Manning at the Los Angeles Art Walk

Hand drawing has been in the architect’s arsenal since the beginning. The ability to sketch by hand presents the designer with a tool untied to any technology. This is a medium that is an intrinsic part of the individual. How many times have we observed someone, masterful with the hand, sketch something right there in front of us? It is a powerful experience. This article tells the story of a young designer who decided that he wanted to learn to draw and stopped at nothing until he could. Little did he know, his life would be transformed forever. If you’ve wanted to learn to draw or any new skill for that matter, this piece is for you.

I first heard of Alán Ramiro Manning in my second year of architecture school. My professor, Alvaro Zepeda, was a huge proponent of drawing by hand and would always talk about this student in Spain who was learning to sketch. I didn’t think much of it at the time. I even saw some of the sketches and thought they were pretty cool, but nothing special in my opinion. Then about a year later I heard about the guy again. And again, I saw some of his sketches, and at this point I was interested. The progression was astonishing to me. There’s no way he taught himself and got this good, I thought. How could he have progressed this fast?

“I've always admired Alán's ability to express the detail of what he sees,” says Zepeda, who is also a mentor to Manning, “He is able to share the ‘feeling’ of the sketch. That is not an easy thing to do. He has developed a very poetic approach to sketching. It's truly inspiring to see his work. To me, he is an old artisan in a millennial’s body!”

Act 1: The Desire to Draw

Upon completing his third year of architecture school Alán Ramiro Manning, a young architecture student at the Woodbury School of Architecture in Burbank decided that he wanted to try out an exchange program the college was offering. “I was one of the first students at the school to test this new program. I was eager to travel, and I had this mission that I wanted to learn to draw. This seemed like the perfect opportunity,” Alán explained. 

The hopeful traveler had set a goal for himself not to return home until he could draw

The hopeful traveler had set a goal for himself not to return home until he could draw. A tall task, indeed. Upon arrival in Barcelona for his semester in Spain, Alán connected with his host family, a couple who Manning describes as his “Spain parents.” He got situated into his new school at the Instituto Empresa Universidad (or IEU) and embarked on his journey. But instead of sketching, Manning found himself focusing more on photography. The semester was filled with memorable experiences, but in the end, the mission was not complete. The young designer could not draw. 

Act 2: Passion = Cash Flow

“I was originally set to study in Spain for five months. In the beginning, I focused more on photography, getting acquainted with my environment, and increasingly sketching, but when those five months were done, my mission wasn't near complete. I still didn't get good at sketching, and I wanted with a burning desire to go back home with that skill. I extended my stay for another six months and did another semester. But the funds ran out.” Manning said.

With money running low, the aspiring artist had to think of a way to sustain himself. He tried phoning home, but his family understandably was not going to pay for him to live in Europe just so that he could learn to draw. So still, no funds, and no hope. But, then Manning took a step back and put his creative powers to work. He remembered how much he admired the street musicians who used their talents to make extra cash and an idea hit him. “I thought to myself, what skill do I have to share with the rest of the world?” 

After spending some time with Alan, you start to realize that he is a man of deep passion. For him, it wasn’t about drawing to make money, but rather that his love for drawing was so genuine that he wanted to share it with the people around him. “I was going to be drawing regardless if people purchased something or not, so I scanned my first few ink and watercolor sketches and printed postcards. I took my messenger bag, stuck the cards to the inside, wrote “€3 each” on them, grabbed my stool, and headed for the streets.”

A Pleasant Surprise

“The first day I posted up sketching along Passeig de Gràcia and then later in El Barrio Gótico. I made enough money to sustain myself for two weeks! Near tears, I couldn't believe this really worked! Local Catalans, travelers, young and old, all kinds of people took a liking to the sketches, and it gave me such a boost of life, of empowerment, that it led me to discover a new way to connect with the environment and community.” And it was with this that seethelines was born. 

When Manning tells this story, you can get a sense of what it must have been like for him. Imagine: you’re in a foreign country by yourself, with no money, family back home, and things are looking pretty bleak. You have this desire to hone your sketching skills, but after five months, you still haven’t reached your goal. Despite all of that, you stick around to give it another shot and take a swing for the fences to try and sustain yourself, opening up to the masses with work that you’re not completely happy with. And then to get the validation of people buying your work! What an encouragement!

This reminded me of a story Alán shared with me: He’s sitting on his stool sketching, and there’s a little girl there just watching him, she observes for a while and then walks up to him, his seated height matches her shorter one, and then she asks him innocently, “¿Como haces los dibujos?” (“How do you do the drawings?”) She was with her mother, and Alán just looked at the girl, trying to think of something he could share with her. ”Con paciencia y pasión,” (“With patience and passion”) he replied. Then the little girl runs up to her mom and says in Spanish, “He does his drawings with patience and passion.” And the mother looks back at Alán with a big smile.

“It’s moments like these that really warms my heart. The opportunities drawing gives me to connect with people.” Alán said to me, with a subtle sense of nostalgia in his voice. 

Act 3: Sketch Like Crazy

Looking at the progress Manning has made teaching himself to draw is a bit mind-boggling. I wanted to dig a bit more into how he achieved this:

“First, I started with pencil, but I found that I was erasing too often and taking too long. I started practicing methods to force myself into uncomfortable, sketching situations. I did seven-minute sketches with a black colored pencil bouncing around urban pockets of Barcelona. This made it so I couldn't erase, and I learned how to translate the most important elements on paper quickly. It came down to sketching every day, random things on the go, in the train, bus, restaurant, the bar with friends, all the time.”

There wasn’t a secret. Practice makes perfect is the formula after all. But I think the other ingredient is an undeniably deep and burning desire to achieve what it is we’ve set out to do. Pushing through the frustration and sticking with our task is what produces results like these. I pressed Alán a bit on how long it took him to reach the level he is at now. “Once I started sketching obsessively, it was about six months to get to this final result. It’s the speed that has increased over time. A piece that used to take me six hours now just takes about two.” 

He is a humble guy and always careful not to come off as arrogant. “Humility is important to me. I’m always growing and learning,” he says. Manning talks about drawing in a monk-like fashion. “My ability to wield the pen,” he’ll say. Or “it is a means for me to connect with others, almost therapeutic.” You begin to see that sketching has become a multi-dimensional language for the young artist; it has manifested into a profound form of expression extrinsic to the spoken word.

Act 4: Trekking Through Asia

After his year in Spain, Alán had to return to the States to finish up his Bachelor of Architecture Degree. When you talk to people who know him, they’ll tell you that he came back a transformed person. “I felt like I had a new superpower,” he says,  “it was liberating to be able to express my ideas through drawing, and it allowed me to produce unique work in my studio courses.” But eventually, school was out, and it was time to step back into the real world. 

With his final year under his belt, the new graduate was eager to expand seethelines. Manning went to work for a couple of months and saved up enough money to embark on his next expedition. This time, it would be four months through Asia, visiting Thailand, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Japan. The adventure was underway.

“Seethelines was my vehicle to travel. It’s my life’s work to create a world collection. Going to Asia was my first opportunity to pursue this outside of an academic setting. It allowed me to explore the opportunities that sketching could uncover. I wanted to see how I could communicate with people who did not share my language. This trip really gave me a chance to discover these things.”

Act 5: Artist-in-Residence

The four months in Asia helped Manning refine his skills even further, expand his growing collection of drawings, and further establish himself as an international practitioner. But, eventually, that creative crusade had to come to a close and marked the time to return to the workforce. “I started working at a firm here at home, and after a couple of years, I wasn’t really into it. I was working on towers, and it just didn’t align with my passion.”

And so after two years, Manning resigned. It was during a talk with a mentor that he discovered several opportunities to be an artist-in-residence. “The thought of being an artist-in-residence was a dream. I did some searching and eventually landed an opportunity in Mexico. It was for one month and ended with an exhibition of my work. This was the first time I sold original pieces for a much higher value than the postcards.” Manning said.

The exhibition further solidified his stature as an artist. He had come a long way since those black pencil exercises. Now the more mature artist had traveled to numerous countries, connected with people around the world, and finally began to feel comfortable being called “an artist.” This was yet another milestone for the books.

Act 6: The City of Angels

“After Asia, it was time to put my degree to use. I had gone through all of that time in school, and I was really ready to start learning how to build a building,” Manning shared with me in one of our conversations. Now, it was time to embrace the craft he loved, utilize his artistic ability, and continue his journey as a professional. Today Alan works in Los Angeles where he has adopted the student’s mind in his professional work and has continued to progress in his artistic journey, building up his LA Collection for seethelines.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from Alán, it’s the power of determination and passion. How many times do we say we want to learn something, but only leave it at words? It’s often hard to take that initial step, become a beginner, humble ourselves, and be okay with failing for a while. It was Walt Disney who said that the way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing. The story of Alán Ramiro Manning has encouraged me to embrace those small things that I say I want to do and to start taking action. I hope, in some small way, that it did the same for you as well.  

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To learn more about Alán and his work, be sure to check out his Instagram @seethelines. There you’ll be able to see his journey in more detail, the countless other sketches we didn’t show here, and his personal commentary on his work. Also, feel free to reach out to Alán about his work at alan@seethelines.com and check out his website: www.seethelines.com and Archinect profile. Thanks for reading!

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