Afflerbach - Basics Freehand Drawing

The theory of art defines sketches and drawings as part of the graphic arts. The instruments used for drawing (pencil, pastels etc.) are abraded as they are drawn across a substrate, generally paper, or form a liquid film (ink, watercolours etc.). The most obvious difference from painting is that lines are dominant rather than areas of colours. Consequently, sketches and drawings remain just a composition of lines, not colours and are therefore never paintings. What the hand, using the drawing instrument, puts on paper are the primary means of a drawing: point, line and surface. Sketches and drawings can be given greater expressive power by using complementary means such as spatial staggering in depth, colour, or the depiction of light and shade.

Fig. 1: The Tagblatt Tower in Stuttgart, drawn using four different techniques (clockwise from top left): pencil with watercolours, pencil, chalk on brown paper, charcoal

Freehand drawing is the basis for many kinds of artistic work: painting, sculpture and also architecture. It includes the sketch , a rapidly produced drawing in which depicting the typical characteristic is often more important than reproducing individual qualities and which, even more so than the drawing, aims at achieving a maximum of expression and power with little expenditure of technique and material. The drawing therefore always offers more information than the sketch.

Freehand sketching and drawing is generally used during the early stages of an architectural design, to depict ideas or concepts or to clarify basic questions about the form, construction or urban situation of a building. Sketches and drawings made at this phase can provide the basis for architectural models or technical drawings, which then make the design more concrete. They can also be made with rulers and stencils, if they have a design character. The boundary to technical drawing is blurred. The sketch can also be used in the later phases of a project, for example to show a detail for the detail design stage, or to provide instructions for skilled tradesmen working on the building site.

Fig. 2: Spontaneous sketches of ideas on a paper napkin (Antalya observation tower)

If architecture is drawn on site, the sketch is not based on imagination but is the depiction of a concrete reality based on looking directly at the building. > Fig. 3

Fig. 3: Architectural sketch made on site (Fundao Iber Camargo, Alvaro Siza, Porto Alegre)

Sketches and drawings are always a highly individual mirror as the skilled hand, raw force and tenacious impatience can be read from them, telling us much about how they were made and the particular nature of the author . In contrast to photography they are made gradually and thus interact with the person who produces them, who is in permanent visual contact with what he or she has already put on paper.

Drawing and sketching in architectural design or drawing architecture on site is determined by a selective way of working. Certain things are omitted so that they do not distract, or important aspects are emphasised so as to depict them in a focused way. It can therefore be said that the expressive content of the empty, untouched areas of a drawing is equal to that of the treated areas. This moment of imprecision further distinguishes the drawing from photography, which generally records everything within the viewing angle of the lens, or from the CAD drawing, which often includes unnecessary information. : the brain can imagine the appearance of the annexes as they have similar building forms.