Thomas J. Johnson

It sounds like you are going for a realistic as opposed to artistic rendering. For that style, you’re probably better off having your trees/shadows/ground plane colors and textures figured out in CAD, so you’re plotting straight from CAD instead of using photoshop. I’ve achieved very good and pretty realistic results this way…Alternately, for a…[Read more]

Alternately, make your canvas size a lot smaller, then when you’re done, use illustrator to vectorize the finished rendering and you can make it as big as you want without becoming pixelated.

Wetlands develop in the natural environment because of what’s around them and beneath the surface. It’s the relationship of several meters of various soils, geology and the hydrology of a greater drainage system. The problem with “designed” wetlands is that we decide it would be nice to have a wetland somewhere and none of the bigger picture is…[Read more]

Nick Aceto – He’s the best digital illustrator I’ve ever seen in person. He does work that’s on par with your examples. http://www.terrainstudioaspen.com/

You could write a chapter on the subject. The basics… Yes, you can (and should) have a standardized file you open for a new project that has all of your layers and their properties set up properly (weight, color, type, etc). The file should be locked so it doesn’t get altered. Then when you open it, “Save As” using the correct file name for your…[Read more]

How do you know God is an Engineer and not a Landscape Architect?Because only an Engineer would put the sewer right next to the playground…<This one might take a minute to sink in…>

Ha!

Hire an engineer…
Rope? That’s some serious rope…  
1,000 lbs of people or 800 lbs of decking and one 200 lb person?
You’re only able to gain 5′-00″ on each side with cantilevered platforms? I bet you could get 10′-00″ on each side and only need a 15′-00″ bridge but that might look goofy…
Having a drainage doesn’t prevent you from using a…[Read more]

What’s the complicated new school way?

Yes, tree art indeed. Now all I need is 250,000 rhinestones to stick in those holes, a pile of amphetamines to give me the manic ambition to complete the meaningless-mindless task and an exorbitant amount of free time to create free public art so that some guy with a lot of money and the right connections can steal my idea, take all the credit,…[Read more]

Dang, you’re probably right… it looks like there is larvae in the holes but maybe it’s just sap…
Gonna have to go sleep on the expressway with my pellet gun…
http://youtu.be/tuhRhFyu-Bs

Options:
1. Tape Trace to standard paper before scanning.
2. Hang trace on white wall. Use Tripod and camera to capture image.
3. Use trace paper for presentation.

I guess my question (and I’m not being a smart a$$), is; why would your fee structure be any different than if you “had” the project? It seems like you place a value of X on your time. They want 35 hours of your time? That will be 35 x (X), please and thank you (see, there I’m being a bit of a smart a$$). 
If you’re traveling, your traveling. If…[Read more]

I’ll have to take another look at it but I think what you’re referring to is a stainless steel L-bracket… but yeah, it was just glued to it.
Lessons Learned:1. Smooth granite glued to smooth stainless = Fail.
2. Heavy material glued to small surface area = Fail.
3. Brittle material used near snow clearing machinery = Fail.
There are literally 5…[Read more]

Maybe I’ll try climbing in there on Monday and see what happens…

I guess it’s all just lipstick on a pig…

3 stories into a pool of water is hardly a “sure thing”… Police Raise Fears of Suicide “Attempts” might be a better title of the article… You’d probably just hurt yourself really badly…

You guys are quite the jokers…

Hi Steve –
It went something like this… I ate my lunch on a West facing bench and then relaxed for a moment before realizing that only the left side of my face was getting sun. Not wanting a lopsided tan, I set out to find a nice south facing bench. There were two in my immediate vicinity but because of the way the adjacent benches were being…[Read more]

Millennium is an excellent spring, summer and fall park, no doubt about it. It’s crowds are a testament to that fact. It’s a really well designed park, in general. It’s modern but ties into the adjacent classic architecture. It’s spacious and popular yet it still enables you to find a quiet spot to yourself. It has a variety of attractions and…[Read more]