Features access to video tutorials! Designed to help architects, planners, and landscape architects use freehand sketching to quickly and creatively generate design concepts, Freehand Drawing and Discovery uses an array of cross-disciplinary examples to help readers develop their drawing skills. Taking a "both/and" approach, this book provides step-by-step guidance on drawing tools and techniques and offers practical suggestions on how to use these skills in conjunction with digital tools on real-world projects. Illustrated with nearly 300 full color drawings, the book includes a series of video demonstrations that reinforces the sketching techniques.

Drawing from Practice explores and illuminates the ways that 26 diverse and reputable architects use freehand drawing to shape our built environment. Author J. Michael Welton traces the tactile sketch, from initial parti to finished product, through words, images, and photographs that reveal the creative process in action. The book features drawings and architecture from every generation practicing today, including Aidlin Darling Design, Alberto Alfonso, Deborah Berke, Marlon Blackwell, Peter Bohlin, Warren Byrd, Ellen Cassilly, Jim Cutler, Chad Everhart, Formwork, Phil Freelon, Michael Graves, Frank Harmon, Eric Howeler and Meejin Yoon, Leon Krier, Tom Kundig, Daniel Libeskind, Brian McKay Lyons, Richard Meier, Bill Pedersen, Suchi Reddy, Witold Rybczynski, in situ studio, Laurinda Spear, Stanley Tigerman, and Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects. Included is a foreword by Robert McCarter, architect, author and professor of architecture.

Even in the computer age, freehand sketching is the designer? most useful tool for notation, design exploration, and graphic communication. From basic skills to sketch construction using grids, frames, and shapes to the creation of tone, texture, color, and detail, and experimentation with digital rendering, Freehand Sketching helps you build your drawing skill and confidence through mastery of fundamentals. Carefully designed exercises guide you step by step in effective sketching in the studio and in the field. Also covered are helpful topics such as useful equipment, observation skills, framing and editing sketches, rendering people, and keeping a journal. An array of the author? lively sketches as well as examples from other architectural professionals fill the pages of Freehand Sketching, making this an ideal handbook for architecture and design students and all who wish to be more effective at visual communication.

A step-by-step course in creating watercolor sketches.

This book is designed to develop your student’s hand-sketching skills. The book will enhance your students basic knowledge of drawing techniques they can use throughout the educational “design process.” A review of basic drawing types is discussed in Ideation Chapters 2 through 4. The text is also intended to be a visual resource to aid design students. Various types of visual presentation techniques used to portray concepts are demonstrated. The practice of creating hand-sketched concept presentations is still viewed as an important design process and the building blocks prior to final CAD-generated documents. One course in hand drafting and/or sketching is not enough experience for the student learner; it must be fostered, developed and practiced in subsequent coursework that enhances the design process. Hand-sketching techniques for plans, elevations, sections, various 3-dimensional illustrations, millwork and construction details are covered in the book. Also covered are important issues used in the initial design processes of bubble diagramming, block and space plans. The topics of information graphics, delineations, and visual composition are addressed to enhance the visual communication of preliminary design concepts. Ideation Chapter 10 is a series of copyright-free line drawings your students can use to explore skill building through practice exercises referenced within each chapter. The book will be a valuable resource for each student’s educational career, as well as a refresher from time-to-time during their professional endeavors.

Make the world your studio! Capture the bustle and beauty of life in your town. Experience life as only an artist can! Join the rapidly growing, international movement of artists united by a passion for drawing on location in the cities, towns and villages where they live and travel. Packed with art and advice from Marc Taro Holmes, artist and co-founder of Urbansketchers.org, this self-directed workshop shows you how to draw inspiration from real life and bring that same excitement into your sketchbook. Inside you'll find everything you need to tackle subjects ranging from still lifes and architecture to people and busy street scenes. • 15 step-by-step demonstrations cover techniques for creating expressive drawings using pencil, pen and ink, and watercolor. • Expert tips for achieving a balance of accuracy, spontaneity and speed. • Practical advice for working in the field, choosing subjects, coping with onlookers, capturing people in motion and more. • Daily exercises and creative prompts for everything from improving essential skills to diverse approaches, such as montages, storytelling portraits and one-page graphic novels. Whether you are a habitual doodler or a seasoned artist, The Urban Sketcher will have you out in the world sketching from the very first page. By completing drawings on the spot, in one session, you achieve a fresh impression of not just what you see, but also what it feels like to be there . . . visual life stories as only you can experience them.