Landscape Drawing
The natural world offers an endless source of subject matter. Landscape drawing is an enjoyable and wonderful way to spend time and a great way to develop your drawing skills. Landscape drawing is a fascinating area of study which requires an understanding of situation, light and shade, detail and abstraction. Once you understand the rules of landscape drawing it finds very easy to draw. A landscape plan is not born; rather, it evolves. You put measurements, rough sketches and notes on paper, then tinker with that data until you arrive at the final plan. The process can be described in terms of three phases; the first step in preparing a landscape plan is to draw a base map. The base map is an accurate representation of the existing landscape, scaled to fit the paper, showing information such as house dimensions, distance to street, location of trees or woods.
The base map is a plan view drawing, which is a bird’s-eye view of the landscape. Features of the landscape are drawn with a sharp pencil or rolling ink pen. The type of writing utensil is up the person drawing the plan. Some like a mechanical pencil while others prefer an ink pen. Most beginners prefer to draw landscape plans using a regular pencil and a good eraser. Drafting pencils vary, based on the hardness of the lead. The typical rating system for drafting pencils goes from 6H to 6Band, where 6H is very hard and light and 6B is very soft and dark. Different pencil lead weights help to show the landscape features in different ways. Ink pens make clearer, darker lines, but erasing is almost impossible. Smearing is a potential problem with ink pens. If used, inexpensive pens with a rolling tip work almost as well as the more expensive professional pens with interchangeable heads. Landscape architects usually draw on a strong tracing paper called vellum and copy onto bond, which is the same as most computer printers use. Graph paper, whether vellum or bond, helps beginners make accurate measurements and makes it easier to calculate the area of an enclosed space. Drawing boards and drafting tables are used by professionals to provide a clean, smooth surface for drawing. Some come with a sliding straight edge connected. These special boards are expensive for one-time users, but may be worth the expense if drawing is a frequent activity. We should always be clear on our goal - the state you wish to reach - when you sit down for drawing.