Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2008 - 64

many years, Betty Edwards' visual art speciﬁc Drawing on the
Right Side of the Brain was one of the few books available to
speciﬁcally help improve drawing skills. Occasionally a studio
art textbook would include a section on watercolor or color
mixing useful for theatre designers. But Rowe's book offers a
complete and thorough treatment of both drawing and rendering with our industry in mind.
The book is useful for theatrical designers at every skill and
experience level. The step-by-step development process Rowe
outlines would work equally well for an entire class or for individual self-study. She examines the issues associated with the
speciﬁc focus of each of the visual design genres. For example,
perspective, ﬁgure drawing, focus in renderings, and painting
light are addressed individually. Speciﬁc instructions and exercises address each skill set. All of this makes the book as useful
for a lighting designer as for a costume or scenic designer.

Builds logically
The book is well organized. Each new chapter builds logically on the foundation covered in the previous ones. The ﬁrst
chapter asks the reader to create a benchmark drawing of a
speciﬁed still life arrangement to determine current skill levels. Speciﬁc criteria, including example drawings of the still
life, illustrate the responses of the beginner, intermediate, and
advanced level artist. Rowe goes on to describe effective basic
drawing habits.
The next chapter discusses composition and elements of
design. More experienced artists may want to skip this section,
but even they will ﬁnd it valuable. Subsequent chapters deal
with perspective, creating dimension, and ﬁgure drawing. Instead of offering directions to create a perspective grid, Rowe
uses illustrations and line drawings to explain the fundamentals
of one, two, and three point perspective as well as foreshortening.
Chapter seven describes basic drawing materials and then assigns
ﬁfteen one-hour drawing exercises to develop very speciﬁc skills.
A combination of line drawings, color photographs, black and
white drawings, and color renderings to illustrate each point or
exercise are an invaluable tool for skill development.
Rowe then moves into color theory and speciﬁc drawing
tools. Perhaps my lighting design background is showing, but I
do wish the color segment had included more material on how
the colored lighting of theatre can impact painting. While some
designers might argue that the true impact is not felt until the
realized scenery or costumes are in place, I would argue that
color choices in the rendering and design stage do establish the
colors that will be used in production.

dering with speciﬁc media. Individual chapters
are devoted to drawing pencils, colored pencil,
marker, watercolor, gouache, and mixed media.
Each new section includes a list of materials and
tools needed for that medium and pictures of all
the items. For someone without a strong studio
art background, this eliminates a lot of guess
work and potential expense. Half the battle in
rendering is using the right materials to achieve
a particular effect and knowing which products
and tools to invest in for the long haul. The color
illustrations of renderings Rowe includes as samples of mixed media show a range of styles and techniques that
are inspiring to the reader.
Rowe and Beudert's chapters on digital drawing and rendering are concise. You're not sidetracked by a discussion of
the impact of digital work on the industry. The authors acknowledges the technique is available and is a new skill that
must be mastered by theatrical designers. This section explains
the differences in the major kinds of software and offers a brief
but speciﬁc overview of the computer hardware needed for the
process. Exercises that explore skills needed for basic digital

Rendering media
One of the book's strengths is the substantial information Rowe
includes about the process and techniques involved in ren-

W I N T E R

2008

THEATRE

DESIGN

TECHNOLOGY

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Theatre Design & Technology - Winter 2008