Part Three: Put It On Paper
This third step, putting things on paper, can be intimidating but it doesn't have to be. We need a working drawing not a masterpiece! Pencil and paper will help you envision your possible changes with confidence, and once you have made a baseline drawing you can try out as many changes as you wish. Trying them out on paper is so easy you might even come up with multiple options!
So make it easy on yourself: get out your photo, plop a piece of tracing paper on top of it and tape them both to the table so they don't wiggle. Now take a pencil and lightly outline the buildings and the permanent fixtures such as trees you hope will live forever and your picket fence that will never fall down. Just do a simple line sketch, tracing over the outline of the main features. Don't press hard or you'll ruin the photo. Make a light pencil sketch. Don't aim for perfection, just the rough idea. Erase if you want to but don't fuss. If you make a mess, get a fresh sheet of tracing paper. It's cheap.
Leave out anything you are going to remove (say that big old rotten tree to be cut down next spring or the hedge you are going to rip out.) When you have everything marked, remove the photo for safekeeping. You should have a decent line drawing of the area in question right there on paper! Magic! Once your drawing satisfies you, go over it in ink so it will be easy to read through multiple layers of tracing paper.
Now take a fresh bit of trace, slightly bigger than the drawing, and place it on top of your inked outline. Again, tape the papers to the table so they won't wiggle. On the top layer of tracing paper, sketch in changes to your heart's delight using the inked drawing as a base. If you have trouble seeing through the tracing paper, use a bolder pen on the outline page and put a white sheet of paper under it, or make a photocopy of it and it will show through successive layers better.
Draw in major changes at first, then move on to minor changes. Add more sheets as needed -- sketch in those shrubs and the new tree, then the birdbath and gazing ball and trellis to hide the neighbor's garage. How does it look? Totally awful? No problem - just scrap the top layer of trace, stick on a new piece and try again. Do this until you get something you are happy with. You can even make several versions projecting year one, year three and year ten or reflecting seasonal changes. If you draw slowly, force yourself to speed up, using only rough shapes to denote your additions. Remember, art class this ain't!
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