WHAT IS ROLE OF DRAWING

Drawing is not only more enjoyable and far more educational, but the end product is more likely to remain a cherished object than would an anonymous slide or photographic print.Drawing an object, building or townscape forces you to engage more directly in the subject than as a mere photographer; the search to record shape, proportion, detail and color requires greater effort and more skilled observation than that needed to press the shutter of a camera.The discriminatory eye encouraged through sketching has value to the potential designer and tourist alike for it engages the observer in an important dialogue with his or her subject. Until fairly recently the sketchbook was the accepted accompaniment of all students of architecture.

Sketching Vs Photography

Before photography became more affordable and part of our visual culture, the sketch remained the means to record and analyse an interesting town, building or piece of furniture. You have only to look at the sketchbooks of famous architects like Robert Adam.

For instance, Adam’s sketches of the fortifications of the Dalmation coast were transformed in less than a decade into the eighteenth-century Scottish castles occupying a more northern coastline.

Many students of architecture and design today spend a great deal of time making photographs rather than sketches. They could, of course, buy postcards or tourist guides, which often contain better and more accurate pictures at only a fraction of the cost, thereby concentrating their efforts instead on the harder but more valuable process of drawing.

What Does It Provide

The sketchbook provides a means of diving deeper into the subject than merely recording it, in order to begin to understand why and how the scene was shaped.

The main barrier to using the sketchbook in this way appears to be the lack of basic graphic skills, together with the hectic pace of modern life. As with all endeavours of value, you have to practice a great deal to cultivate the craft of freehand drawing, in order to full fill the potential offered by the sketchbook.