In this article, I will review 3 exercises that I have seen improve the sketching ability of students and designers over time. With practice and commitment, these exercises should assist you in developing better drawing habits for conceptual and real outdoor spaces.
MySketching Story
When Istarted to become more serious about landscape architecture as a futureprofession, I knew I had to work on my landscape sketching. Throughouthigh-school and for part of college, I didn’t really practice too much and myoverall style was more cartoonish than I would have liked.
Luckilyfor me, I had great resources of faculty and fellow students that helped me createpractice exercises to improve. I spent about one-hour per day sketching. I dreweverything I could see, often multiple times, practicing different techniquesand using different media from graphic pens to charcoal. The more I sketched,the more confident I became, and the better my drawings were. Now I sketchbecause I love to, and it is a wonderful habit to develop.
To beclear: there is no single tool, exercise, or “hack” that can make you becomegreat at sketching, but I have never met a student who lacks the ability toimprove. Below, I will be providing 3 exercises that have helped both myselfand students improve their drawing skills, but before I do, I would like togive the most essential secret to become great at sketching. Are you ready?
Inorder to get better at sketching – you need to sketch! Groundbreaking, I know.
So, aslong as you can put in the effort, the exercises below should help you progressmore efficiently with your dedicated practice.
A BriefNote on Sketchbooks
Beforewe delve directly into the exercises, I want to make a brief disclaimer aboutthe type of drawing medium and brand of sketchbook you purchase. I believe asketchbook is a very personal item to a designer. It is your own little recordof thoughts, details, and occurrences that you can use in your next landscapedesign or future projects.
Becauseof this, there is no “best” sketchbook for drawing. It truly irritates me whenI see online lists of “The 10 Best Sketchbooks” or “Only the Pros Use These 5Sketchbooks”. Do not listen to these individuals;they are only trying to sell you something.
Here ismy advice: use whatever sketchbook you feel comfortable with and experimentwith different brands. I am still testing out new brands of sketchbooks evenafter 20+ years of practice – and I love it! Each different sketchbook remindsme of a particular time and place I was as a designer, like a little historicalartifact of my progress over time.
Currently, I have two sketchbooks I alternate between: a Canson Hardcover Sketchbook and a Pentalic Pocket Journal. I have used both brands before and have been pleased with them. I use Copic pens with each – although if a particular scene inspires me and I need to sketch it, I use whatever is at hand that makes a mark.
Honestly, I’ve literally used a dried twig and a lighterto get burnt char on paper during one snowy afternoon in upstate New York.
Exercise #1: The Timed Sketch (Getting YourPoint Across)
Recently,I needed to text my wife while she was at the store because we were all out ofmilk in the house. Typically, this would not be an issue, but for my hungry 10month old son it was a dire need.
Havingto calm my son, along with keeping my 3 year old daughter entertained as well,I didn’t have time to send a full message to my wife. All I texted was “BuyMilk”. Sure enough, she got the relevant information she needed in order tomake the correct decision that benefited my screaming little boy.
If Iasked one-hundred people to make the same request of milk using only two words,most would have an easy time getting their point across – “buy milk”, “needmilk”, or “milk now” would probably be the most common phrases.
Thereason that people would say the same two-words is because they’ve spoken andcommunicated verbally for their whole lives. They understand the key elementswithin a sentence that need to be immediately stated in order for their intentto be understood.
Thesame thing is true for visual graphics, but often designers don’t have theexperience of synthesizing the information well enough to get their pointacross. This is the purpose of our first exercise – to limit the time you haveto sketch so that you only focus on getting the key elements of the scenedrawn.
Forthis exercise, you need to find five photographs of gardens, landscapes, orpublic parks. The photographs should be wide shots that show the entire space,or a large portion of it (you want to avoid pictures of a single plant, one bench,etc.).
Arrangethe 5 photographs in sequential order randomly, one through five. Starting withthe first photograph, give yourself a full 5 minutes to sketch the scene. Set atimer to keep you honest. Once the 5 minutes are up, put your pen or pencildown and move to the next page.
For thenext photograph, only give yourself 4 minutes. Set the timer and sketch.
Keepprogressing through the next three pictures until you are finally sketchingphotograph #5 within 1 minute. The entire exercise should take no more 15minutes. After you have completed it, review your sketches and give yourself anhonest evaluation.
Nexttime you practice this exercise, shuffle the photographs randomly again, andstart over. Keep using the exercise weekly until you’ve sketched nearly all thephotographs at each of the time intervals.
A SubstituteMethod for Exercise #1
In some cases, students have been too overwhelmed by the ticking clock to think critically about the image they are confronted with, so I have offered them an alternate method which has the same overall effect. It’s called “A Landscape in Seven Lines”.
Essentially,the student can take the same photographs as before, but instead of a limit oftime, they have a limit of lines. They can only draw 7 lines on their page.They can take as long as they wish to draw, but as soon as they lift their penoff the sketchbook, the line is counted and they only have 7 lines in total.
Theexercise makes students think deeply about the most important elements withinthe photograph as a means of representing it to a client or class.
Exercise #2: 100 Leaves (Repetition &Muscle Memory)
Haveyou ever said a word so many times in a row that the word actually loses itsmeaning? Take a moment to try it – say the word “tomato” one-hundred times.You’ll see that after about 40 times saying it, you no longer focus on themeaning of the word. Your mind wanders off while your mouth keeps enunciatingthe three random syllables that for some reason when strung together mean adelicious red summer fruit.
Oftentimes when students begin sketching, they focus entirely too much attention onthe complexity of the scene and the meaning behind it, rather than the forms thatare in front of them. I’ve seen it over and over again.
Forexample, in my design class we might be practicing a sketch of a Pin Oak (Quercus palustris) or some other tree that has a very recognizablestructure. The student will be so concerned with how the tree should look they don’t notice the actual forms in front of them.
Forthis exercise, we will try and break the connection behind the complexity of animage so that you focus only on the actual form itself. In order to do this, wemust draw the same thing repeatedly.
Tostart, you need to find a leaf from a plant. Try to find a real leaf, not animage or photograph, we will be moving it around as we go. (Also, this exercise can be replicated withany common item, but typically I’ve had success with horticulture studentssketching leaves).
Next,position the leaf on the surface of a board or desk in front of you. Take 1page of your sketchbook and quickly (within 20-30 seconds) draw the overallform of the leaf. Repeat the same small sketch 24 more times so that you have atotal of 25 leaves on your page. The size of each drawn leaf may vary, but sinceyou will be drawing the leaf 25 times on this same page be sure to draw small.If you need more space, simply move to the back of the page.
Afterthe initial 25 sketches are done, move the leaf to a new location along with anew orientation (rotate it, flip it over, or stand it up against something).Repeat 25 sketches on a new page. Keep moving the leaf and sketching until youhave a total of 4 pages and 100 leaves drawn. This should take no more than 1hour to complete, but you can take short breaks in between pages.
A SubstituteMethod For Exercise #2
After some time, the “100 Leaves” exercise may get rather boring – and understandably so. Therefore, I do tell students to try switching over to a different exercise periodically that has a similar objective. It’s called “Drawing the Negative Space”.
Tocomplete this exercise, you would simply find a plant (inside or outside) andinstead of actively drawing the plant itself, you try to draw all of the emptyspace around and inside the plant instead. This takes a bit of getting use to,but you want to focus on the negative space only – deliberately drawing the airaround and inside the canopy of the plant. By practicing this, you will be verysurprised by the results.
Exercise#3: The Daily Diary (Learning To Love the Process)
One ofthe biggest problems I see when students sketch is a lack of confidence intheir lines. It is an easy thing to spot when they are sketching because youwill often see them lift their pen or pencil off the paper several times beforecommitting to a line. Meanwhile, the confident designers often tackle the sketchhead-on, and if there happens to be a stray or misplaced line, so be it.
The reason that some have confidence and others don’t truly boils down to daily practice. If you have never sketched a tree before, you will likely be nervous about making a mistake the next time you draw it. The problem is that most people feel that practicing drawing is a chore – a task to be completed rather than something to enjoy look forward to.
Tocombat this issue, we need to try and make sketching an enjoyable habit. Thebest way I’ve found to accomplish this is to make it personal experience andattach it to something a designer already enjoys.
Tocomplete this exercise you must dedicate only 5 minutes a day, every day, for 1month (30 days). For those 5 minutes, you should be in a comfortable enjoyableplace doing something you would normally have been doing even if you weren’tsketching. The three examples I will use are grabbing a cup coffee, taking yourdog for a walk, and listening to music.
Whateveractivity you might enjoy, take 5 minutes while you are doing it and simplysketch something related. It can be anything you that wish – sketching a groupof people at the coffee shop, sketching your dog while he/she runs through thepark, or perhaps sketching an abstract concept of how the music makes you feel.
Whateveryou might wish to sketch – just take those 5 minutes and sketch. The purpose ofthis exercise is twofold: (1) To make a more positive association with the actof sketching through pairing it with a leisurely activity and (2) To get in thehabit of a regular sketching routine, which is essential for future progress.
A Substitute Method For Exercise #3
For most people, Exercise #3 really isn’t an issue because of its flexibility, but for those that still cannot find the time or enthusiasm to complete it; a good substitute would be “The Bedtime Sketch”. Just make it a habit, prior to going to bed, to put your sketchbook in your hands and before you drift off to sleep, take 5 minutes and sketch something that you remember about the day.
Learningfrom Other Designers
Finally,don’t be afraid to look for inspiration at other designers that sketch. Thereare a wealth of resources online and in libraries cataloging famous artists,architects, and landscape architects and their sketchbook drawings.
Forthose in the landscape field, a good place to start would be reviewingTransforming the Common Place: Selections From Laurie Olin’s Sketchbooks. Theyprovide a good example of the type of sketching that a professional designercan do after years of practice and experience in the field.
If you liked this post and wish to learn more about landscape design and drafting, be sure to check our Design Resources section for more articles like this one.
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