From study sketch to drafted sketch, Part 1. Sketching might be for some a natural gift, but for most of us it is about the patient—and often painful—practice of setting one’s pencil on a white sheet of paper and letting ideas leave their mark. As skills are honed by coordinating mind, hand and pencil, sketching as a process of iteration, becomes second nature. Eventually, those free-hand sketches become measured plans and sections, thus requiring more formality. Prior to drafting them precisely (either mechanically by hand or digitally), I favor a transitional method where one drafts in sketch form, which I call a drafted-sketch. What does this mean and how does one draw them?

The meaning to draw to scale. While learning about architecture, I remember needing to overcome many stumbling blocks, in particular those surrounding fundamental questions about what makes good design. Included in this larger inquiry was the ability to think spatially, the confidence to translate ideas into space, and how to sketch in an iterative manner.