introduction

This exercise uses tracing to quickly visually analyze the drawn work of another artist or designer. Tracing guides us to explicitly outline the compositional techniques of other designers, allowing for a deeper understanding of those techniques and, hopefully, how they may apply to our own work. The goal here is to become familiar enough with the various visual tools we encounter in the works of others that, after a time, we can begin to immediately recognize them without using tracing. This results in an ability to quickly analyze and critique works (including our own), learn from them efficiently, and effectively implement tools and techniques from others in our own work.

Desired outcomes: the art of critique

Methods: visual analysis

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introduction

This exercise introduces two concepts: visual hierarchy and site logic. 

Visual hierarchy is an organizational tool which guides the viewer’s eye through a composition in a certain order or pattern. It is a vital component of representational drawings as it visually prioritizes information, indicating which parts of the drawing are the most important. Similarly to the Tracings exercise, by analyzing the visual hierarchy of existing work we can improve our understanding of its mechanics, thereby more easily utilizing it in our own work. 

Site logic draws on the assumption that most site plans have an underlying logic and certain universal qualities (such as flow, negative space, edges, and material transitions), regardless of site scale. In this exercise, I am posing the question of if (and how) these organizational site logics translate through site scales.

Desired outcomes: the art of critique

Methods: visual analysis

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introduction

This exercise focuses primarily on the skill of critique. As landscape architecture students, we regularly give and receive feedback on our work; in addition, our work very often acts as a critique of dominant cultural values. The art of critique, however, is rarely explicitly taught in design education. In addition to making us a helpful asset to our colleagues, learning how to critique well allows us to further understand and implement the critique given to us. It helps us evaluate and describe our own work more clearly to others. As Jacky Bowring explains in Teaching Design Critique, “Criticism is not merely an act of passing judgement, but rather it is about becoming part of the conversation about a design. It involves developing a nimbleness with theory, and of a heightened awareness of one’s own position in relation to theory.” 

In this exercise we will be asked to “read” an image through different lenses. We can use whatever skills are available to us; consider your academic background, art/design knowledge, and outside interests. Can we leverage our knowledge of composition, colour theory, and landscape to draw conclusions about what the image is doing? Can we critically view an image through the eyes of a historian, a botanist, a feminist?

Desired outcomes: intuition, the art of critique

Methods: visual analysis

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introduction

This very simple exercise explores the use of topography to express a given emotive word. The vertical and horizontal relationships present in the section line are analyzed through the addition of figures, who indicate possible experiences within the landscape. In our work, these simple section lines might translate to built form, earthwork, planting, or other material explorations which aim to curate the on-the-ground experience of a space.

Desired outcomes: intuition

Methods: emotive drawing

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introduction

As landscape architects, we are often tasked with designing landscapes that attempt to evoke a specific experience or emotion from its inhabitants. This exercise uses gestural, abstract mark making to represent a chosen emotive word, then attempts to translate the composition into landscape. I position this exercise opposite to the highly rationalized approach we often take to constructing landscape. Rather than starting with a list of programmatic elements to place in plan view, we use gestural fields as a starting point for an on-the-ground experience.

Desired outcomes: confidence, efficiency, intuition

Methods: de-skilling, emotive drawing

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introduction

This exercise introduces blind contour line drawing as a method of building stronger hand-eye coordination. Blind contour line drawing is a method of drawing where our page remains hidden from us; we must rely on the translation of an object’s form from our eye, to our mind, to our hand, without being able to self-correct our drawing in progress. This process improves the accuracy of our hand, cultivates awareness of the way our eye wanders over a subject, shares a new way of viewing the subject, and acts as a mechanism for de-skilling. All of these benefits make blind contour line drawing a highly useful exercise, and one that I continuously find myself returning to.

Desired outcomes: accuracy, confidence, efficiency, intuition

Methods: de-skilling, emotive drawing

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introduction

This exercise introduces gestural drawing as a way of quickly analyzing and representing form. The human figure is an ideal subject for gesture drawing: proportion, movement, weight, expression, and power all come into play. Gesture drawing uses time limits to encourage a rapid assessment of the most necessary elements of the model’s pose to represent the figure clearly and expressively. Time limits also force us to practice laying
pigment down efficiently and confidently. Like with blind contour line drawing and de-skilling, surprising elegance can be found in these rapid gesture drawings, which aim to represent the human body with the most minimal of marks.

Desired outcomes: accuracy, confidence, efficiency, intuition

Methods: de-skilling, emotive drawing

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introduction

This exercise introduces the concept of “de-skilling”, which is a technique that removes our ability to draw accurately. Here, we will be using water, an elongated handle, and restrictive time limits to de-skill our drawing method. De-skilling encourages a critical observation of the subject’s form; we are forced to experiment with the most efficient way of communicating our subject, whether through its texture, shadow, outline, etc. Rarely will the resulting drawing be accurate, however by releasing accuracy as the primary goal of a drawing, we can begin to appreciate the unexpected and delightful qualities of inaccurate drawing: surprisingly efficient communication, affect, emotion, texture, weight, gestalt principles, and so on. Refocusing our attention on drawing effectively, rather than accurately, allows us to draw quickly and efficiently – an imperative skill for idea generation and ideation in design.

Desired outcomes: accuracy, confidence, efficiency, intuition

Methods: de-skilling, emotive drawing

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introduction

This exercise focuses on honing our technical drawing skills and our hand-eye coordination. Without these tools, we are limited in how well we can draw the things we picture in our mind’s eye. By mastering the very basics of drawing (lines, circles, perspectives, and hatches), we gain a more seamless transition from idea to sketch which fosters a state of creative flow. Our sketches also become more legible with less effort, aiding in the collaborative nature of the design process.

Desired outcomes: accuracy, confidence, efficiency

Methods: technical drawing

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