Hardworks

I have been avoiding these sheets because I'm more in to the planting so I pushed myself to do these today. Technical drawing session tomorrow too which relies on these details (numbers, measuring and precision drawing, this is going to hurt)

Hooray I've finished something!

Finished model with context and newly extended to fit the whole A1

Improving the 1:200 model

Got rid of the dishcloth trees and added some planting.  Compartments coming together now.

reworked 1:200

Some changes to the compartments, added a mixed hedge, changed the shadows to come from the south west, removed ugly hedge and replace with wall

Worst ever crit

A brillo pad floating in dirty dish water

Worst ever crit yesterday.  Spent Easter trying to come up with some kind of style.  Had no clear resolution on whether we could hand draw the 1:50 plan so was forced to photoshop this (good experience anyway) and it was compared to a 'brillo pad in a bowl of dirty washing up liquid'.  My work was incomplete for the second crit in a row as I take 1 step forward and 3 back.

I used to work for a billion dollar hedge fund and I left this company because the ethics practiced by the management were that of aggression and negativity.  Regular snide jokes, humiliation and bullying led to a loss of confidence and a feeling of worthlessness.  Favourites and whingers were given more support than non-fussmaking hard workers who were strong team players; the worker bees, but were never given any credit for what they did.  Work/life balance was seen as a weakness with those who were unable to manage their work loads and working rediculous hours praised and glorified for being commited.  The office atmosphere always tense with no 'good mornings' or 'how are you's', this being defined as weak insignifigant small talk, another method of management control to show how important they are compared to the minions.

I left that industry vowing to work for myself and in search of an industry where people were nice to each other, supported each other and where I could regain my confidence. I thought garden design would be different but maybe have I jumped out of the frying pan into the fire?

3 more sketches

5 sequential sketches

1:50 sketches

1st attempt at sketches. The planting needs lower opacity and it needs people, sky etc but I quite like the combo of hand drawing and photo shop. Lets hope (with 6 weeks to go) that I can finally find my style...

Planting plan

Progress so far after a long and tedious process of getting it into CAD....

Developing the planting plan

Planting plan done by hand and is slowly being fed into CAD.

I've created groups of accent plants which are architectural and strong with plants such as
Agave americana
Eringium agavifolium
Phormium
Knipfofia northiae

Combined with softer plants such as
Cistus x purpurea
Stipa tennuisima

These areas are tighly packed but gradually move into contrasting areas of rippling grasses and light reflecting perennials such as

Perovskia atriplicifolia 'Blue Spire'
Echinops
Verbena bonariensis
Achillia 'Moonshine'
Nepeta 'Six Hills Giant'
Phlomis russeliana

Areas are tied together by shrubs, self sowers and bulbs which add seasonal interest

Euphorbia charachias subps Wulfenii
Alliums
Verbascum olympicum
Teasels