Interested But Not Confident? – Know How to be Good at Hand Drawings

By Land8: Landscape Architects Network on November 20, 2014 No Comments / 8253 views

A-Z guideline to a successful hand drawn design. Design is a process that starts right inside the designer’s mind and the soul. Then it comes out in different physical forms by the help of different media. Though the use of software in the design process is getting popular, still we all know and believe that hand drawn pieces in the initial design state is like nothing else. When it comes to translate the creative person’s mind and soul, what can be greater than the hands doing a sketch on paper? The initial sketches are always the pure documentations of the designer’s idea. Also detailed sketches are of added value in the final presentation as well. To be successful in hand drawings some easy and nice primary techniques can be followed.

Maybe one day you’ll be sketching like Juliana Lalaj; one of the entrants to our Sketchy Saturday feature.

Getting Started with Hand Drawings

So, here is a sequential guideline to help if you are interested but not confident yet. At the beginning, the absolute tip, “Believe that all of us are eligible to draw; some of us are just not admitting it yet.” Get started! • Make relationship with lines Drawings are nothing but the arrangement of different lines. Lines are the most essential drawing elements. Forms and shapes can be defined by lines even the space and depth can be sensed if perfectly used. So practicing and gaining control over straight lines, Curve lines etc are very beneficial. Tips: 1. Using the edge of the paper as the reference helps in mastering straight lines. 2. Move your hand, not only your wrist. • Practice drawing shapes The three basic shapes; square, circle and triangle, must be practiced well to be good at hand drawings. As they will make way to draw any other shapes easily. Think of drawing a circular pool, a rectangular park bench or a pyramidal object. Tip:

Pay attention to the angle between lines in square and triangle, maintain the distance from the center in the circle.

WATCH: How to Draw Circles, Squares, and Triangles

Practice some basic drawings

There are some basic elements of landscape design which can be repeatedly used in almost every drawing once learnt. Trees The tree is the most valuable drawing element to render a landscape design. Use of different kinds of trees in a drawing easily makes it attractive. Tips:

Try different shapes and forms of trees. Use the skill of drawing basic shapes and initially keep it simple.
Use different species of reinforce the context and function you are covering. Coconut trees for a coastal area or high coverage canopy tree for community gathering space will do the trick.
Tree without leaves is great for indicating weather condition like winter or if the background is to be drawn.

WATCH: Linescapes: How to draw a tree Human figure People add scale and sense of activity to the drawing. Tips:

Don’t bother about detailing the human figure
Pay attention to the postures and use figures of different sex, age and height.
Use human figure to express the context, country, season and even time.

• Other Elements Some others elements like cars, boats, cycles, light posts etc can be easily practiced to use where ever needed. Tips: Know that details are not important. WATCH: How to sketch & draw people Part 1 | How to use a mannequin Also WATCH: Gesture drawing Give “life” to your drawings • Shade, shadow and reflection While shade gives idea about the surface and the shape of a object, the shadow will represent the angle of light and the angle of view. Reflection is the shadow of object on fluid or other reflective surface. Tips:

Keep all the shadow lines parallel to one-another
Know that the length of reflection depends upon the angle of the object with the surface

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WATCH: Shapes into Forms • Proportion This is your best friend and your best enemy as well. If proportion is maintained, lack of drawing skill will be covered up. On the other hand, a disproportionate drawing is a total disappointment and gives the wrong information. Tip:

Always take an element in the total drawing as reference and draw the rest in proportion to that. The best reference ever is a human figure.

WATCH: Perspective Drawing in Proportion Tip • Idea of perspective Perspective gives life to a 3D drawing. The idea of perspective views is very important to create the sense of space and distance. Three kinds of perspective can be drawn; one point, two point and three point perspectives. Tip:

To obtain the skill of drawing perspectives from graphical study can be critical. But it can be easily learnt from regular sketching from real life views. Start with the simplest one point perspective.

WATCH: Linescapes: How to draw one point perspective Also WATCH: How To Draw In Perspective: Road, Railway, Train, City Know what you are doing • Focal point You don’t need to draw all of it. Detail the object(s) you want and leave the rest as light as possible. • Simplifying a complex view While drawing spaces from imagination or real life, complications are expected to be avoided. If a real scene contains plenty of elements in complex positions, make it simple. Tip:

Use thick charcoal, pencil or wide nib marker to naturally avoid unnecessary details.

• Back ground- foreground To emphasize the main object, keep the background less detailed. On the other hand if the back ground is what you are drawing, keep the foreground lighter. One last step remaining, Amaze others and love your sketches!!! Practice systematically and regularly. Apply your ability to observe the surroundings and sketch whatever, wherever, whenever you can. Soon the awesomeness of hand drawn illustrations will start to add to your design and ideas. Recommended Reading: