Jon Quackenbush

The proper use of shadows is what gives it the 3d look.  I don’t like to use the typical adobe ‘drop shadow’ in the layer blending menu because it just offsets the layer, and it doesn’t look right when used for building shadows (aka no shadow being thrown from the edges of buildings).  instead, i create a unique layer(s) and use a proprietary s…[Read more]

The latter.  I don’t like uniformity, as it is unnatural looking.  On a plan like that, you need at least 5-8 unique trees.  While copying them around the plan, I would occasionally scale and rotate them slightly to trick the eye into thinking it was a different tree altogether.

I concur.

There is no universal formula.  An approach that may work for one client and project may not for another.  Some proposals benefit from pretty graphics.  Some site design does as well.  Inversely there are times you don’t need them at all.
It is just another trick in the bag to bring in work and stay gainfully employed, or aid in green-lighting the…[Read more]

I had word perfect and Quicken installed on my first machine pre-packaged back in 1993.

Agree with Dave, as I often do.  I have my computer plan graphics to the point where they are far more expressive than hand rendered plan graphics that I personally can produce, as I have begun to achieve photo-realism.  Markers don’t really look that great for the most part and colored pencils, while awesome, cannot be changed, edited.  I have an…[Read more]

none of it is 3d.  it is straight from autocad into photoshop and then rendered to give the appearance of depth.
i have a really nice palette of textures & patterns, which I would suggest you start to build if you want to render plans using photoshop.
the field with daisies is actually two textures blended together to give that effect using a…[Read more]

like this?

I have often designed things that have to be approved by an engineer, as many LA’s have, which means we need to be aware and knowledgeable about such things.  I work for a firm that is engineering heavy, so our designs tend to be skewed in that direction.  Engineers are a breed all their own.  However what separates us from engineers is a so…[Read more]

If you design gardens, then perhaps.  If you are doing a large scale campus for example with a lot of complex grading and drainage with retaining walls, signage and tons of corresponding details… it is a gross undersell.

Scale.  Approach.  Client.

It think it would be fine if you re-mediated the soils or built raised beds and brought in fresh soil and gave anything your about to eat a good washing before consuming.
 
It would be interesting to grow stuff and have it analyzed in the lab for heavy metals and the like.

I believe this is called community gardening.
Contact Capital District Community Gardens in Troy, Ny.  They are the oldest organization of its kind in the United States.  they manage over 70 garden sites throughout the Capital District with hundreds of gardeners.  My wife is a garden organizer there.
Not really the purview of a Landscape Ar…[Read more]

I prefer other medicinals.  And bourbon.

Agreed.  I have oft been inspired by the work i have seen on here.

My best friend from high school owns a family plumbing outfit, and he is doing well.  Each year they spend at least $5k on fireworks and they are awesome!  The proximity to them is what is most exciting.

I hope by asking to be let go you are still eligible for unemployment benefits.  That was what kept me solvent for the year I was out of work…
Good luck on the next phase, it took courage to do what you did and that mentality will serve you well moving forward.

I couldn’t agree more.

top notch.

As with any laptop, do research and find reviews for any model you are considering, and if there are no reviews and the deal seems too good to be true, DO NOT BUY.  Some notebooks have some serious design flaws.  My brother purchased an HP, and the heat sink for the CPU was shared with the on-board video, which is a seriously fail.  The CPU ge…[Read more]