Drawing Lesson 23, Part 2 – Architecture Drawings

Architecture Drawings – Geometry of the Corinthian Order

Video Lesson Description

In this video lesson you will discover how Architecture Drawings can be made with full understanding of the Geometry of the Corinthian Order Column’s Capital

Architecture Drawings – Corinthian Order

Fine artists can improve their drawing skills by making multiple Architecture Drawings. That is why Drawing Academy presents this video lesson on the “Architecture Drawings” subject.

Continuing our Corinthian Order Capitals architecture drawings, I want to point your attention that two shallow square boxes are virtual containers for the concave abacuses. We draw the curved edges of the abacus, making sure the curvature follows our two-point perspective.

The virtual lines of the square box around the abacus, and the edges of the top oval, are great guides for this task. All we need to do is to connect the vertexes of the box with a curved line that touches the outer edge of the oval. The capital’s abacus has a “crown moulding” appearance at the top.

A volute is a spiral-shaped decoration; it looks like a scroll or ram’s horn. The volutes are integral parts of the Ionic order design. The Corinthian order incorporated volutes at a later stage. The word volute comes from the Latin ‘volute’, meaning ‘scroll’. The Corinthian volute is also called a helix.

There are 8 volutes paired together just below the 4 corners of the abacus. Additionally, there are 4 more groups of smaller paired volutes located between them.

The floral decoration, with acanthus leaves, goes in three rows around the capital’s basket. The top edges of these leaves are curved outward and downwards.

Fluted Shaft Geometry – Architecture Drawings

The aim of this drawing is to show how to draw the column’s flutes with precision. In this “Architecture Drawings” video you will discover the know-how approach of depicting flutes using geometrical drawing method.

When you do architecture drawings, always look for symmetry lines. In our case, a virtual central line runs vertically through the middle of the column. The top of the column’s shaft ends with a circular cross section that looks like an oval in a single-point perspective.

Making architecture drawings, keep in mind that the main axis of the oval runs horizontally at a right angle to the central axis of the column.

Our viewpoint is below this circular cross-section, and therefore the visible part of the oval will be curved upwards in our architecture drawings.

The Column flutes end at the top in semi-circular arches. The virtual oval line will define the arches edges.

When making architecture drawings, observe decorative and constructive elements of depicted objects. Corinthian shafts have 24 flutes around their diameter. The Columns of the Parthenon Temple of the Acropolis of Athens have 20 flutes. For this particular study, we will use a 20 flute, column design. Flutes are longitudinal grooves carved into the perimeter of the columns.

For centuries, it was accepted that flutes served a purely decorative purpose. Indeed, fluted columns look slender and more stylish, so they may have been carved for aesthetic reasons. That is why so many artists were keen to make architecture drawings featuring fluted columns. However, in recent years, engineering studies have been conducted that advocate a theory that flutes influence the mechanical behaviour of ancient Greek columns. It was proven, both mathematically and experimentally, that the number and shape of the flutes, together with the type of loading, significantly modifies the stresses and strains on the column. So, many centuries after the invention of the fluted column design, we now know that a fluted column shaft is stiffer than a non-fluted column shaft.