We are so lucky to have the Bay Area Ridge Trail. Over the past 7 years I've admired a particular stand of trees on a section of the trail in Tilden Park. On a fogless afternoon last summer, I was struck by the stark beauty of one Monterey Pine that had given itself over to insects and fungus. The next day, on the way to a meeting in San Francisco, I glimpsed a scene down Stevenson Alley that was humming the same tune: similar color palette, quality of light and vertical format. In my free time, I started taking bigger and bigger paper up the hill to explore the scene in charcoal. 
I've always been interested in drawing scenes that are too big to take in with a single shot. On flat paper, how does one enact a truce between the geometry of perspective and 3D input from the senses? This interest has sustained my career as a visual storyteller and explorer of volumetric scenes. For the rest of this month, 5 charcoal drawings are in the gallery of UC Berkeley Extension (just a block away from Stevenson Alley). Take a look if you have a chance and say hello. I'll be there every Thursday in February from 4-6:15pm.

"look what I had to work with"

I like to use concept sketches early on, when data and design are often incomplete. Sketches align expectations and solicit approval among any number of stakeholders. Their rough nature says, "work in progress." They invite input and allow flexibility going forward. Sometimes this quote from the 1989 Batman comes to mind when a client's expectations are too high. It's a thrill to promote a unified vision based on data from varied sources, and to follow a project's development until it goes to bid. Save the full rendering for when project data, modeling tools and time are available to truly solve the design gaps. A renderer may find the archive of hand-sketches helpful to make a finished product.  

gimme scale 2

Take a look at this floor plan. Absent close reading, it seems like a nice idea. Once in the door (at the bottom,) one can choose between watching some big-screen content in the lounge/snack area at the right, or sitting down at one of the tables at the left. The smaller spots on the floor must be the chairs.
This document does give information about scale. Someone had dutifully measured the room and the bookcase and notated it on the plan. 
However, someone else decided what the room would contain, and without looking at the size of the wall on the plan, sketched out their idea while engaged in some wishful visual thinking!! 
When they called and sent me their plan sketch, I looked at the relation of furniture placement first. I, too, began to visualize a room based on what the rectangles-as-furniture recalled from my mind's cache of Lounges I Have Drawn...until I checked the tiny size annotations. The dream ended quickly. My client awakened a different way when they visited the actual space, and phoned in a panic, "I just saw the site -- it's TINY!!!"
If one looks closely, the room has less than 130 sf. If all that furniture were to fit in the room, the largest of the chairs would have a 5" seat, and the sofa would be less than one foot deep. Bring in the dwarves...

gimme scale

Most architects and planners now have their designs on a computer instead of paper, and an information void has opened. When it's time to share the design, we often rely on PDF format. Unfortunately, the scale of an orthographic drawing is not automatically translated to the PDF. Items that were grouped in CAD software no longer self-segregate in the PDF.

When a model shot is sent in PDF or JPG format, the situation becomes even worse for determining the actual measure of lines or objects. Although the CAD user-designer is one click away from measurements and attributes, the recipient of the PDF can only guess!

A design team, working from files shared on their server, has access to all the project information; members can check details not yet generated as a document page. Outside consultants must rely on PDF files. The designers cannot assume their consultants have updated project information in a source file as they do. Best practice: Gimme scale.
Leave a scale indicator or a literal dimension (55") on the image file that's enlarge/reduce-proof, or back up a PDF with a DWG file, which DOES contain scale info. A PDF update can be sent in moments, but a faulty dimension can lead to a chain of errors that take time and money to rewind. Alternatively, upload entire files for sharing with external consultants and notify when updating.