Architectural Sketching 4 Essentials Every Student Should Know

I don't think straight lines are that important. As long as they're parallel, you don't have to draw a very straight line to make a great drawing. Well, I mean, you have to get paper, you have to get a pen, and then I'd say trace. I think understanding perspective is critical. I had a professor, Harvey Ferraro. He was an illustrator and he was fabulous. This gentleman could draw like nobody's business. And when I took his class, he kept telling me, Wayne, just visualize it and draw it. And I really thought, no, no, no, I've got to do the golf method. I've got to figure out the three-point perspective, the whatever. And I was doing this building that I had with a helix. And it was curved and complicated. And I was shocked that the perspective came out so good. It actually showed me that building as if I were standing in the middle of this curvilinear room. And as it came to life, I was so geeked. And this professor kept saying, but Wayne, you don't need that method. Just see it and draw it. And one day I took his advice and I just started to feel and see what was in my head. As I look at the paper and start to see the curve before me, so I could begin to see it moving away. And there's a horizon line. And then that curve happens. And then if there's a circle, that curve is going to have a circle that's really an ellipse. And if there's a circle on the floor, it's going to be another ellipse. And they line up from point to point. So there's the point of one circle to the point of the other. And so say there's a pattern on the floor, it's going to do this. And say there's another circle up top. And I could start to see that. And you could start laying in. What if there was a balcony up here? Well, that's above the horizon line. So that balcony is going to curve in one direction. And then the second balcony is going to curve the other way. And then you start putting people in here. And you're going to say, well, why are the people not on the horizon line? Well, I'm looking down at this. So my horizon line is really about the perspective and not the scale. And now you could start adding columns in here. So say these are columns in this interior space. And now I have some depth. So there's another, it's a hallway, right? So there's a hall and there's a ceiling. In that ceiling, there might be a ceiling treatment in between. And you just start layering these things in. And then there's a railing here, right? So there's people up here on the railing looking over the balcony. There's another railing here. And it's going to be closer to flat because it's close to that horizontal line. And is it going to be glass or is it going to be metal railing? I'll just show the metal because it gives texture right now. And you can begin to see the people on that balcony. And so you just keep layering and keep layering. And maybe there's a beautiful light fixture hanging down on there. And maybe the ceiling has even got curves to it so it's taller. So it's a dome. And that's a little trickier yet to draw. You might have to do some shading and shadowing to make that come to life. And maybe there's lights in this ceiling. That's flat. And then there's an indirect light here and that's going up. More railings. And again, I know I'm just talking about my professor but he said, just see it. Well, the beauty of this is, so now is it going to continue or does it go, maybe it curves the other way now. And you know, this balcony, the building has some really crazy things going on. You can create anything if you have a pen and you can do it fast. Anyway, you get the idea. So visualize it and draw it. One of the easiest ways is to take something that's been drawn, overlay it and just draw it. And you'll begin to see perspective. I could place the sketch. I did a very loose sketch under the paper. I can see it very clearly. And then I can begin to make my lines much, much, much more accurate and take my time. But tracing is a great way to understand perspective. Because when you're done with the perspective that you traced, you still created it. And you can look at it and go, okay, I did that. And I can start to feel why the perspective makes sense. I see why the curves go away from me. And again, you can see how much more accurate I can make these curves. And I can start making this drawing really quite good with a little bit of energy here. And I think that's the key. So get yourself a pen. I use the Precise Rolling Ball from Pilot as one of my favorite pens. I found the Bravo, a little thicker marker. I use the pencils and I use the fine and the extra fine. And those really are enough for me. I don't think straight lines are that important. For instance, I think the direction of a line can be wavy, but as long as they're parallel, you don't have to draw a very straight line to make a great drawing. Now I can do straight lines. And basically I'm using my arm and my elbow as a pivot point, almost as a compass. You'll find I often turn my paper. So I'm drawing that line in a way that's very convenient for me. If I'm doing vertical lines, I can do it, but it's not nearly as easy for me to do this with pulling my arm towards me. But you'll notice I'm pulling my arm. I'm not keeping a point with my wrist unless I'm doing short ones. If I'm doing short lines, I can use my wrist and my fingers. But you see how those are much more wavy? Then if I did the same thing by turning the paper, I can make those much more accurate because I'm using the natural motion of my arm to use the pen. And the same thing with a curve or a sweep, you know, using it almost as a compass with my elbow being the point of the compass. And then I can pull these lines towards myself, but I'm using my whole body to pull these towards myself to keep them straight. Let's talk about shadows. I have a theory. I'm not sure I'm right, but all my friends who were left-handed always had shadows on the left side. The sun was coming from the right and the kids that were right-handed had the shadow of the sun coming from the left. What I mean by that is, if I draw a home and it has a porch, and I know this is simple, but I will shadow these two pieces from the sun coming from the left into the drawing. And then basically, if this piece of the building sticks out, I will then have this be a shadow here. And if there's a window in that building, I will thicken the lines here. And what it does, it just adds depth to my drawing. If I put a little detail in the facade, I put the shadow there. And I do it so naturally. I don't think about it. And that's why a lot of times you'll see me pull out the bigger pen and just highlight those areas. Now, it doesn't matter which side you shadow. Just understand that you're dealing with the fact that the light's coming from one side and it makes the building or the home or whatever come to life. It's as simple as you all probably draw the classic ball and you have to have a shadow from the ball. And then you kind of draw the bottom corner of the ball to show it's in shade. And obviously there's a highlight up here and the ball's fading away and there's the shadow because the sun's coming from there. Or if I'm drawing a cube and this side's got a little bit, it's a little darker and maybe this thing's doing this. So basically it's the same concept except for in a building. And I know it's a simple little thing, but what happens is you can really give life to your drawing. Let's say I'm doing an elevation and I've got a roof that's pitched. I know it's pitched because I'm drawing it that way. It's going back 12, 12 and there's a dormer on that roof. Let's say that I have a shed dormer and it's got a metal roof on it and this is shingles. Well, is the shed roof pitched? Is it curved? What is it? Well, if I shadow it, I've explained it. If I shadow it curved, I've explained that that roof has a curve to it. Now I can take that same curve and then add some of this so it starts steeper and then you can see it curving in elevation, but the shadow confirms it. So use shadows to make your drawings better. It's just one more little trick that hopefully will make you a better designer, a better sketcher.