The Fundamentals of Hand Drafting for Garden Designers

This is not a course on Garden Design.  It is a course for teaching those who are new to drafting or simply prefer to draft by hand rather than drawing on the computer (CAD).   

While CAD is a useful tool and skill to be learned and used, hand drafting will help you to develop more creative design solutions as well as alternative solutions.  The reason is simple, hand drafting allows you to explore different ideas quickly without being caught up in the minutia of working with a monitor and mouse.

This course will explain and demonstrate how to properly use the drafting board, adjustable triangles, drafting compass and scale rules - both imperial (feet and inches) and metric.  The use of technical drawing pens will also be covered.

This course is in 3 sections.  Section 1 will consist of 6 lessons covering how to use the basic drafting tools used in landscape design. Section 2 will explain and demonstrate how to plot a site survey, select the proper scale (in either Imperial or Metric) and use triangulation to locate objects within the property accurately.  Finally, Section 3 will cover proper planting graphics and symbols used in garden design for both conceptual and working drawings as well as coloring the plan by hand using colored pencils and pastels for presentation.  No prior drafting experience is required, but access to the equipment demonstrated is highly recommended.