walter gropius couldn't draw very well.

drawings skills can be learned.
you should know that.



sketching is what it's all about.

It's important to be able to get your ideas on paper.

thank you all for the input. i have to now look inward and evaluate

not necessary ... but can be handy ...

most 'drawing' is done on computer now....

but like the others said, drawing can be a useful tool to express your ideas...watercolor is another too (steven holl).

it doesn't necessarily have to be 'realistic'...drawing something too realistic can limit your ideas and experimental attitude.

rem can't/doesn't draw -but that means nothing

it won't limit your chances of success.
your drawings may never be purdy, but you'll pick up an ability to think with a pen in your hand. the computer thing is really more of a back and forth between scratch and the screen.

actually, the non drawers (student entering school with no visual arts background) sometimes develop interesting drawing styles.

fine draughtsmanship is a very important talent (drawing can be learned only up to a certain degree) to the architect. if you trace the lineage of most great architects through history most of them could draw, and in most cases draw very well. Michelangelo once said that he who has mastered the fine art of drawing posses a special ability in which one can create three dimensionaly on paper what one sees in theri mind (or something like that). FLW, scarpa, mendleson, holl, siza, mies, etc were all excellent sketchers and hardline draughtsman who have just as many great works on paper that never translated into actual buildings. its true that in this day and age a lot of architecture can be created on the fly in rhino viz. etc. however that architecture is then limited by the limits of the computer rather than limited by the vastness of the human mind. "drawing" on the computer (as that pretentious little prick Justin underscore hui pointed out) is something that i hope no architect limits him or herself to as the final product will emerge sterile and inhuman. Not to dismiss computers completly as i believe they are an essential tool to architects, yet i beileve that initial designing should be done with pen and paper. Computers should be utilized later in the end of the design process, representational purposes, or to specify certain measurments or constructon methadology within a project.

Or just dismiss what i say... but one day i'll laugh at you when we're both homeless and you dont have your computer so you cant produce shit, while im posting up inside my cardboard shanty draughting away numerous designs for buildings which will never be built...but they will exist.....on paper......ah ha ha....ah ha ha

You should see what constitutes 'drawing' at Penn HAHAHA. _contour

rizzdizzl, must you put "Justin underscore hui"? For someone who dislikes computers so much, you sure like to type a lot on it...

I say, you'll need to learn how to draw, but it's not like you have to learn how to draw like michelangelo. And drafting, or draughting, is easy to learn, imo.

ofcourse, its very important. especially during the initial years in undergrad. not knowing how to sketch won`t curtail dreams but would surely be hurdle in your long journey to sucess as an architect. being a jack would do.

rizzdizzl has some good points despite being a little rude.

As a pure idea-generation tool, I don't believe computers will be able to visualize forms as quickly as pencil/pen and sketchpad, for the foreseeable future... and if so, those tools will have a very steep learning curve (i.e., don't try learning GC or Catia overnight).

My inclination is that you should be comfortable visualizing your ideas on sketchpad/trace/whatever, in whatever way YOU feel helpful... this is much more important than the ability to produce presentation-quality drawings by hand for purposes of exhibition or review. Computer modeling can help you do that.. but not the former.... yet.

"drawing on the right side of the brain"

you will start this book not being able to draw a bath...you will end this book being able to draw anything and everything. if you can learn to draw what you see, you can learn to draw what you think.

and don't get tied down to the idea that the drawing has to be an end unto itself. drawing / sketching is a tool to test the validity of an idea. i rarely care what my drawings look like anymore...i only care what they tell me. a proportion or dimension that may look right in your head may be ugly as sin on paper, for instance.

i could only draft in 2D with a ruler when i entered college...now i very rarely draft by hand but i can sketch what i need to sketch in order to communicate an idea and/or to test one. don't worry, you'll be fine.

regretably, hand drawing and sketching skills are becoming something of a dying art in architecture ... try to graphically explain to your client over lunch some complex aspect of the project you're designing for her ... damn hard to use a computer to make a sketch on a napkin or the back of an envelope ... try to do the same while standing around a layout table in the studio ... damn hard to work out a complex flashing detail on a computer during a group discussion

everybody needs, and can learn, basic sketching skills -- but, you have to work at it a little (or a LOT)

"You know, like nunchaku skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills. Girls only want boyfriends who have great skills."

I just met with the structural engineer on a very non-2-D quite complicated little sucker of a sculptural building. If neither of us couldn't sketch on the spot, we'd have been screwed trying to communicate ideas and how things should look. We sketched in 2-D and 3-D, upside down, whatever. They weren't pretty drawings, but they told the story, and fast. We had 3-d computer drawings and 2-d computer drawings, but we still needed to draw what wasn't showing up in those yet.

I say if can't draw, and want to be an architect, go design yourself a Walmart. But then again, drawing isn't that hard, so learn it, work at it.

ochona, I don't ever worry about what my drawings look like either lately. I kinda like when I sketch something that looks like poo, because I know it is not "skin deep".

some architects can sketch their ideas on paper. some architects get their ideas by crumpling paper.

hmm...

I always thought being able to draw as an architect were a combination of skills - mainly being able to visualize in your head and hand-eye coordination. I think to be an architect you can get by with just the visualization skill and learn the hand-eye coordination part pretty easily. To learn to visualize is much more difficult. I would try to find which one you're lacking - hopefully not both

I find drawing essential not necessarily for it's ability to communicate what's in my head to others--as strawbeary neatly illustrated--but because it lets me communicate what's in my head to MYSELF. My pencil and trace is essential to help me flesh out my ideas, pin them down, look at them from a new perspective, etc; the thing is, the idea in your mind actually takes shape through the ACT of communicating it back to yourself on paper--you find as you sketch it out that you and the idea become engaged. It seems to me that the act of drawing by hand is thus essential to the act of creating buildings, which is what architects do.

The key here is that you have to be comfortable and familiar with a pencil and with communicating to yourself with it; the quality of the sketch is pretty much irrelevant. So be prepared to learn to draw, and to learn to like it; but don't stress over how "pretty" your "drawing" is. Remember, literally almost anyone can learn to draw.

myriam has a good point...i think that too many of us architects, when we are in school, feel that we have to produce beautiful drawings because there is that one student in our class who has been taking art classes since kindergarten and can sketch like a mofo..

drawings and sketches should be used to comunicate ideas rather than hand on walls in art galleries (although they sometimes will end up there)


crayons...its all about the crayons

myriam has a good point...i think that too many of us architects, when we are in school, feel that we have to produce beautiful drawings because there is that one student in our class who has been taking art classes since kindergarten and can sketch like a mofo..

drawings and sketches should be used to comunicate ideas rather than hand on walls in art galleries (although they sometimes will end up there)


crayons...its all about the crayons

make a flurry of lines, the darken the important/'correct' ones.

That's how I learned to draw perspective, and I still sketch that way, mostly.

a lot of architecuture professors i've met seem to draw very 'unrealistically' but they seem to be able to carry out their ideas well in their sketches.

i suppose drawing is a good tool for communicating your ideas with others, not necessarily drawing to represent something literally and in its most realistic manner. i have no arch experience but i guess architects would need to be able to draw quickly in order to communicate ideas efficiently to others...on a coffee napkin or w/e. but correct me if i'm wrong

At this point, my individual skills have not even been tested by myself. More than one of you said that drawing can be learned. With this understanding, my hopes are high.

I have now come to an understanding that I have some studying and self-understanding to do. (minds out of the gutter, please)
I will take the information and run with it because I believe I have some small degree of visualization ability. We'll see about the hand/eye coordination. I know that I can learn how to draw to at least an acceptable level...I believe I have some crayons to buy as well.

not really necessary..but it's not so cool to sit with a laptop at a bar-counter with your client.


and of course it sustains ya image ,if there's a power or software or hardware failure !

Yes, it's important and it's necessary. Don't let anyone tell you differently.

"fine draughtsmanship is a very important talent", damn straight rizzdizzl, when you find the bar that serves the best draught beer, you know where to go when you are depressed that you can't draw like all the good architecture students.