot happen in one darkened room after another.
This cannot happen where the handout consist of the sum total of the PowerPoint lecture.
This cannot happen in a room with hundreds of people.
If someone has real knowledge, real experience, real talent, real skills, real wisdom . . .give them time, give them opportunity . . . with a small number of students so there can be real learning . . . real back and forth. A chance to fully explore a subject.
How do those folks running the large conferences think anything can really be learned when there is no real opportunity to ask questions? To be part of a give and take. To fully absorb the presenters philosophy? I’m truly puzzled by this way of thinking.
Maybe I’m all wet. Maybe I don’t have a clue. May-be this isn’t about learning at all . . . maybe this is all about the mystical recharging of the batteries, or some such thing, and it really isn’t about learning. Well . . . not learning is not my thing, and it certainly wasn’t what those who attended my workshops “thing”. They were hungry, they wanted to learn, they asked questions-lots of questions . . . and it was great.
When most folks think of Niagara Falls; it’s images like this, we think of.
[Bridal Veil Falls overlook,on the American side.]
I very much enjoyed the visit, we spent a full day on the Canadian side, and close to a full day on the American side. What I feel fortunate about is all the small waterfeatures we found on the American side.
Waterfeatures that are so small that ideas could be borrowed from them to re-create them in a residential setting. Including this one we found at Three Sisters Island.
[Between islands 2 and 3 on Three Sisters]
This little set of falls was less than 12inches high and created some great sound. They key here would be to create a line of stones that are rounded over and have some decent overhang, with a steady supply of water. Nice effect,nice audio.
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Three Sisters Islands are part of the Goat Island area on the American side. You can drive over, but I suggest you park in the main lot and use the trolley to get around on the American side.
Back tonight from a week long trip to Canada, a few days in Hamilton for the workshops,and then off and about to look at several other places. This includes some “vacation” time in Niagara Falls.
“Niagara Falls . . . slowly I turned, step-by-step”. Do you recognize this quote?
More later, on the trip and impressions of the big water, and what I hope to take away from those observations to use somewhere down the line on a waterfeature that will be designed for a homeowner.
“Selling the Illusion” . . .
A while back I got into a Blog conversation with Kim over at Blackswamp Girl(great name) about Home Shows and the views, and the gardens, and a little of what goes into creating a look to capture those in attendance.
Having done many a home show in earlier years, I had remarked to Kim about our goals has “displayers” . . . it’s to “sell work”. It’s not to motivate, illuminate, or inspire the homeowner to run out and put the same thing in their backyard. it really isn’t about being a “idea factory“.
Contractors and Designers want to design/install work. It’s about another form of marketing. Now I/we all know that some homeowners will copy/borrow/steal vignettes they see at these Home Shows . . . it’s part of the Home Show Game we all play. We can easily deal with that-no problem.
Hopefully the time, energy, effort, creative process, and money put in will pan out in the end. In some cities and show designers/contractors are compensated to put in a display, that may be as little as comping booth space to actual money to defray cost of building/displaying/manning the display.
This all varies on the size, scale, reputation on the actual show itself. I would consider Chelsea being the #1 show.
The reality is most guys I know hate, and I mean hate doing these types of shows. If it is not real hate, then it is usually real dread. There is usually a lot of time and energy involved in putting the display all together. Then the worst part comes . . . the actual show and the questions. The questions are the worst part, by far.
A lot of people want something for nothing. They start asking stuff about their yard as though you are actually standing in their with them looking at the same brown spot they asked about at last years show(hey, some people are just unforgettable).
One of my other favorites is the homeowner who balks when I/we explain we charge fees . . . actual fees to do work.
We’ll Bob in booth #223 said he’d look at our yard for free and do a design for free. Why can’t you be like Bob.
Over and over; brown spots, the scab on unidentified trees, the mysterious fungus, the guys who just got laid off somewhere doing “design work” for free-it never stops. This is how it is in most Home Shows across the U.S.
The waterfall at the top of the story was built by me for a show I helped with in 2001. The last time I worked a booth.
I was the waterfall/pond/fish guy, so my weekend sort of went like this:
- My fish are sick.
- The herons ate my fish.
- My fish disappeared . . .
- My fish died . . .
- Why did both my plants die?
- I want a pond without algae.
- Why is my water green?
- Will you come out and find my leak?
- I cannot see my fish . . .
- My pond water is scummy, why?
- My pond stinks . . .
- My pond is black . . .
Aaaaargh, that was it. It would take a lot to do that again. Now I would help the right person design/build a display . . . but the questions.
Another from the show of the other waterfall, this was the right one of a double falls. At one point we actually did have a problem with this one leaking and had to shut down this side-bummer it was. But, the show must go on. Hardly anyone remarked of it being off, which surprised me.
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Addendum: I do not know a “landscaper” named “Bob” who gives his work away.
This weeks stone comes from a waterfall I built a couple of years ago in Omaha, Nebraska for a photography studio. The stone is typical Colorado fieldstone.
To give you an idea of scale the falls is very close to 7.0ft high. and that’s about 3.0ft across the top. The double falls starts with 2 upflow filter boxes and we are moving about 4800 gallons per hour. The hardest part was getting the weir stones to break the water into a very uneven pattern. The owners(photographers) were insistent on the falls line being broken apart. Why? . . . you ask . . . good question.
The explanation to me was a straight clean falls created too strong of a horizontal line in the photographs, literally cutting the pictures into distinct sections. I was told this is a very bad thing in portrait photography . . . a very bad thing. I remember thinking-how interesting! After all this time building waterfeature . . . “Now this was interesting because of the uniqueness of the request”.
The typical homeowner is always looking/asking/begging for the sheet falls look, that clean straight horizontal line and I am advocating against that look. My reasoning was/is/always will be . . . the sheet falls creates a white noise that becomes too much of a predictable background noise. A droning white noise . . . snoresville.
A man-made weir where there is no sheet creates what I like to call a non-discernible rhythm of sound. Sounds like these always stay interesting because the observer/listener inability to pick up a pattern. No straight line weir means the waterfall is always splashing, trickling, crashing, dancing, falling in such a way that it’s impossible to pick out a pattern to the noise created by the falls. Viola! always interesting.
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Addendum: My goal is to try and create a waterfeature that looks naturalistic/natural (not man-made). This means there are no lights in the water. I have yet to be anywhere in the natural World and see lighting in a pond, stream, waterfalls. If the waterfeature is built in any other style of modern, or fountains, or pools I am the 1st to advocate lighting.
posted, 10/03/06
A Waterfall Rendering-selling stone.
These 2 landscape renderings were drawn into my sketchbook on the job site. Normally I make a few notes, shoot a lot of pictures, and just absorb the site. Then I go back and draw something up on the board to present to the client, during the conceptual meeting.
Here . . . I drew up these 2 conceptuals right on site. My tools of choice for a on-site drawing are; a couple of Sharpie pens (different sizes), and one or two Chartpak markers, in this case . . . just one . . . a brown one. Now here’s the interesting part about using minimal color.
What is the Focus ???
Focus; as in, what am I trying to achieve in the renderings for the client. Here, the owner operates a retail stone yard. There focus is to sell stone, whether by wholesale or retail, but the focus is to sell stone. So when I do a drawing for someone like this. I’m going to promote how the stone will be displayed, and used . . . . promote the stone highlighting with a brown or gray marker.
Had this been for a retail nursery what color would I have used? Green, of course! I would want to help
promote the plant material and a way to highlight that plant material would have been the priority.
The conceptual would have been slightly different, the stone not quite as prominent.
Had this been for a private residence I would have used very little brown, a swipe or two of
green, and a blue marker to highlight the water feature. The homeowner usually fixates on the water
feature anyway, so that’s where the focus need to be.
Let’s review, for these conceptual on-site renderings . . . keep them fast, loose, un-specific. Keep color to a minimum highlighting the important stuff only. I can’t emphasize this enough about highlighting . . . keep it
to a minimum, a touch of color will take you a long way.
My hope is to use this site to spread some info about the art and practice of Landscape Design. It is a very misunderstood profession; I do not cut grass like the next door neighbor's cousin who carries 3 mowers and a blower in the back of his truck.
I will also pass along comments on industry happenings, events, etc., and any maybe a few other adventures going on in my world-after all this is "my" blog. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look. Questions? Drop me an e-mail.
rick (at) whisperingcraneinstitute (dot) com
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