Again, the method I described, for better or worse, is how to do the rendering through Sketchup. I agree, that hand-rendering is a cheaper, faster alternative that requires practice.
As I mentioned on previous threads, I work in physical site design and create subdivisions, master planned communities, and town centers. Many of my projects are 250-1,000 acres or larger. I am 32 y/o, but I still draw plenty of plans by hand since it is far faster to do curves, reverse curves, and compound curves than cranking it out quickly in AutoCAD. I agree that plenty of students and entry-level landscape designers are loosing valuable drawing skills, in my case elevation and plan graphics. ALL of the cross sections I see today in portfolio after portfolio are glossy Photoshop drawings with faded tree elevations and they are beautiful. But there are dozens if not hundreds of the same types of graphics, and I don’t see a “wow” factor anymore. I see very few if ANY portfolio samples that show subdivision designs, and certainly nothing more than 25-30 acres. All of the land use bubble diagrams have gradient fills, drop shadows, textures. Is that really needed? If I give you the job candidate a 100 acre tract, can you grab some pens and markers and hand-sketch a bubble diagram from scratch? Can you do a street pattern over 300 acres in pencil and then ink the lots by hand? Scratches head.
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