Introduction:
A draftsman is someone who designs and organizes 3 dimensional living space, open
space, or office/business space by drawing it in two dimensions. Draftsmen can
be architects who design buildings, city planners who design the layout of streets
and highways, or carpenters who design houses. Today we will learn some of the
basic tools draftsmen use and then you will design and draw up a plan for your
ideal bedroom.
Materials:
4x4 graph
paper in 8 1/2x11 or larger sheets
Pencils and
erasers
Colored pencils
and/or markers
Ruler templates
(optional)
Triangle
(optional)
Compass (optional)
French curves (optional)
Directions:
1. On your paper, decide what the overall shape of your room will be and draw
that shape very large on your paper. All other shapes indicating furniture etc.
will be drawn inside this shape.
2. You must also decide on a scale for your plan. The graph paper you are using
can help you decide your scale and will help you keep to that scale throughout
the entire design. We are using 4x4 graph paper which means that there are 4 small
squares to an inch. Each small square you see on the paper is 1/4" wide and 1/4"
tall. For example, you may decide that 2 small squares (1/2") = one foot. Somewhere
on your paper, indicate the #of small squares you want to represent 1 foot and
as you are drawing, always be aware of what scale you are working with.
3. Most plans that a draftsman will draw are designed to eventually become real
spaces so it is important to remember the real size of objects in the plan. If
you are 4 feet tall and you draw your bed as 10 feet long you will waste space.
Better to have a 6 foot long bed that is long enough for you to sleep in but leaves
enough room for the 6 foot wide hot tub youÁd like in the corner. A template is
a useful tool to use in this case.
4. Indicate all your furniture as the most basic of shapes. For example, don't
include the details of the handles on your dresser. Think of it as if you were
looking down into the room from a skylight in the ceiling and draw the top surface
shapes of objects. Label each piece of furniture in pen or pencil inside its shape.
Indicate doors and windows as small hash marks and indicate stairways as a block
of parallel lines.
5. When your plans are complete you can use colored pencils or markers to color
your plan.
Art Terms:
Template – a draftsmanÁs pattern or guide for drawing certain standard shapes
or symbols. It is usually a flat sheet of plastic in which holes of different
shapes are cut in varying sizes. The draftsman uses the template as a stencil.
Compass – a mechanical drawing instrument for describing circles and arcs,
usually consisting of two hinged legs or a rod with sliding points that adjust
for different diameters.
French Curve – a thin rigid piece of clear plastic cut in a continuously
curved or scroll shape so that it can be used as a guide for ruling curves through
a series of points that are not on the arc of a circle. Curves come in a great
range of sizes and shapes and some have names that relate to the purpose for which
they were designed, such as ship curves, used in nautical design.
References:
Mayer, Ralph. The Harper Collins Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques; Second
Edition. Harper Collins Publishers, New York. 1991.
