1.
combine
drawing, sketchup
& photography
by Jim Leggitt
how to:

2.
This quick visualization
project was a favor for
an existing studioINSITE
client who wanted simply
to understand what a
sidewalk in front of his
development might look
like if it had landscape
planters integrated into the
streetscape.
I created an “overlay and
trace” colored sketch in a
little more than three hours
- one hour to build the
SketchUp model, one hour
to illustrate the new scene
and one hour to color and
scan the final sketch.

3.
Base Digital Photograph
The client emailed me a photograph of the existing sidewalk.
Fortunately, it was a good quality eye-level perspective view with an
easily identifiable vanishing point (scoring pattern in the sidewalk).

4.
SketchUp Model Entourage - 1 hour
I delineated the sidewalk paving pattern in a simple SketchUp “stage
set model. I added a wall plane on the edge to help me replicate
the basic perspective. I then populated the model with 3D people,
adjusting their placement in order to fit into scene.

5.
Perspective Match. I matched the SketchUp perspective with the digital photograph
and then exported a jpeg from the 3D model. Notice that I turned of the shadows and
eliminated the sidewalk and wall from the exported graphic. This made it very easy to
select the people in Photoshop and isolate them from the gray background.

6.
Composite Base Image. I combined the view of the SketchUp people and the base
photograph using Photoshop. I then traced over a print to create the final colored sketch.

7.
Overlay and Trace Drawing - 2 Hours
Trace Over a Print. I first lightened the image in Photoshop (to make it easier for tracing)
and printed it on 11”x17” paper. The actual image size was 8”x11”. I taped a sheet of
tracing paper over the print and illustrated the scene with a water based ink pen. Note: if
you have difficulty seeing the detail beneath the tracing paper, work on top of a light table
or even tape everything against a bright window.

8.
Quick Marker Color. After completing the line drawing, I then added color
to the original artwork with Chartpak AD markers.

9.
Final Sketch
I scanned the final artwork at 300dpi and emailed a jpeg to my client. As you can see, the
basic street scene is unchanged from the original photograph. I basically introduced the
landscape planter, additional trees and populated the scene with more than ten people to give
the illustration scale and an active character.

10.
to see Jim’s blog post of this presentation click here:
http://jimleggitt.typepad.com/jim-leggitt-drawing-
shortcuts/2013/11/composite-sketch-from-sketchup-
and-photography.html
studio-insite.com