Wallpapers as a rule are printed in opaque colour, but in textiles, when the colour is transparent, more elaborate effects are possible by overprinting or super-imposing one colour on another. In woven fabrics similar effects can be obtained by judicious manipulation of the shuttles, but in all cases it should be borne in mind that a working drawing is necessary in which the details are clearly indicative of the final result.
Designs that have to be realised by some form of handicraft require the same care and concise regard to detail, though the drawings need not be so complete as to appearance, and may be to scale or drawn full size according to condition.
Architectural drawings are drawn to scale, that of eight feet to one inch being general, with working drawings to a scale of half an inch to the foot accompanied by full-size details and profiles of mouldings. The drawings are geometric, that is in plan, elevation, and section, expressed in line and generally tinted. On plans and sections arbitrary colours are employed to indicate material, for instance, red denotes brick, purple-grey, stone, warm grey, cement, Prussian blue, iron or steel, and burnt sienna or Vandyke brown, wood.
These drawings convey little idea of the intended effect to the lay mind, and it is customary to suggest the eventual appearance by perspective views, but for practical reasons they constitute the most convenient form from which dimensions can be taken for working purposes.
In all structural design similar drawings are necessary, although sketch designs in perspective may be made to suggest effect, working drawings are imperative to the execution of the work. These, when reduced to the essential conditions of rendering, with explanatory details and sections, assume a very different aspect to the original sketch.
The success of the completed work depends upon skilful detailing, which must be thoroughly explicit to be of real value.
For convenience such working drawings are generally made on detail paper, which is usually obtainable in rolls sixty inches wide by twenty-five or fifty yards. This is sufficiently transparent to be employed for tracings, a great convenience when copies are in request, and is a good surface for pen, pencil or chalk, though somewhat thin for colour.