I’ve been sketching since I was a kid. I’ve always loved the process of capturing a moment on paper, and the excitement that comes with the possibility of creating something beautiful. Even though I’ve been sketching for years, I’m still trying to learn new techniques, and constantly testing different mediums.
The point of this blog is to share my passion for sketching and architecture, as well as to promote sketching as an important part of the architectural process. If you’d like to submit your own sketches and ideas, please feel free to email them to me at: info@architecturalsketchingitself.com.
*If you’d like to contribute writing or photos please send them here too, but keep in mind that this blog is mostly about sketches.**
Sketching is a dark art. The sketchbook is the sorcerer´s wand and the pencil his magic wand. In it, he will conjure up forms that dance, light and space that move and music that sings. Sketching is like a game of hide-and-seek with what we see in reality. If you want to draw or paint something, you have to be able to see its structure – in other words: what lies behind the appearance of its surface. And no one can deny that drawing and painting are exercises of intimacy between our mind and the object represented.
Scrapbooking is about collecting memories (of places, events, people…), but sketching is about creating them. This blog will be dedicated to sketching as a creative act – whether it comes to architectural sketching, abstract or representational drawing or graphic design ideas. But this blog will also be dedicated to what it means to be an architect or designer: It is not just about making things real; You have to learn how to let things go first.”
Sketch and share your drawings with the community of architects! You can easily comment on and discuss other people’s drawings to fuel a constructive dialogue.
This practice is called sketching, and there are many reasons why you should consider it.
Sketching is an important skill that can help us to design better buildings and products, solve problems, work more efficiently and develop a closer relationship with our colleagues, clients and users.
Are you looking for some inspiration? Perhaps you want to show your friends what was on your mind during a trip or visit a certain building (maybe even one you designed)? Maybe you just want to share your ideas?
Whatever your reason may be, sketching could be the answer. It’s faster than any other way of communicating through images, it’s fun and easy to do, it provides a deeper understanding of the subject matter than 2D representations can. It enriches our vocabulary by teaching us how to draw without using references (i.e. from memory). And finally, it reduces our design process from linear thinking to a more non-linear way of thinking (which is often the best way!).
Discover architectural sketching today …
For the past four and a half years, I have been experimenting with sketching out ideas for buildings. Initially, I thought that my drawings would serve as a sort of visual database of ideas. Over time, however, it became clear that this wasn’t true. The drawings had to be made with great intentionality–even then, I found it difficult to find time to make them.
I began to realize that the drawings served no purpose–except perhaps to me. They allowed me to express an intense interest in architecture and its ability to create new ways of inhabiting space. The drawings allowed me to see what was possible and open up new ways of thinking about design. While that is not always immediately useful as a designer, it is a crucial tool in seeing what is possible and imagining a future that differs from our present.
Skyscrapers, bridges, and other large scale structures require detailed drawings for the construction phase. However, before the computer age and CAD programs, much of this work was done manually by drafting artists. The process is sometimes called “rendering” or “sketching.” Today architectural designers use both hand drawn sketches and computer generated images to explore ideas, but at one point in architectural history these two media were used almost exclusively to flesh out designs, communicate details and document progress on a project.
The Division of Architectural History at the American Institute of Architects (AIA) has a collection of hundreds of thousands of these drawings dating back to 1840s. Working with this material I began to notice similarities between early 20th century sketch artists and modern day web designers as they both use similar techniques to present complex information. I began to wonder if there were any useful lessons we could take from their processes that might apply to our own work. This blog post is an attempt to document some of this research.
Sketching is a dark art, shrouded in mystery. Even though it appears simple, creating a great sketch is actually very difficult. The best way to get better at sketching is by doing a lot of sketching. However, there are some basic principles and techniques that can help you make the most out of your sketches.
I will share with you all the tips I have collected over the years and then add to this list as I learn new techniques and methods. This post will focus on sketching in black and white. For more information on color sketching, please see my other post on Color Sketching .
Sketching is essentially about observation and interpretation. To excel at either you need to practice regularly. You will improve more quickly if you study other people’s sketches, both the good and the bad, rather than only drawing from life or from your imagination. (I will discuss more on this later.)
The goal of sketching is to convey complex information in an instant to an audience who may be unfamiliar with what you are trying to communicate. Sketching well requires that you practice enough so that you don’t have to think consciously about how to draw what you want to show; instead you are thinking about what and why you are drawing it in the
If you want to create wealth, it will help to understand what it is. Wealth is not the same thing as money. Wealth is as old as human history. Far older, in fact; ants have wealth. Money is a comparatively recent invention.
Wealth is the fundamental thing. Wealth is stuff we want: food, clothes, houses, cars, gadgets, travel to interesting places, and so on. You can have wealth without having money. If you had a magic machine that could on command make you a car or cook you dinner or do your laundry, or do anything else you wanted, you wouldn’t need money. Whereas if you were in the middle of Antarctica, where there is nothing to buy, it wouldn’t matter how much money you had.
Wealth is what you want, not money. But if wealth is the important thing, why does everyone talk about making money? It is a kind of shorthand: money is a way of moving wealth, and in practice they are usually interchangeable. But they are not the same thing, and unless you plan to get rich by counterfeiting, talking about making money can make it harder to understand how to make money.
Money is a side effect of specialization. In a specialized society, most of the things
