Making a Scaled Blueprint From a Sketch

Creating a scaled blue print to aid the 3D construction of a 2D sketch

This lesson is intended for High School Aged Saturday School Students enrolled in the Utopia/Dystopia course who have completed Lesson 3 "The perfect (3D) Body" and are moving on to Lesson 4 "The Perfect Place".

This instructable aims to help students in making a blueprint for their 3D environment for their clay figures created in lesson 3 !

Here is a clay angel that I made in the 3rd grade- I will be using it as a sample to show how to scale and create your blue print!

The first thing you need to do is measure your clay figure. Use a measuring tape/ruler and use the inch side to determine the height, width, and depth of the object.

The measurements of my figure:

Heigh: 6 Inches

Width: 3 Inches

Depth: 3 Inches

Looking at the measurements for my figure, I determined a simple scale using graph paper. Each square represented 1 inch by 1 inch. Since graph paper is 2D we can not represent 3 dimensions (heigh, width, depth) so for this scaled blue print, we will use the plan as if we are looking from above, and solely focus on width and depth (2 dimensions).

Since my figure is 3 inches by 3 inches, it can be scaled to 3 boxes by 3 boxes totaling in 9 square inches.

Now is the time to reference your sketch for what you want your environment to look like. I planned a rough sketch of an environment that I could place my figure in.

You need to determine how much space you want your figure to occupy in the space. Do you want them cramped in a small space? Do you want them to be enveloped in a large atmosphere?

From my sketch, I determined that I wanted my figure to take up about a fifth of the width of the room and an eighth of the depth of the room.

Using the math in the photo above, I was able to determine that if my figure is 3 inches by 3 inches, then the room needed to be 15 boxes wide (15 inches) by 24 boxes deep (24 inches). This would account for a room that is 15x24boxes (360 square inches)

First we start with the width and the depth of the room. Since it will be 15x24 boxes, I drew out a square 15 boxes wide by 24 boxes deep.

This plan should be able to guide you to begin your 3D model and bring your sketch to fruition. Happy creating !