no

no.

Site your sources if you're going to claim ridiculous things. I'm sketching right this very minute.

Outside of presentation-style renderings / boards, most of my communication with designers and non-designers is done through hand sketching.

I have no idea what you're talking about... do you?

Ridiculous claim indeed.

I find every excuse to draw. In fact, I probably spend 1/2 of my field visits sketching stuff to distribute to subs so they have records of how to get stuff done. Every meeting results in a sketch. Every concept package is full of sketches.

No. I go out of my way to draw for my clients. It's what they expect, and it gets decisions made much faster.

I make sure my clients know that I can sketch, usually by generating some quick perspective ideas at our first meeting, and when necessary I will do a sketch for a contractor, but there are many reasons I prefer to show CAD drawings thereafter. I work out most of my ideas through sketching but drafting it to scale helps ensure that whatever it is actually works, and it shows my client that they are getting the professional services they are paying for, rather than a detail they don't really understand scribbled on a piece of trace. If I have to sketch something for a contractor, it means I have not planned a detail well enough.

When I really want a job I will put extra effort into a nice hand-rendering (usually cheating by tracing over a Sketchup model, than adding layers and shading in Photoshop) but I don't really get paid for it so I avoid it when I can. 

I've more frequently seen the opposite: architects who don't want to show CAD/BIM drawings even though that's how they do their early design work Many go to great lengths to "sketchify" their CAD drawings, inventing custom sketch styles in their rendering programs, using Photoshop filters, faxing drawings to themselves, printing them out, crumpling the paper and staining the paper, and scanning them back in...

My team does sketch presentations all the time. Obviously it depends on the status of the work, but even large projects for professional developers start with an idea (hopefully...) which the client wants to see before jumping in to production.

This is a dumb post.  I sketch by hand daily.  My clients love to see sketches.  They feel more confident when I demonstrate my drawing abilities.  Hand sketching is a valuable tool.  

The main idea communication method at my firm is sketching. I do see that younger people are not as comfortable sketching, but the senior designers/principles do it like second nature.   

I sketch a lot too, but maybe the OP was wondering about the finished product.  Hand sketches are a means to an end that often is a drafted detail or a rendering.  Lots of paper and miles of pen, marker and pencil lines are still used to get there but final presentations and construction documents often don't include sketches.

Hand sketching is still a very important skill in architecture.

Over and OUT

Peter N

I don't like sketching in front of clients. For me, it represents a very personal experience, and my sketching is very messy. I guess that kind of intimacy is a challenge for me, if I don't know you well enough to feel I can open that "private" side of my thinking.

I often sketch upside down so that if it's slightly sloppy its ok.  Clients are often impressed.

which always leads me into a story about an architect who did it for racial reasons...

http://archinect.com/forum/thread/147889737/paul-revere-williams

jla-x -    "This is a dumb post. "  

null pointer  -   "Ridiculous claim indeed."

 What to say,we are little nervous :)

Thank you for your thoughts.

Sketching upside down is good for your brain, really forces you to see stuff. 

tintt, i see too much stuff without drugs, sketching has actually always been a challenge as it takes place on a 2d plane and massive amounts of information is lost when doing so......writing "S" or "5" upside down occasionally trips me up, try it.

Olaf, I had to both read and write upside down when working with kids as a language tutor. I drew upside down too.

... and who is talking about drugs?? what?

any letter trip you up? i find the motion of "S" did that for me. or even "Z". or are you fluent in Upside down?

Pretty fluent now, it all used to trip me up. Just takes practice, had to learn. 

S is the same upside down as it is right side up, by the way. 

must be why i get tripped up, haha

Understandable.

quick question to the sketchers - do you sketch a vision or does a vision come from the sketch? .. ........(reading Log 36 and had a weird vision dream moment memory (astro boy note to self))....and since we are talking about sketching.....

both. 

so if a vision comes from the sketch do you then sketch again? and now lets say that happens in front of client.

Olaf, it depends. Occasionally I'll have an idea and have to rush to get it onto paper, so I can see if it really works or not. More often I'll start with the known constraints and see what develops. It's so much faster to work through multiple iterations through sketching to get to the "right" answer. It's also fun to just doodle and see what happens, though I don't do much of that lately. 

I can read upside down but am terrible at writing upside down; like you, S, 5, E, Z, etc. all trip me up, although I have very good spacial awareness in other ways. 

Wood Guy, do you do that on graph paper? i like this - if it really works or not. and would you do that in front of a client?

I've found that clients get a kick out of watching the design process in action, so yes, if one sketch leads to another, then I go for it, and probably throw in some arty-sounding words while I'm at it. I have a fat 2mm pencil with soft lead that's great for creativity because you simply can't get too accurate. I also carry a variety of markers and pens. Being able to whip out a pen and ink drawing, complete with gray paintbrush marker accents, seems to give clients some faith in my creative ability. 

I can understand why some architects don't like to sketch, watching them laboriously drafting perfect lines. I prefer fast and loose to generate ideas. 

any erasing?

Olaf, I can't remember the last time I even owned a piece of graph paper. I've been practicing drawing to scale for years and am pretty good at it. (Not perfect, though, thus the preference for CAD drafting anything that matters.) I carry a 9x12 sketch pad and a roll of trace to any meeting where I might need them. I like to sketch in perspective whenever I can, even though I'm not as good at it as I could be. Clients don't really notice iso vs. perspective (2pt) but I think it makes it easier for them to see what I see.

What about you?

I probably should carry an eraser, but no. I start with light lines and make them progressively darker, whether pencil or pen. If a sketch gets too messy to read I start over, sometimes with a dramatic crumple.

To be clear, I'm not saying I'm good, just good enough to keep my clients entertained.

graph paper usually and usually sketching details in 1:1 to 3:1....light line method for 3d and if i know the view wont work out I back off quickly...not good enough to entertain....entertainment is good

I sketch to scale sometimes, other times I let it slide and I work to find what I want, then make a scaled drawing of it afterwards. Depends on what I'm doing. I use an eraser often. Or sometimes just scribble overtop darker or start a new sketch. If I am being more disciplined, I will draw with my eye first - make my eye trace the line I want, then force my hand to make it appear. Point to point first with the eye, then the hand. Stong sure strokes. I watch architectural sketching videos on you tube too.... 

Why do you think that ?