Looking Back at Past Sketches

As a landscape architect, the ability to produce high quality visuals is essential, able to portray the ideas filtering through the mind of the designer. High quality, however, does not necessarily mean perfect – even quick, sketchy drawings are more than capable of presenting elements of a project. This can be anything from a concept, to a finished, rendered perspective. I often struggle to put pen to paper - fear of imperfection holds me back, fear that I won’t get the scale right, fear it won’t appear as it does it my mind. But this is something I am aiming to overcome, frequently reminding myself that even if the final outcome is not what I imagined, it does not mean it is wrong. Oftentimes, simply beginning to draw can spark creativity in my mind and can lead from one idea to another. Recently, I have been looking over old drawings of landscapes, produced over the past few years, looking for inspiration.

I produced this drawing on holiday in Spain, hoping to capture the tranquillity of a quiet, shady street with beautiful architecture that we had stumbled across. I’m happy with the drawing because, whilst not perfect, I feel it completely captures the experience I had of being within the space.

Using the same style of line drawing and mark making, I completed this sketch whilst on a trip to Bristol in my first year of university, capturing the features and people we passed.

This is a page I composed in my sketchbook, hoping to portray the experience of taking a stroll through Fowey, Cornwall, visualising the landscapes I passed, as well as the plants I found.

Through this exercise, looking over past work, I have learnt to trust my judgement more. I may worry about drawing, but more often than not I am happy with the outcome, achieving what I wanted. It has helped me overcome my fears, encouraging me to draw more – something I absolutely love.