Messing about with Morpholio Trace

I’m messing about with Morpholio trace. I signed up for the Henry Gao Morpholio online class. I need the structure of a class to get myself to do this, otherwise I will keep putting it off.

My current workflow for doing perspective drawings is cumbersome compared to what I am imaging it could be with Morpholio.

I don’t do a ton of modeling in Vectorworks. I do a very basic house model and a deck and stairs or a pergola, raised beds, etc. So in that case I rotate around, find a good view, export that as a PDF and print it out and then switch to analog sketching. I have a nice desktop light table in the Huion 23.5”. This was a game changer for me and I highly recommend getting one. I wont need one if I am using Morpholio but I use it for other things and I love it!

  1. If I have not created a model in Vectorworks I choose a photo from a site visit, use a google street view screenshot, OR even a photo from somewhere like realtor.com if the house has an old listing still active.

  2. I change the opacity and then print it out.

  3. Using a piece of printer paper I then trace it in pencil using my light table.

  4. Then I remove the print out, and trace the pencil drawing using a lightweight fineliner. I like the Derwent LINE MAKER pens. I usually use another piece of crappy printer paper for this. I often skip this step and go straight to step 5.

  5. I trace it again in pen on a piece of marker paper.

  6. Then, I color using AD markers. I learned coloring with markers using Chartpak. At some point I switched to Copic but now I have mostly switched BACK to Chartpak. Copic are alcohol based and I really find that they do not blend well. Chartpak are some other solvent, I’m not sure what, but I love the smell and they bland much better. I do have a zillion markers so I use a combo of Copic, Chartpak, and Tombow.

PHEW! As you can see, this is def. cumbersome! Gosh, get with the times, Laura!

As you can see, this is pretty loose and looks like a coloring book. People do not necessarily want to pay me to spend a ton of time on this so I do it as quickly as I can and the result looks pretty amateurish. Many clients are not used to visualizing a perspective from a plan view drawing so even this is useful for them and this can really help sell your design! The coloring on this one is actually especially bad. I can tell I DID NOT use marker paper when I did the color layer. :O

This is an old project but I am going to use it for my 1st learning project in Morpholio.

I've been working on a cute logo

Here is the sticker I ordered. I meant for it to be diecut… So I have ordered more and actually ordered them correctly.

I did a bunch of sketches and then started tracing in Procreate. I’m not very good with Procreate yet and was getting very frustrated!! I asked my friend Jenn of Vettha Arts to help me out as she is an amazing artist and very skilled with Procreate!

Well, she transformed this for me by refining the quality, changing p some shapes to read better, and also really made the CA poppy leaves look WAY better. so, thank you, Jen!

I’m using her Procreate file to help me understand some of the ins and outs of this program. I admit, even after watching a bunch of masking videos, I am still a but unsure how I will need to use that feature.

Plants are the cheap part

I still love that I get to draw for part of my job. Having grown up with the notion that drawing was fairly useless and not a viable career, I of course steered myself in other directions and did not strenuously pursue drawing seriously. I regret that! I mean.. look around, how is it possible to think that drawing is not a thing of value? Everything you look at was most likely drawn by someone at some point in its development. aaaannnnywhooooo… I’m not bitter or anything.

Image of my messy and colorful desk covers in books about plants, drawings, and markers. there is also a tiny cat paw in the upper left.

Plants are almost the last thing to go in and everyone has sticker shock at that point. “Can we reduce the number of plants”? Yea, I guess you could. But why? You will just be disappointed with how sparse your landscape looks!

Here is what your hellstrip will look like with jut the ground covers.

Here is what it will look like with some flowering yet easy care shrubs and some boulders and cobbles. Do it!

Quick Sketches

Sometimes you need to just do a quick sketch and send it off to the client or a contractor. In this case the client has a bunch of metal bookcases from her now closed retail store. we are the king up ideas to use up some of this metal that is currently cluttering her garage! What to do?!

scribbled sketch of an idea for a metal sculpture in the landscape

This piece would be serving several purposes. It will help block the view from the next door neighbors upper window while the trees and shrubs grow in, it will use up some of that extra metal in an interesting way, and if we powder coat it to match the fountain color it will serve as another bright focal point in the garden.

This is not a careful sketch, obviously, but it gets the point across in an expressive and informative way.

Landscape Sketchbook - Vignettes

I like to do little landscape vignettes. Not a whole landscape design but just a bed or a small area. It’s fun to use these informal, made-up sketches to explore color and texture and layering of plants.

Here is one with lots of maroon, red, orange, and yellow plants.

Another one with some red and adding in some boulders and gravel, IDK, I find drawing these fun and soothing!

Quick and easy visualization

Sometimes I just take a Google Street View screenshot and scribble on it when I am thinking about plants or layouts. Very handy for front gardens! This is not a thing I would use to show a client, though.

Sometimes fast and easy is the way to go!

Landscape Sketchbook - Blobs of Color

I was just playing around with color in this sketch. I really love seeing a landscape where there is super bright color introduced. So far I have not really had a chance to get a client to do this. I have certainly suggested it and tried! I really have! I just love a bright contrast and pop of color!

Landscape Sketchbook - Plan View

I came to landscape design through drafting and design, not through plants or gardening. When I first started landscape design classes I seriously did not know a single plant. LOL. One of the first classes I took was planting design for some reason. It was kinda hard since I knew absolutely zero about plants. :D

But I looooved hand drafting so much. It’s one of those activities where I can really get into a flow state. I like CAD drafting as well but it is not nearly as soothing.

I like to doodle these plan view symbols. Would it be weird to get some of these tattooed on myself?! No, no it would not be weird.

colorful plan view plant symbols

colorful plan view plant symbols

Bird Sketchbook

I don’t usually have specific sketchbooks for septic things but maybe I should do that more often! I I started this with one sketch of a bird many years ago and I picked it up again recently and managed to finish the project!

some of the sketches are bad and some are great, as is usual in a sketchbook. Maybe I will make some stickers from the cutest ones.

flip through of a sketchbooks of cute small birds. ink and watercolor.