#19 Historic Steam Engine in Yreka, CA

I've been working on this model in SketchUp for sometime now. The current step in this project is to convert to a 3d printed model. This image is the current progress in the 3d conversion.

I'm working on a 3d image to explain how "dark energy" is created as a heavenly body moves through space. This is a modification of the classic 2d image used to explain Einstein's theory of the time space warp. The current cone shapes will be changed. They are the wrong shape to explain the place and direction  where "dark energy" is formed as a "force". 

This is the second road test of the portable Raku Kiln shown in SketchUp drawings. As you can see the design has changed. A good friend had make the comment, " wouldn't it be cool if it were motorized". Well I've had some bike parts laying around for several years, so you know how that goes. There is still quite a bit to go on this project. I thought I'd show this because I haven't put a new SketchUp design on my blog for a while. Now you know why.

This is a design for a portable ceramic kiln for reduction firings. I'm about half way through the construction of this project. It's being built for personal use as well as for my classes.

First render study in Kerkythea. Great to get everything working again.

This is my current project. There is still a lot of detail to go. It's a Baldwin Mikado 2-8-2 which belongs to the Yreka Western Railroad. The railroad is currently not running. Their are local people who are trying to save out historic short line. I'm creating this model in hopes I can use it to encourage others to help save our historic 1915 engine and railroad.

Currently working on a home design in the Classical Style. This home will have many new technology features. Currently the domes are solar cells. The columns are for water storage. Stay tuned.

A modern style home design I've been working on lately.

I've been doing a lot of SketchUp lately. There have been some very large projects. This kiln design is for a wood or gas fired kiln for reduction firing. It's my plan to build this kiln this spring once the weather warms up. As always I'm open for any comments or suggestions on this design. Don

The 1904 Oldsmobile in this image was created in SketchUp and rendered in Kerkythea. The background photo was taken with my iPhone and loaded in Kerkythea as a background.
Title " Morning in the 04 "

This building design is an idea that struck me from observing nature. Many Deciduous trees grow in a upward helix formation. The gain strength from growing in this form. So the thought is how might this apply to architecture. That has lead to the attached design. Do you have any thoughts? Don

The is a design for a Court Yard upgrade at the St. Mark's Preservation Square in Yreka CA

I've been playing with a flower and leaf design. I felt it was time to try something different. This image was created in SketchUp 8 and rendered in Kerkythea.

This is a design of a Ceramic Car Kiln. I would really like to build this kiln to fire my sculptures and the sculptures of my students. I'm not sure where I will find the cash.

This is a design for a heavy duty Sculpture Stand. I will be doing some large full figure sculptures and will need a stand of this type. It will be constructed in my shop.

Aircraft a low poly model created in the same fashion as the 1929 Car.

A model of a 1929 type coupe. This is a design of my own. I was trying a new way of creating a model. At least new for me. I created a square in space. Modified with arch's, lines, etc. then used the Offset tool to create a smaller version of the shape. Nest the push-pull tool was used to draw out a space between the two shapes. Using the line tool the outside edges of the two shape were connected together with triangles. The second face was drawn out with the push-pull tool. The new pulled-out shape was modified by a number of tools. After modification that shape was pulled out again. The new shape modified and pulled-out. This was continued until the desired shape was formed. My image of this process was similar to the old balsa wood models I use to build. A series of bulk heads connected by stringers. I think it's a good way of keeping a model simple. This model also has different segments to the arches. Just part of the experiment.

1930's Type Race Car

 This is the current progress on my 1930's type racing car. This is not a copy of any existing car. The Cadillac V 16 engine is created following many pictures on line and other reference.

1930's Race Car now has the cockpit, seats, windshield, and dirt track.

I decided to take a break for all the mechanical parts of the car and work on a body design. I like the idea of 1930's race car. This is a rendering in Kerkythea as a test to how it might look when finished.

I've added a frame, rear suspension, springs, spring shackles, and son frame cross members.

The is a auto front end of a car. This type of front end design was around the late 20's to the early 30's. I would like to stick with this project this winter. And see if I can design a complete car of my own design. I'm current in the process of restoring a 1933 Chevrolet 5 window coupe Master. Working with drawings like this as I do a restoration help me to more completely understand the workings of the project.

This Video is for a project I'm working on with the City of Yreka as a proposal to create a downtown Arts Center and training facility. This project is designed to serve several purposes. A Concierge Service for the greater Yreka area. This would be a combined service for all the businesses, restaurants and motels, hotels, B&B's, etc. As an center for the Arts we would be creating small studio spaces for artists, work areas, and meeting areas for classes, and general areas for artists to spend time together. This space will also function as an introduction for tourists to the Yreka community to support and enhance work our Chamber is doing. As a pass through from the parking lot to the Miner St. /Broadway/ Lane St. historic district. An introduction to the History of Yreka would be presented in a pictorial review.

SketchUp plus Kerkythea

This is a video produced to show the use of the rendering program Kerkythea in combination with SketchUp. This demonstration was given at a Meetup gathering at Google in Mountain View, Ca. I have used Kerkythea for a couple of years now and am very pleased with the results. If you right click on the video you can make a choice to watch the video in YouTube in HD full screen.

1904 Oldsmobile Pie Wagon replicar

Additional renders from the 1904 Oldsmobile Pie Wagon replicar that I'm currently working on. These are rendered in Kerkythea a free rendering program.

1904 Oldsmobile Pie Wagon

This is the current project a 1904 Oldsmobile Pie Wagon replicar. I'm designing this reproduction form the original. We are part of the Yreka Committee for Historic Preservation and I think this would be a great advertising vehicle for our non-profit organization. Yreka, CA is a town in Northern California. Gold was discovered here in 1852. Our town has amazing history. It is my goal with this project to keep the vehicle looking as original as possible. However to have modern mechanical parts. To have electric power would be great also. My current problem with making it electric is I don't have experience with electric vehicles. I'm always open to ideas and comments.

Archtitecure/Religion

Architecture/Religion: Architecture reflects the many things about the people who designed and built the structures of their times. I often like to look at a style of Architecture and think how it might look different if it were influenced my a different religion etc. In this case Classic Architecture influenced by a Pagan style religion. One that saw the four basic "elements" of life as the important items to emphasize; earth, water, air, fire " energy from the sun". I would be interested on yours views of what you might see in this model as to its symbolism. This model in in the process of being designed. It is a complex model, and it may have reached the resources of my computer. So I'm not sure how far I will get before the computer comes to a grinding halt. I need a new computer. But that is not going to happen on my retired income.

A

A quick design for a donation stand to be used at the St Marks Preservation Square factuality. The stand will be constructed from Brazilian cheery with Plexiglas windows in the center section.

1933 Chevy 5 window coupe

This is the current place on the work on the 33 Chevy. As you might see there is still several areas that need finishing. The intersection of the compound curve areas need to be solved as well as other intersections of the model. Again I am looking for input on how these problems might be solved. I have solved similar problems on the Airstream work. In the Airstream projects I solved these problems by drawing in 3D a single point and line at a time. Similar to what one might do if they were working in Maya or other 3d software. My challenge here is to find ways to solve these type of drawing problems in SketchUp using SketchUp tools. All suggestions and or examples would be appreciated.

Compound Curves 33 Chevy

This video shows my current work in SketchUp on a 1933 Chevy Master 5 window coupe. This car has several compound curves through out it's design. The top of the car show in this video is a simple compound curve created from two curve surfaces. However this car has compound curves created by the intersection of three simple curves. This has presented a challenge for SketchUp design. I will be sharing my attempts to solve this problem. There will be more demos showing my attempts and possible solutions. I would like input for any of my followers or anyone else.

Sculpture Stand

 

This is a Sculpture stand I just designed after looking at other examples. It's been a while since I've done some clay sculpture work. So I thought I'd get started again. Hopefully I'll have something to display in my Art Blog before too many months.

Wright Flyer Kite Model

This is the SketchUp model I've been working on for a kite. It has been developed form a set of plans by the Wright Brothers. I hope to build this kite this summer and get in some flying.

Victorian Kitchen

This is the design for the remodel for out kitchen. It currently has a 1963 remodel that doesn't fit in our 1900 home.

To instructions

Click on "Latest Work" the title just above the Airstream picture below and it will take you directly to the tutorials on Don's Studio.

Latest Work

Airstream Design with SketchUp - Is a series of 43 10 minute instructions on the design for Restoration or Renovation of classic Airstream trailers. I'm working on the second restoration of an Airstream trailer. SketchUp has been very import in the planning of these restorations. Several members of the AirForums site had asked questions about the use of SketchUp. So I decided to create these lessons as a guide. Most tutorials I've found on YouTube are very good. However I have not found a complete group of instructions on how to follow through an entire project. So I've created this project on Don's Studio.
http://sites.google.com/site/airstreamsketchupdesign/ Look on the bottom left of the home page to find the link to the Airstream Design with SketchUp. This step by step group of instructions should be of use to anyone withing to learn SketchUp to create any project.
Don

Big house to Little home

I had a computer mishap about two months ago. I lost the SketchUp model of my 55 Flying Cloud trailer. So I have been working on a new model. This model is taking more time that the first because I'm going for more detail.

Victorian Mansion Lighting Study

These are the first two renders of the lighting studies for this model. There were experiments with warm and cool lighting for the two studies. These are also Quick Renders in the Rendering program Kerkythea. I believe that is the reason for some of the art effects. The general effect of the lighting is close to what I am after.

Test renders

This is a series of test renders for the current model I've been working on. Part of my motivation for this model was to see what level of detail SketchUp can take at present. I have been very pleased with the performance of the software. My computer however is showing signs of stress. Only a couple of textures have been added so far. More to come

Victorian Mansion

I've been working on this very detailed project. I just wanted to let everyone know I'm still working. I wanted this project to test the ability of SketchUp to do a large detailed project. This project is not finished. There is a great bit of detail left to do. And a lot of clean up to do as well. So far SketchUp had been handling the work well. I believe it's my computer that's getting the work out.Once again I'm always open to comments and suggestions.Also a big thanks to those of you who have subscribed to my site.
Don

Window Curved Victorian

This is curved window designed to fit on the rounded room detail of Victorian buildings. I've draw several Victorian homes in SketchUp and had a need for this type of window. I finally figured out how to construct this type of window. I personally like this type of window and would like to see them come back in modern architecture.

Still Life

These Still Life images are a result of my art background. I thought I would spend some time exploring the traditional art concept of Still Life. This form was used by artists to demonstrate their ability to create a wide variety of textures and surfaces. These first examples because glass, stone, and metal are relative easy subjects in contemporary computer art. It is obviously going to take additional work to tackle some of the textures of Traditional Still Life painting. I'm open for suggestions and guidance in this area.
Don

1955 Flying Cloud Airstream

This is the final design changes for the trailer I'm restoring at the moment. I have given it a transparent glass shell in place of the Aluminum one. That allows the viewer to have a feel for the space inside the trailer while still seeing the detail of the interior.
Don

Working on Airstream

Hi, those who follow my Blog. I have not forsaken SketchUp. I'm out working on the 55 Flying Cloud Airstream trailed that I used SketchUp to redesign. After all it's real cool to do design work and then put it into the real world. Here is the thread on the Airstream work.
http://www.airforums.com/forums/f36/55-fc-the-whole-ball-of-wax-25692.html
Thanks Don

Yreka, CA "Black's Building" Renovation

This video is for the Black's Building and Parking Lot renovation project. The original work was done in SketchUp 7 Pro and the Animation was rendered in Kerkythea. The fly through starts at the entrance of the parking lot and ends inside the Black's Building hallway just before entering Minor St.

Green House Victorian Octagon

This is the latest design for a green house for our yard. The house we live in is a Victorian that was built in 1900. This design would be more fitting. It is build from 1 1/4" square steel tubing and covered with corrugated fiberglass. There are multiple vents in the bottom and the top for controlling ventilation. A jib will be built to reproduce the eight segments of the design. The lacy design quality of this design is more in the Victorian feeling. To cover the exterior of the framework would make the design have a greater Victorian feeling. However the cost of the glass and the weather in our area might not make glass a good solution. Comments on this and other designs are always welcome.
Don

CNC router table

This is a design for a CNC router table. I've always been fascinated by these machines and thought I'd like to build one. I could use it for creating Victorian type details on the restoration of our Victorian Home.

http://buildyourcnc.com/default.aspx

1903 Cadillac Replicar

The picture below is a design I've been working on. It's modeled after a 1903 Cadillac. The first car Cadillac made. The current design is powered by a lawnmower gas engine with a vertical shaft. The concept is to use a friction drive system with the weight of the car and passengers creating the pressure contact between the flywheel and drive line tire. As yet a lever has not been designed that will lift the weight away from the drive wheel. This is the method I plan to use to create a neutral and start position. The suspension is something of a tricycle type creation. The front wheels and the drive line wheel create the tricycle arrangement. This should allow for flexibilities over varied terrain. Anyone out there have thoughts?

Black's Building Restoration

The following slide show is one proposal to begin the Black's Building reconstruction project. This is a multistage project that will begin with a volunteer organization. The stages will be centered around the following: The original portion of the building from the front on Minor St. to the Sandstone wall in the back, The back portion of the building will be torn down and an outside covered patio will be constructed in this area, The construction of the parking lot in the rear of the historic buildings, The addition of a entry sign and decorative details of the building and the patio area, The creation of an entrance into the Franco-American Hotel, Please feel free to ad comments and suggestion to this proposal.

The Bank Building

This SketchUp work in in progress.
The Bank Building that sits on the corner of Miner and Third St. in Yreka. There has been a Bank Building here since the early days of Yreka. The first bank was a one story building. This building has gone through several changes in its history. This current rendering is close to what it look like today.

Court House update

This shows the continued detail work on the roof and tower. I have also spent considerable time working on reducing the size of this file. Reducing the sides in curved and circular shapes. Also eliminating surfaces and lines that don't show from the outside of the building. Because of the detail in this Victorian design the file is quite large.