Introduction
Although at our company we spend most of our time creating computer modelling tools, freehand sketching is still an invaluable method of communicating ideas for urban design schemes.
Practice is obviously the most important thing when learning how to draw urban design sketches, but there are also many little 'tricks', techniques and 'things to know' which can help achieve more convincing drawings. We've summarized a few here:
Tip #1: Wobbly Lines
When drawing black and white sketches, it doesn't matter if the lines you draw aren't smooth - they can be 'wobbly' as the eye will tend to average out the line.
The most important thing is to get the start and end in the right place, and make sure than on average the line is heading in the right direction. If we concentrate too hard on making the line smooth and straight, it's easy for the line to end up in the wrong place.
When learning to do this, it can help to keep your hand completely off the paper and to draw the line fairly quickly. This can seem counter-intuitive at first (as we are used to writing carefully with the wrist on the paper) but it helps avoid rotation errors where the line becomes slightly curved.
Pls see the diagram below. It doesn't matter if the line is slightly wobbly, but it does look wrong if it ends up the wrong place. On the right, this describes a common problem - if the wrist is held on the page, then the hand will tend to rotate, and cause the line to curve.
Tip #2: Always Use Perspective Lines
Even for very quick sketches, it is always worth using vanishing points and perspective lines.
When starting out, it can be useful to lightly draw perspective lines with a pencil before going over it with a pen (and then rubbing out the pencil). They can easily add accuracy and credibility to a simple drawing.
Tip #3: Trust the Perspective Lines When Drawing
Sometimes the perspective lines don't feel instinctively right at first - in particular the angles of the tops of buildings may feel too steep. It's usually best to trust the perspective lines, and to follow them strictly until the drawing is finished. If it still looks wrong at the end, then try a different vanishing point.
Tip #4: Set the Vanishing Point at the Right Height
In most urban design sketches, the vanishing point and horizon are very low relative to the buildings (as people's eye level is low compared with most buildings).
Quite often, this doesn't feel quite right, and it's easy to accidentally draw the vanishing point a bit higher than it should be.
Also, when drawing places such as street cafes, remember that the horizon for people sitting down will be different from people standing up
Tip #5: Keep it Simple
Choose a relatively simple viewpoint to start with. Single-Point Perspectives (eg. looking straight down a street, or straight at a large building in a square) will save you a huge amount of hassle.
Don't worry about it looking too simple to begin with - it's easy to add in richness to the drawing later either by adding people/trees or adding detail to the buildings.
If the view you want is complex, or if it needs to be particularly accurate, then it may be best to create a 3D computer model, set up your view, print it out and trace over it. Google SketchUp™ is particularly useful for this.
If your view looks straight down a street, then our program Streetscape can be useful for getting the proportions right to start with.
Tip #6: Keep Practising Drawing Things From Life
Most people draw all the time in primary school, but then stop when becoming teenagers. However, our 'primary school drawing instinct' from those early years is very strong, and we are left with an set of mental images about how to draw certain things, such as the house below.
This primary school image of what buildings and other things look like is of course inaccurate, but lasts a long time and can subtely influence everything we draw. Drawing things from life helps to correct this instinct and replace it with an instinct for more realistic details and proportions.
Tip #7: Vehicles
Like human faces, modern cars are extremely complex 3D shapes and are very difficult to draw convincingly.
Because we are very familiar with the shapes, the slightest inaccuracy can become very obvious in a drawing. For quick sketches, drawing cars is best avoided unless absolutely necessary.
If you have to draw them...
- Drawing cars from above is easier than drawing them from the front, back or side. As a rule of thumb, they are three times as long as they are wide. The front headlights can usually just be seen from the top, and can indicate which direction the car is going in.
- Drawing from the front or back is easier than drawing them from the side. Distinguish between fronts and backs by the position of the number plate.
- If you have to draw them from the side or from any other angle, it's normally easiest to find a photo of the car you want and then trace over it.
Buses are easier - the only thing to watch out for is the proportions. We normally see buses from an oblique angle (at a bus stop), and so when drawing them from the side there is a natural tendency to draw them too short. Modern double-decker buses are usually 2-2.5 times as long as they are high, and they can look unusually long when viewed from the side at a distance.
Tip #8: Add Crowds
It's nearly always worth taking the time to draw a large number of people in your sketch, as it can bring an urban place to life even if the buildings are very simple. If you don't want to draw people close up you can normally get away with a wide-angle view such as this one, where people are little more than a scribble.
The key points to remember when drawing crowds are:
- Use a constant horizon to set the height of all the heads.
- Vary the size of the heads and height of people to create depth.
- Allow for a little variation in height (some people are taller than others) but not too much as the perspective may start to look wrong.
- Go to busy places and look at how crowds actually behave. Many people walk on their own, but there are also plenty of people in twos, threes and larger groups.
The tips in this blog post are short-cuts to achieving certain effects but as with anything, drawings always improve with practice. Please share any other tricks you may have come across...
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