Drawings 1 to 6 are of a sketch study of a garden structure in colored pencil. It was a developmental drawing in the sense that the design was initiated and developed by working through the drawing.
1
An initial sketch study for a garden structure is sketched out by hand using a sharp, F-grade pencil. In this detail you see how the lines are feathered at each corner and how construction lines are left visible. It is important to reduce the amount of erasing, as this compromises the paper’s surface quality.
2
Colored pencil is best built up in layers to create a depth to the eventual color. It is most effective if shading is done in one direction. The first layer is in Silver Gray and this should lightly cover the entire surface of the drawing with the exception of any areas that are to be left white. The next layer is French Gray that should establish a mid-tone for all surfaces, slightly lighter or darker depending on areas of shadow. Conventionally, the lower the land, the darker the shadow in plan, and water is very dark.
3
Gunmetal and then a blue-gray pencil are used for the areas in shadow. The form and shadow of vegetation is laid in. Earth tones are added to the landscape, which become too dark, and are subsequently lightened with a putty eraser. The areas most in shadow are rendered using Burnt Crimson.
4
Golden Brown lightens the ground planes and Burnt Crimson sends others into deeper shadow. The foreground is lightened with Silver Gray and Chinese White.
5
Further depth is built into the landscape, leaving the sketch drawing incomplete and unresolved at this stage.
6
Photoshop then balances ideas that were initiated in the hand drawing in order to finalize this stage of the design with more clarity.
7
The final image remains sketchy—the process is a study rather than an illustration of a final design. This stage introduces a foreground tree (using the Magic Wand tool to quickly trim and the Transform tool to resize). The Pen tool is used to draw the shapes that make the foreground shadows.