Color in landscape architectural drawing is a tool for emphasizing important elements of the image, structuring or improving understanding. An architectural drawing does not try to catch the actual natural colors or the atmosphere the way a painting does, but uses color rather in an abstract way.
There are different techniques to paint with watercolors that range from wet to dry papers, brushes and different techniques of mixing colors. In this video I’m showing a fast way to color drawings. Often we do not have much time for field sketches and in these cases we paint differently with watercolors than we would in a studio. We mostly paint using wet paint on dry paper.
I start by drawing a line basis of the image with some textures, that i’m about to color. The farm is the central point of the composition, but will leave it blank, as the landscape is the element of interest.
First, I paint the fields up front with one color. I do not let different colors to mix, but rather paint separate areas, because i’m interested in the landscape structure they create. In order to do that, you’ll need a little patience and never paint right next to an area of paint that is still wet, as it will cause the paint to bleed into other parts of the drawing. Always allow paint to dry before painting next to it.
The important thing to understand while using color in an analytic way is that different colors of the fields do not necessarily represent different colors in nature, but show the different use of the land – pastures up front and crop fields in the back. I use the color tone for hedges which are the most characteristic element of this landscape and need to stand out.
Overall, avoid painting to the edges of the paper. Let the color fade on the edges, as that gives the impression of continuity and does’t frame the image.
Linescapes is a project focused on exploring drawing techniques for recording and analyzing landscapes. It also tries to promote hand-drawing in landscape architecture.
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