how to draw like an architect

Architectural sketching is becoming a thing of the past – at least that'due south how information technology seems to me most days. I graduated eons ago back in 1992, back in the days that pre-date computers being used in the studio. This doesn't mean that everyone who graduated in my era could sketch – far from it. What information technology does mean is that we learned how to think and communicate our ideas in a slightly different mode from the students graduating from modern-day architecture programs. Now that I've been at this "architect" affair for a fiddling while, I can look at my sketches, all the style back to my time in schoolhouse, and see how my sketch technique has evolved and how that technique has shaped my architectural solutions.

Looking back over 25 years of my sketches is kinda freaky to be honest. I'm not sure I would accept made this observation had I not started writing this blog and posting my sketches for others to view. While I don't remember I am particularly gifted at sketching cute drawings, I do think that I have a style that has become recognizable as my ain – and that is pretty awesome to discover. Over the last 4 years, I have published a handful of articles where I share my thoughts and observations on the procedure and value that I believe sketching offers an builder. Through these posts, I get a considerable corporeality of feedback from people who are kind enough to allow me know that they like the style I sketch. I've even mailed off a few sketches to people who have requested them – a heed-extraordinary idea quite honestly – the people in my office become my sketches all the time and they finish up in the recycle bin 100% of the time.

Since I ~~didn't have anything else to write~~ am such a generous person, I thought I would pull the mantle dorsum today and share with everyone a handful of the techniques I use when sketching. While this might flare-up the illusion for some of you that I can actually sketch well, I think you lot'll see that these techniques are easy to incorporate into your own sketches and before yous know information technology, you'll be fooling people but like me!

Before nosotros get to the actual tips, permit'southward talk some tools of the trade real quick:

Almost 100% of my sketches are created using two pens. I use the Sharpie Permanent Marker – 'Ultra Fine Betoken' for my thin lines and the 'Fine Signal' for my profile (heavy) lines. I use a 12″ wide x 50 yard long whorl of trace paper, and an architectural scale (which is used to mensurate dimensions equally I sketch and I use the edge to tear the trace paper off the roll). On occasion, I will apply an Alvin 10″ Parallel Glider just normally only when I am sketching out dimensioned floor plan concepts.

It drives me slightly crazy to take a whorl of trace paper constantly rolling away when I am trying to sketch. A tip I learned from my current partner, some 20+ years ago, was to boom the coil slightly then that the tube gets crushed. Instead of the roll being round, information technology'southward now oval-shaped and won't roll away. It also helps me know which rolls of trace newspaper in the function are mine. Just some food for idea …

So let'south get to it – here are v Tips and Techniques that should better your architectural sketches
[all the images I've used in this mail were collected off the Life of an Architect site and Instagram feed from the last 4 years. It shows that I've been consistent in using these techniques.]

TIP #01: "The Hitting-Get-Hit"
I learned this technique from my friend Jon Kathol 18 years ago. The 'Striking-Go-Hit' tip is a way for you to pick up and set up your pen back downward on the page as you're drawing in a purposeful mode. Why would y'all need to do something like that you ask? Well, tip #02 volition elaborate a chip more (come to think of it, Tip #02 should really be the get-go tip in terms of importance just I'm not going to remake the graphic) simply whenever you are drawing a straight line, you lot'll frequently find that yous demand to reposition your arm, or the paper, to continue drawing. Make that reset await intentional and add some graphic flair with this technique.

If you use this 'Hit-Get-Hit' technique, you'll discover that your direct lines will actually become a lot straighter. It's kind of amazing to encounter the difference a sketch with direct lines looks over i that'south all squidgy and wonky. (yep, those are existent architectural words in case yous're wondering …)

TIP #02: "Don't Move your Pen/Pencil by Bending Your Wrist or Elbow"
I should too indicate out that you shouldn't "push" your pen across the folio, you should always "pull" it. Lock your wrist and elbow into a comfortable angle and only move your unabridged arm when sketching. Every bit yous get more skilled, this tip tin be relaxed and you lot can offset bend your elbow and ultimately your wrist. In the showtime, by limiting your movement to the entire arm, you'll end up with straighter lines. And since yous tin can only move your arm and then far, that's when the hitting-go-hit technique comes in. Now of a sudden yous realize that you need to reset your pen on the page more frequently than y'all did previously.

Using the technique where I only move my entire arm, my sketches have direct lines in them – which really does make a big difference.

TIP #03: "Comprise the Use of Pen Weight"
This technique is a biggie … you lot have to use line weight to aid convey depth to your sketch. More than gifted sketchers and take care of depth using hatches and shading techniques and then eventually that'southward something you can take on. In the meantime, use two pens and get some profile lines into your sketches. Don't know what profile lines are? You demand to know and I strongly recommend that you option upwardly a re-create of 'Architectural Graphics' by Francis D.K. Ching. I've had my copy since 1986 and still look at it from fourth dimension to time. Ching'south book (along with my studio professors) taught me how to show contour lines – their utilize defines the wait of my sketches every bit well as a generation of other architects.

Another benefit to using a heavy pen is that information technology can assistance show you what y'all should be looking at – what the point of the sketch might be. Multiple pen weights assist the viewer understand the lodge of things within the cartoon, and through proper technique, they can also show to the viewer what's not important in the sketch.

TIP #04: "Intersect Your Lines at the Corners"
This is pure style and allows the inexact nature of a sketch to come beyond every bit what it is – a delineated representation of a thought or concept. Sounds a bit like architectural mumbo-jumbo but it really isn't. The inexact nature of the sketch – when attempted to exist exact – looks sloppy and, well … inexact. Past allowing your lines to cross at the corners, you tin can nonetheless convey the idea (or shape) you are going after, without having to focus on making the shape perfect. There is a "in-the-moment" that sketches imply and if you look at the two rectangles illustrated above, I think the i on the left looks far improve despite the fact that it is far less precise or exact than the rectangle on the right.

I call up this crossing of lines at the corners is a carryover from when I used to hand-draft with a pencil. The beginning and end of a line had slightly darker marks than the centre of the line and they accentuated the edges very crisply. But about every line I have ever drawn past hand in the last 20 years crosses at the corner – take that for information technology'due south worth.

TIP #05: "Trace Paper isn't Precious … Draw in Layers"
The design process is typically additive so why shouldn't your sketches be besides? Since most of my sketches happen on trace paper and not in a sketch volume, I am able to lay sketch upon sketch to build up and refine my finished sketch. I may start with a make clean piece of trace paper for every sketch, only it's only that start sketch that doesn't have the benefit of something prior to work from.

A lot of the sketches I draw are the issue of several iterations of tracing … one thought superimposed over the other. Tracing allows me to have advantage of my previous work while experimenting with new ideas and concepts.

Those are the five main sketch techniques that I utilize that create the "look" of my drawings … nothing magical about them.

I take also assembled the v best sketching posts that I've written to date on Life of an Architect. While none of the other posts I've written have talked well-nigh the technique behind the sketches, they cover a broad range of other perspectives as they relate to why an architect should sketch and its value. I've included the links to these posts for you, forth with the short introduction to each commodity. I think they are all worth reading and commenting on, they are some of the most visited posts on this site.

Architectural Sketches
Architects sketch as office of the procedure when doing their chore … at least I do. There are many different styles and techniques that architects employ when graphically working through problems. [this post discusses why I created certain sketches]

Drawing Like an Architect
You don't have to draw well to be an architect!! Sure it doesn't injure but let'south pull the mantle back and be honest here for a minute. Architects communicate through drawing – we aren't making art. [This post is for people concerned that bad at sketching = can't be an builder]

Your Sketches Speak for Themselves
I recently had a conversation virtually the importance of sketching and my task. With the prevalence of computer 3D software, fewer and fewer graduates from the blueprint profession are entering the "existent" world with the power to hold a pen, pencil, paintbrush – any – and work through their ideas, explore concepts, or sit across from a client and communicate through drawings. [This post discusses that sketching reveals how you retrieve and we look at sketches from my sketchbook that are nearly nineteen years old. What's your judge … Take my sketches gotten any ameliorate?]

Architectural Sketching
Architects should sketch. You may non think yous are very expert at sketching only if it helps yous work through your thoughts, I would argue that you are in fact, very good at sketching. [This mail compares my sketches to those of my partner Michael Malone who is far more gifted at sketching than I am – and discusses why both types are important and have value.]

Sketching Out a Design Solution
I received an email asking if I would share details from some of my projects. While I bristle at the hazard I might be exposing myself to, I remembered that I enjoy looking at details quite a bit, so I thought I would effort to come up with something. [This post shows how the design was created through the actual procedure of sketching. It includes construction details that were created as the major design elements of the projection.]

I promise this post inspires y'all to pull out your pens and paper and start sketching. I've come up to believe that if you can sketch well enough to convey your ideas, our clients are the real winners.

Happy sketching,