Freehand Drawing and Discovery: Urban Sketching and Concept Drawing for Designers

Chapter Eight

Digital Sketching—Drawing Without Limits

Figure 8.1: A fast, simple digital tablet sketch created over a site photograph to communicate an idea.

All illustrations in this chapter are prepared by Robert Chipman, ASLA unless otherwise noted.

Figure 8.2: A photograph of the existing condition, with a marker placed on the ground for reference.

Figure 8.3: Proposed design improvements are sketched on a new layer to show what will be removed and what will be added.

Much of the current design representation created on computers is used as a substitute for the creative act of drawing. Digital tablet sketching, by contrast, is a creative extension and enhancement of drawing.

The Vision

Becoming proficient at design concept sketching is a springboard for creatively merging freehand skills with evolving digital representation technology. My friend Robert Chipman has been exploring that frontier with compelling results.

Bob, a hypercreative landscape architect and product designer, envisions and creates a wide range of environments, urban and rural, and the details and furnishings that make those environments functional, comfortable, and memorable. He draws very ...