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Lessons from Ukiyo-e and Sumi Ink: The Influence of East Asian Art in Architectural Visualization

 

Architectural visualization is an illustration that communicates design intentions and ideas. The conventional illustration style stems from Western paintings depicting accurate perspective, lighting, and shading, while Asian art influences are rare. The author discusses his new illustration style, blending Western and Eastern arts through manual rendering, digital imaging, and advanced 3D software. The study focuses on composition, perception, and colors based on the primary influences of Sumi ink painting and Ukiyo-e prints. The process begins with the image orientation that echoes a scroll or folding screen, resulting in a longer format. Sumi ink and Ukiyo-e are ink-based; the author blends manually inked components with digital elements to achieve the desired fluidity. The built environments are computer-generated in 3D software to contrast with the flatness and oblique projections of East Asian paintings. The emphasis of the composition is the use of positive and negative spaces to complement the narrative. The landscape elements, such as mountains, water, and clouds, are more abstract and symbolic than realistic. When using Sumi ink as inspiration, color palettes are more desaturated, while colors become vibrant when using Ukiyo-e as a reference. The final paper and scratch textures are composited digitally to give the impression of realistic media.
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Keywords: VISUALIZATION, IMAGE TECHNIQUES, DIGITAL CAPTURE AND MANIPULATION OF IMAGES