Orthographic Island

Task: To create a measured hand drawing of my island on an A1 sheet including a contour plan of the island and a series of 5 sections.

For this part, creativity turned to technical, precise, measured drawings demonstrating the contour lines of the model. I quickly regretted the vertical cliffs that I had created because when you look at a map of land that changes gradient dramatically, the level of preciseness increases as all the lines are very close together:

To add insult to injury, I had made my island model about 5cm high and we were required to show at least 15 contours... this means figuring out accurate levels on this tiny and extremely textured model every 3mm! Due to the delicate nature of the model, I discussed the problem with my turtor and he brought in the idea that I could pretend this island has very high and low tides - and this model was currently at high tide! I could therefore map the lower contours as what I imagine to be happening beneath the surface of the water, and instead have countours at every 5mm. In order to get accurate lines, I had to put the model in a container and add enough water for the level to increase by 0.5cm each time, to get a level line all the way round. I marked the line at every contour. I then made thin slices across the model (painstaking work!) and then drew around each section to get a template of each line. I could then copy this onto an A1 sheet (to scale) to make a contour map of my island:

The dotted lines on the contour map indicate the 'below sea-level contours'. 

Then came the section drawings where I used a graph-technique to depict where the gradient changed:

Although this process took a long time to complete, it really gave me a sense of the gradient of the islands - not quite as vertical as I initially thought. It also gave me a better understanding of scale and how to draw maps and sections - all essential skills for a landscape architect.