Your sketches speak for themselves

On April 16, 2010, in Life in General, My Work, Observations, by Bob Borson

I recently had a conversation about the importance of sketching and my job. With the prevalence of computer 3D software, fewer and fewer graduates from the design profession are entering the “real” world with the ability to hold a pen, pencil, paintbrush – whatever – and work through their ideas, explore concepts, or sit across from a client and communicate through drawings. In my office, there are some interns that don’t even keep a roll of trace at their desks while I currently have 9 rolls at mine. I also have a pen drawer that has at least 10 pens in there with different tips and colors. I start every project by sketching.

After having this conversation, I thought it would be fun to pull out an old sketchbook of mine and see what things looked like. The sketches I have stuck in here are from a project I “moonlighted” back in 1995 – and I was surprised to see that my current sketches look pretty much like the ones I drew 15 years ago. I scanned in 9 consecutive pages from this sketchbook to show you what I was thinking about, what my sketches looked like in all their unedited glory. I should point out that at the time I did these sketches, I had never done any residential work and had no familiarity with wood frame construction. The entirety of my experience had been 3 years of custom interior retail finish out work. I didn’t even know how to keep water out of a building – yet.

This project was a master bedroom addition with a detached office/ carport; just the kind of project a young Bob could try and tackle between the hours of 8pm and 1am

You can see that I write notes like I am talking through the process with myself; I even ask myself questions. Can’t tell if that’s odd or not but I still do it all the time. I wrote a post just a bit ago that included some of my current sketches (here) and you can see that the process I went through 15 years ago when I knew absolutely nothing bears a striking resemblance to the sketches I make now. Maybe that’s because I still don’t know anything? Doubtful but I recognize a pattern here of thinking through a problem in a very practical manner. I point out some obvious problems, I can see that I am thinking about the structural layout and how that will line up with the architectural features on the house. You can even see in the sketch below that I was looking at the angle of the sun and how I needed to address the heat gain on the southern elevation of the addition (wouldn’t the USGBC be proud? So ahead of the curve…)

I found these details interesting (and a little amusing to be honest). These sketches don’t have the type of evaluative study process on display that the previous sketches show. Since I know I didn’t have any practical framing knowledge, I remember putting these together to try and marry some framing information with design objectives. Other than a few specific pieces, they look like I copied them out of the excellent Rob Thallon book “Graphic Guide to Frame Construction”, a book that I recommend to everyone just starting out with limited knowledge of wood frame construction.

Just for the record, I don’t detail projects with E.I.F.S. anymore – at least not like these sketches would lead you to believe. We still use an exterior insulation board like I have drawn here but we put it between the exterior sheathing and a 3/4″ three part stucco and then we finish it off with an E.I.F.S. top coat so we can get that really clean, consistent stucco finish. Most of our projects lately have been modern and I don’t want any evidence of the different craftsmen who applied the stucco

About the author

Bob Borson

Dallas architect who specializes in modern design. I'm AIA, Leed AP, NCARB certified, and previous Dallas AIA Young Architect of the Year (2009).

Visit Authors Website

Tagged with: details • sketching

Raul

Very nice. Happy Birthday.
Raul

Very nice. Happy Birthday.
http://twitter.com/tnrkitect tnrkitect

I too “talk through” my sketches with notes and questions to myself. It may have something to do with first leaning how to draft on the boards as opposed to hand being glued to the mouse the way most graduates are today. Glad to see I am not the only one that does this.
http://twitter.com/tnrkitect tnrkitect

I too “talk through” my sketches with notes and questions to myself. It may have something to do with first leaning how to draft on the boards as opposed to hand being glued to the mouse the way most graduates are today. Glad to see I am not the only one that does this.
http://www.loveaffairwithcolor.com Marilyn Russell

I am so glad to see that someone out there still sketches. As an interior design student I prefer to sketch and draft by hand rather than the computer. Great post!
http://www.loveaffairwithcolor.com/ Marilyn Russell

I am so glad to see that someone out there still sketches. As an interior design student I prefer to sketch and draft by hand rather than the computer. Great post!
Morgan

Bob, this is such a great post and I want to thank you for sharing your sketches. Before I was an architecture student I loved to sketch, especially as a child. I feel that being able to communicate ideas through the medium of drawing and sketching are just as important as utilizing hand crafted 3D models and computer software. The moleskine sketchbook I have from my study abroad quarter in Italy will be something I will be able to refer to and cherish for the rest of my life, and I sometimes find myself thinking that it says more about me as a designer than many of my studio projects. I hate to believe that sketching could ever become a dying art. Ill end with one of my favorite quotes…

“to me, the drawn language is a very revealing language, one can see in a few lines whether a man is really an architect.”
-eero saarinen
Morgan

Bob, this is such a great post and I want to thank you for sharing your sketches. Before I was an architecture student I loved to sketch, especially as a child. I feel that being able to communicate ideas through the medium of drawing and sketching are just as important as utilizing hand crafted 3D models and computer software. The moleskine sketchbook I have from my study abroad quarter in Italy will be something I will be able to refer to and cherish for the rest of my life, and I sometimes find myself thinking that it says more about me as a designer than many of my studio projects. I hate to believe that sketching could ever become a dying art. Ill end with one of my favorite quotes…

“to me, the drawn language is a very revealing language, one can see in a few lines whether a man is really an architect.”
-eero saarinen
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ Bob Borson

Thanks Raul, you only turn 42 once (however, I plan on turning 49 several times)
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Thanks Raul, you only turn 42 once (however, I plan on turning 49 several times)
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ Bob Borson

Brian,
I too am reassured that someone else asks themselves questions in their sketching. I try and tell people that they don’t have to be artists to be good at communicating through sketches, you only have to look at my drawings to know that! Thanks for reading and posting a comment.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Brian,
I too am reassured that someone else asks themselves questions in their sketching. I try and tell people that they don’t have to be artists to be good at communicating through sketches, you only have to look at my drawings to know that! Thanks for reading and posting a comment.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ Bob Borson

Marilyn,
Thanks for reading. I went by your website and saw that you were previously a defect construction claims adjuster – what a career shift! I think that’s awesome and I am glad you like sketching, it will definitely be a skill you can take advantage of in your new career.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Marilyn,
Thanks for reading. I went by your website and saw that you were previously a defect construction claims adjuster – what a career shift! I think that’s awesome and I am glad you like sketching, it will definitely be a skill you can take advantage of in your new career.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ Bob Borson

Morgan,
What a great quote! I am going to print that one out, I’ve never read it before. Here is one of my favorites, it is from the book 1978 book “Sketches”, by Alvar Aalto:
“God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is at least for me an abuse of paper.”
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Morgan,
What a great quote! I am going to print that one out, I’ve never read it before. Here is one of my favorites, it is from the book 1978 book “Sketches”, by Alvar Aalto:
“God created paper for the purpose of drawing architecture on it. Everything else is at least for me an abuse of paper.”
http://www.coffeewithanarchitect.com/ Jody

Great sketches Bob! Glad to see there some of us out here still using a pen and paper. I had someone ask me recently if my sketches were done in photoshop. I told “no, they’re 3d revit models”. I think they believed me… J
http://www.coffeewithanarchitect.com Jody

Great sketches Bob! Glad to see there some of us out here still using a pen and paper. I had someone ask me recently if my sketches were done in photoshop. I told “no, they’re 3d revit models”. I think they believed me… J
Ryan

Nice post and sketches Bob!

I believe that you can’t effectively work through a problem without sketching it out by hand, or at least printing the problem if it exists in CAD and sketching over it.

There is a natural connection between mind-hand-pen-paper that becomes severed by the mind-hand-mouse-screen relationship since the mouse wants to make everything perfect.
Ryan

Nice post and sketches Bob!

I believe that you can’t effectively work through a problem without sketching it out by hand, or at least printing the problem if it exists in CAD and sketching over it.

There is a natural connection between mind-hand-pen-paper that becomes severed by the mind-hand-mouse-screen relationship since the mouse wants to make everything perfect.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com/ Bob Borson

Hi Ryan,
Thanks for swinging by, reading my blog, and giving me such a nice complment – I appreciate it. There is a whole generation that sketch via computer software and I think that’s great – actually wish I was better at it to be honest. The thing that I think people lose out on when they rely on computer renderings is the immediacy of the process and how that impacts the process. I do enough computer modeling and designing to know that you can really flesh out an idea with great detail on the computer, but I still generate the main idea and concept with pen and paper. Only then do I go and explore the possiblities that the computer as a tool can provide.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Hi Ryan,
Thanks for swinging by, reading my blog, and giving me such a nice complment – I appreciate it. There is a whole generation that sketch via computer software and I think that’s great – actually wish I was better at it to be honest. The thing that I think people lose out on when they rely on computer renderings is the immediacy of the process and how that impacts the process. I do enough computer modeling and designing to know that you can really flesh out an idea with great detail on the computer, but I still generate the main idea and concept with pen and paper. Only then do I go and explore the possiblities that the computer as a tool can provide.
http://twitter.com/ModernSauce Madame Sunday

I think sketches are the PUREST form of creativity! Quick, dirty and utterly truthful. Questions and all! They are the visual poems, if you will, of the complex novels that are your buildings. If someone doesn't sketch (or have rough drafts, etc) it makes me wonder about their ideas…

Thanks for sharing your lovely sketches!
http://twitter.com/brendachiquito Brenda Chiquito

I don’t understand how my friends at school used to get their ideas out without drawing, I always do it, and I’m also writing specifications and asking me cuestions or notes about everything coming to my mind in that part of the process.

It’s kinda sad that as always work on computers now, but there are not to many teachers worried about incentivate the students to draw, at least this was the case on my college.
Anonymous

Great sketches! Over the weekend I sat down with a pile of old sketchbooks and browsed through them looking for the best example of a sketch (for a scholarship application). I really enjoyed the quick scribbled gestures that hinted at what a project could be, even if it didn’t come close to it in the end. However, when I selected a handful of ‘finalists’ for my submission, I found they were all very neat, ordered and deliberate; sketches that I had practiced a few times before carefully and artfully creating a ‘presentation sketch’. I don’t think they’re necessarily better than the rough conceptual scribbles, but I found myself doubting whether anyone would understand them without a project brief. Perhaps that isn’t the point of these sketches; maybe they are just fleeting thoughts recorded as a simple image and they don’t need to explain the whole project. I also found myself doubting whether people would enjoy the scribbled sketches if they knew what the end product turned out like – nothing like the scribbles and probably quite amateur in some regards. I tend to want to only present my best, polished pieces to the world, but your post has made me realize that the process can be a beautiful, stand alone piece if we let it.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Thanks Brinn,

I don’t know when it happens but at some point, you fall out of love with your own ability (or inability) to sketch. As a result, they become what they were meant to be – just a single moment in time as you explore an idea or resolution. As a working professional, I don’t save most of my sketches – what would I do with them? So get saved when I feel they represent some significant development, the rest are just thoughts with no value to anyone other than myself.

A contractor came into my office the other day and the floor was covered in drawings. He started to try and pick his way through to get to my desk. I asked “what are you doing?” He told me that he didn’t want to step on my drawings. My response was – “they aren’t precious, I don’t care if you step on them”.

I wouldn’t have said that 10 years ago.
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

You are probably correct that with the proliferation of computers that less emphasis is placed on sketching. While I don’t feel that I am an artist, I am able to communicate in real time in front of the client with a piece of paper and a pen.

It makes a difference and certainly leaves an impression.
architectrunnerguy

Great post Bob. I just discovered your site yesterday when someone sent me “10 things an architect will never say”. Great thoughts there too!

I agree that some new graduates are lost without a laptop and a shame it is. I do residential design “charettes” all the time right on the clients dining room table and there’s something about the thickening stack of bumwad overlays that explores concepts and ideas that gets lost on a computer. And with the overlays there’s a linear history of the whole process. Plus, the guys I’ve seen using a computer for initial ideas their solutions just seem “stiffer” (“Ok, let’s make that wall 30′” in lieu of just drawing a wall, see where the idea goes and worrying about the length later).

Met with a potential builder client last month who has two architects on his staff and he was astounded that I first draw out concepts freehand. “What! You don’t use a computer to get ideas??”. Had to explain to him that even if Ihad the best word processing program in the world it wouldn’t make me J.K. Rowling because ideas and concepts come out of peoples heads as it does hers. Don’t think I’ll be working for him and his stuff is stiff!

Doug
architectrunnerguy
http://www.lifeofanarchitect.com Bob Borson

Hi Doug – normally my spam filter wouldn’t let through a comment that ended with “his stuff is stiff” but apparently my filter is smart and realized that you had something of value to add to the conversation.

Needless to say, I hope you stick around and add your insight and comments to other posts that show up here. I could use the help.

Cheers,
Bob
phil

Hi Bob, I’ll second “talking through” my sketches with notes and conversations. I don’t know how else I could spill out my ideas and process without doing so!!? how else would I develop and refine ideas.

To reassure you not all grads are glued to computers!! I started very eager on the 3d/cad routes in my degree but find such a process only holds you back to your own knowledge of that program. Having now been qualified for a few years the first week or so on new smaller projects are purely sketch and pen based! and yes the roll of trace is in the office!
http://www.amerismail.com Amer

Fantastic sketches! Sketching is should be an integral part of being an architect. During my studies, I’ve never really sketched. I thought it was too ‘old fashioned’ and I’ve always believed in 3d modelling and other technology related stuff. Luckily my perception on sketching changed when I saw the architectural sketches of my work colleague – Narinder Sagoo. His sketches really inspired me and I’ve since taken on sketching.