Arkitectur3 & Art

To take advantage of the progression from freehand drawing to creative design, the artist must approach the subject in a considered fashion. The outline is important and so are the proportions, and often a relationship exists between the building in plan and how it works in section and elevation. As we tend to draw the outsides of buildings, the potential designer should not focus upon the façades at the expense of the often critical relationship between elevation and plan. These ‘invisible’ relationships may be the most instructive when drawing certain buildings, and provide a source of ideas for the designer. A good sketch is not necessarily a faithful likeness; it may in a pedagogic sense be better to analyse and decipher the subject. Sketches that consist of probings around specific themes may prove particularly useful to designers since they provide fruitful avenues for further exploration.

There are certain advantages for the designer in developing sketchbook skills. The graphic facility cultivated in freehand drawing aids the representation of design proposals.The means of recording an existing subject are much the same as those employed in depicting an un-built vision of the future. The graphic language is the same whether the building exists in reality or simply in one’s imagination: the use of line and shadow, of weighted and feint lines, of exaggerated silhouette, and so on, are employed with equal meaning. The skills needed for drawing, once learnt, are far speedier and more responsive than those required for model-making or computer graphics. Drawing also conveys a sense of spirit, of creative passion, which other forms of representation often lack. Just as the sketchbook can be used to dissect graphically an existing building, the technique of unravelling and abstracting different architectural features can be employed in the reverse – to represent the...

One must spend time practicing drawing what he sees on paper (eye-to-hand coordination training). The rules of drawing are, like the rules of grammar or numeracy, based upon a language we all share and understand. By combining elements of the ‘craft of drawing’ with ‘graphic rules’, you will quickly develop a technique suitable to your particular needs whether as a student of architecture, design or artist. Drawing raises student’s awareness of design by cultivating careful, well directed skills of observation. The sketch is both a record and a statement of visual inquiry. The act of drawing from life, or a building, is to engage the artist in the subject in a unique and rewarding fashion. If the sketch is undertaken in the spirit of formal investigation then the results can be considerable in terms of the development of personal design skills. The linear progression from sketchbook analysis to design proposal is one that many architects have experienced. The detailed stud...

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 o...