This article presents the results of a study carried out with university students in order to find a learning strategy and appropriation of the built environment. The selected tool was the analogical drawing that allowed to reactivate the processes of observation, synthesis, representation, putting in context, making reflexive decisions that imply translating what is visualized into abstract lines, demanding intellectual, emotional and corporal work. From the documentary review exercise, visit to the place, group workshop for making sketches and the analysis of each of the exercises, the self-construction of identity with the place is facilitated, so that knowledge and know-how do not have an independent and separate value, but its value lies in the complexity of its integration, even incorporating the artistic, communicative and sensory for the appropriation of the built environment. In the process planned in four stages, a follow-up of the quality of the drawings made by the 25 participants was carried out, resulting in a medium and low level of expressive aptitude. Part of this investigation allowed us to conclude questions about the ability to manage geometry, perspective, scale, and the polished line, denoting the abandonment of this motor skill before the arrival of the digital age. The manifestation by the participants in the total immersion in digital practices is made explicit, leaving the manual exercise in the background with the intention of recreating what was observed. In any case, the practice of drawing, regardless of its quality, allows the historical recognition of the architectural landscape, its components, qualities and needs for its protection.