Autodesk Sketchbook Pro in Action

Here is a great example of the power and fun Autodesk Sketchbook Pro can bring to the creative user.

Making Old-School New: Multi-Media Hand Drawn Landscape Designs

This posting is to introduce a multi-media approach to the old school hand drawn landscape plan. With some experimentation, I have developed a simple process to present clean and crisp hand drawn landscape plans, while still integrating Photoshop text, colour & imagery.

IMAGE 1 - This is a portion of the survey done for the project. Note the simplicity that one can use to record the existing site data. Despite the simplicity, always double check measurements and be sure you can read your notes. These survey notes are typically for the Designers eyes only.




IMAGE 2 - This represents the "Cadification" (my own technical term) - a.k.a. the autocad drafted baseplan created using the above survey notes. This was then printed on a translucent mylar sheet. The drawing size was planned out to allow for a 24"x36" presentation at 1/4"=1'-0" scale.

IMAGE 3 - This is the mylar sheet with the concept rendering directly on the mylar. To achieve this, I overlaid trace paper and worked out my concept roughly with markers. Then proceeded to trace directly on the translucent mylar using hand sketching techniques. This step involved trace then trace again. The image is then scanned. As you can see, the image is still rough: note the colour testing in the top corner as well as the faded and lackluster colour provided by the scanning process.

IMAGE 4 - To achieve this final glossy cleaned up image, there were several important steps performed. First - the mylar scan is cleaned up using Photoshop. The colour is brightened and the contrast is enhanced. It is then brought into Autodesk Sketchbook Pro. I decided to clean up some of the line work to darken it as well as give it a crisp look. This was done mostly by tracing in a black overlay using my recently purchased and previously enjoyed Wacom tablet. The image is then brought back into Photoshop where text, colour, images and a title heading was added (removed from this image for client privacy). The final step was to overlay my original cad drawing (Printed as PDF) on top of the sketchwork using Photoshop . This provided the dark black line work that ultimately superseded the faded scanned line work.

Overall, I think the multi-media approach for this simple landscape concept, although had many stages to achieve the final result, was worth the effort. Once familiar with the techniques, it becomes a lot simpler to bounce back and forth between the various forms of software and achieve a clean professional drawing.

Visit http://www.draftroots.com/ for more imagery.

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro - Software Review

I have stumbled upon some new software that I plan on integrating with my already large set of design tools. Sketchbook Pro by Autodesk is a user friendly digital sketchbook that is very effective when coupled with a Wacom Tablet, ie. digital drawing board. It emulates the feel of a pencil in hand, and allows the user to Etch and Sketch until their heart's content. It can be combined with additional software like Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop to help produce some incredible digital images.

As noted in my previous post, my concept presentations for Landscape Design are already composed using a multi-media approach. This will allow for that additional hand sketch feel to be added to my already layered 3d Model. The software supports several different formats like Jpegs, Gifs, PNG & TIF.

Check it out at: http://usa.autodesk.com/adsk/servlet/pc/index?id=6848332&siteID=123112