430 Interiors Copyright Goodheart-Willcox Co., Inc. There are standard manual tools you can use to begin your manual visual presentation. The choice depends on client needs, your skills, the project’s timeline, and client’s budget. It also depends on your preference. Designers often develop strong preferences for favorite visual communication tools, Figure 13-3. ■ Drawing surface. A drawing surface can be flat or angled. Historically, drafting tables served this purpose. Today, a drawing surface can be anywhere—a pull-out surface on a plane or a stand-up counter in an office. ■ Paper. Tracing paper is the most common paper used because of its transparency and layering capability. It is also inexpensive and portable. A step up from tracing paper is Vellum. It is thicker, more durable, and offers a rich finish and good stability. Nontransparent papers, such as bond, watercolor, or grid papers, are also commonly used. ■ Drawing pencil. Graphite or lead pencils are available in a range of hardness and coded as H = hard and B = black. A number next to the letter indicates degree of hardness. The smaller the number is, the harder the lead. For instance, 2B is harder than 4B. You can get wood or mechanical lead pencils. To keep your pencils sharp, add a lead sharpener to your tool kit. Non-photo blue leads are used to draw guidelines and will not appear when drawings are photocopied. Colored pencils are often used for rendering a drawing. ■ Drawing pens (disposable). Felt-tip or roller ball pens are the most common drawing pens. They are low in cost and available with different point widths. Black is a favorite choice and most commonly used in the field. In fact, it is an industry-standard piece of equipment a designer has at all times. Technical pens work well on certain papers and come in a variety of tips sizes (commonly called nibs). They are costly and need extra care to maintain, but they work well for precisely inked drawings. ■ Markers. Quality felt-tip markers, combined with colored pencils, are the main tools designers use for rendering illustrations. They are expensive, but can last for years. The basic colors include various shades of gray, green, red, blue, yellow, and brown. Naphat Rojanarangsiman/Shutterstock.com Figure 13-3 Depending on client factors, designers use a variety of manual tools to create their visual presentations. Naphat Rojanarangsiman/Shutterstock.com EDHAR/Shutterstock.com zhu difeng/Shutterstock.com mhatzapa/Shutterstock.com