Looking Through a Windowpane: Sketching my View


Sketching is essential to the process of design. As a landscape architect the ability to produce rapid hand-drawn visualisations in order to communicate a design idea is invaluable. Unlike digital renderings, hand-drawn sketches are much faster to produce. For me, hand-drawing is imperative; not only is it my creative and expressive outlet, it allows me to convey my personal artistic style and character within my design projects. 

Sketching is something I have studied over many years, however, after working (rather intensely) on my dissertation for the previous few weeks, I thought it’d be a great idea to get some practice in. Yesterday afternoon, I sat by my window and decided to sketch the view. I created this blog post to document the process. 


I began by picking up a pencil and sketching a detailed representation of my view. Unsurprisingly, this drawing was rather time-consuming. The end result was controlled and inexpressive. In response I decided to create a much faster, looser drawing using fine liner. Rather than fixating on fine details, I aimed to sketch with a worry-free, expressive quality. Ultimately, sketching is a tool; it does not need to be a polished masterpiece. In the future I would like to practice this loose, expressive technique in order to develop my confidence when drawing quickly. 



Typically, when adding colour to a sketch, I find myself reaching for the watercolours; soft and muted in tone. However, I wanted to challenge myself to try something new. Apprehensively, I attempted to use oil pastels (above). When layered alongside the fine liner sketch I especially loved the outcome. In the future I would love to challenge myself to try new and unconventional techniques more often!


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