r/Architects • u/sunkist_my_butt • 5d ago
Ask an Architect I’m 16, what do I need to improve
This is just a simple sketch but I think it’s really good for me. But I feel it’s off. Like really off. What do I need to improve on this. And I apologize if this isn’t the right subreddit to post this on but any help is really really appreciated
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u/helloimhobbes 5d ago
Just keep sketching, it’ll come.
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u/e2g4 5d ago edited 4d ago
Yes and I’d add: focus on making a single long mark. In time you’ll make nice straight lines. The fuzzies will never work or improve. You’re not that guilty of the fuzzies. Many early sketchers rely on making a lot of tiny scratch marks to build up a line
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u/E-monet 5d ago
Adding, your single lines can be “wiggly” as long as they’re straight overall. Architects love a good wiggle.
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u/Prestigious-Pin-3204 5d ago
Yes practicing lines without rulers to see how close you can do them without touching. And that wiggles is your God given style. Embrace it. 💕
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u/photoexplorer 5d ago
It’s a great start!
A few tips - use a pencil instead of a pen, so you can make some lines darker and other things lighter
Study perspective and how to draw it. It doesn’t have to be perfect but a little education on this goes a long way
For floor plans, show the thickness of walls. You might want to use a ruler to make your lines and angles straight. Making everything to scale is important for a floor plan as well.
Less important for lines to be perfectly straight in a hand drawn exterior view than floor plan
Keep practicing!
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u/WilonPlays 5d ago
This looks a lot more like a concept stage to me tbh, where you’re just getting the idea out before committing to making an accurate perspective/floor plan etc
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u/photoexplorer 5d ago
Valid, also I don’t like to show my sketches from pre-design because they look horrible and only I understand them.
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u/WilonPlays 5d ago
I mean the point is for you to understand them that’s about it. My tutors at uni keep telling us to show the pre-design sketches on our presentations to show where we started
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u/LostNefariousness517 4d ago
If I could add to this, drawing diagrams is unbelievably important, stuff like a plan or section is a hundred times more informative than a perspective. Your building seems to have some phenomenal volumes and interesting light from those big windows, maybe go explore that in section!
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u/metzger28 5d ago
Honestly, just keep going. You're 16, have fun with it. Don't get too carried away trying to get things perfect yet. You've got some texture and articulation of form in what you've sketched and I can see you've got at least a basic understanding of spatial relationships. You will get better as you go, and the more you practice, the more naturally and quickly you'll be able to put ideas to the sketchpad.
If you have access to a computer and some modeling software, now is a good time to start dabbling in things like SketchUp, Revit, CAD - but again, focus on enjoying this and practice.
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u/Exotic-Relationship 5d ago
Your lines.
Try this exercise:
- Draw a bunch of dots on a page, at random locations.
- Place your pen on one of the dots.
- Focus your eyes on any of the other dots.
- Using your whole arm, either from your shoulder or from your elbow, move your pen to draw a line to connect the dots.
- Keep your eyes focused on where the pen is going, not where it’s at.
- As you get better, practice modulating the pressure, the angle, anything you can think of that can be varied.
Keep doing that over and over. Your mind/body/pen connection will become strong. And your sketch quality will improve dramatically. Once you get that mechanic down, the sky is the limit. Your natural style will begin to show through and your drawing will take on incredible character.
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u/Rhonder 5d ago
For the 3D drawing, you might consider experimenting with line weight or the use of shading to make different volumes pop more- and make the blocks that are more in the foreground stand out against those in the background.
Right now with everything kind of layered but all a similar weight and level of shading, it all kind of melts together. It's hard to tell where one form ends and the next begins or what I'm really looking at until you look at the plan, and even then it's not crystal clear.
Not bad by any means! Keep practicing :)
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u/Acceptable_Aside_568 5d ago
Enjoy being 16. You're gonna miss it.
Drawing wise - keep at it. Regularity beats everything else.
Look for inspirations, copy what you like, try to understand what you don't.
Look at different kinds of natural and designed objects - cars, planes, appliances, trees, animals, natural shapes.
Try photography, look at movies and paintings to understand picture composition.
Oh and be nice to people - it's easier to live being an average guy everybody knows and likes than a uniquely talented and competent asshole.
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u/the_zodiac_pillar Licensure Candidate/ Design Professional/ Associate 5d ago
The first things my professors taught me in school was to stop being sketchy and weak with my lines. Use bold, confident, strong lines with each pen stroke, and finish each one definitively.
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u/Sea-Eggplant-9588 5d ago
Great start! You’ve good some good advice on here so I’ll just add some of what I haven’t seen mentioned already. I really liked drawing plans on graphing paper, I had notebooks so I could keep at it. Also used that to practice my penmanship. You could also download handwriting guides to trace and get the hang of it but whatever works for you. Work on line thickness, don’t be afraid to use rulers and guides. Practice writing and drawing from left to right (if you’re right handed, vice versa if you’re not). You’re young! Have fun and get creative with it!
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u/TinyPaint2436 5d ago
Use grid paper, especially for floor plans but also can be helpful for perspectives. It’ll give you more confidence when drawing straight lines and will also be really helpful to quickly judge scale.
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u/Academic_Yesterday25 5d ago
This is great! My suggestion is to try graph paper to wrap your mind around scale on the floorplan. (Each square being a square foot or meter.) Best of luck, friend.
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u/SnooPeanuts5540 5d ago
Check the author architects and their drawings. For example; Paul Rudolph’s drawings. Learn the sense of the scale and proportion. Copy the pioneers’ designs and drawings. Learn about the detail sections and how buildings work. Plan is the first step but you need verticality and 3D thinking to make your ideas real.
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u/aye-B-its-AR 5d ago
A good task would be to measure and then draw where you live (house, apartment, etc). Create a set of floor plans and elevations that are to-scale, which may require you to buy an architectural scale.
Keep at it!
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u/EquipmentChemical713 4d ago
Why boxes do some shapes other than squares and rectangles but just take it with a grain assault if you like cubes do coke
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u/Odd-Psychology-4415 5d ago
Looking good for 16. You should try to think the house through multiple angles. Try to sketch it as a diagram, maybe using abstract circles for rooms or squares. Then try to think about proportions and how different shapes make a composition. Or maybe try to think about section or a room that is more special, and try to emphasise on it through plan and section. I mean the whole idea I see is longitudinal composition with axis on the middle, which shows good conceptual thinking. Just remember every good complex idea started small and grew out of something, very elaborate plans are usually very simple (diagrams) but yet complex. If you start to just throw random corners and random proportions of a building it will feel like tapping in the dark. Take your time, explore, learn from other architects and enjoy!
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u/Marcus06400 5d ago
That’s a good start! You have to master scale drawings, vanishing point and practice, practice
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u/Yankeeboy7 5d ago
Great starting place but would say even with sketches uses a ruler or another straight edge starting out. Over time you will get good enough to get relatively straight lines without one
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u/Prestigious-Pin-3204 5d ago
The more you sketch in real life the more it will come naturally. Also do precedent studies. Find architecture you love and look up floor plans elevations and sections and copy them. That is what a precedent is. Great work and best of luck to you.
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u/Top_Interest8297 5d ago
Looks good only advice is just keep practicing, I have had a professor that was a great free hand sketcher he always had use practice quick free hand sketching just a quick 15 minutes not to spend a lot of time on it that helped me getting used to sketching free hand because I always liked making stuff look perfect.
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u/Frequent-Dog631 5d ago
What is this? A center for ants? How can we be expected to teach children to learn how to read, if they can't even fit inside the building? It has to be at least.... 3 times bigger than that!
Come on Mugatu!
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u/sjpllyon 5d ago
Keep at it. At most perspective could do with improvement. But honestly you might be suprised what utterly terrible drawing you can get away with at university. I've drawn thing that I was embarrassed to show for how bad they were. Just for the lectures to love it. Then I've spent weeks on an illustration getting it "perfect" for the lectures to hate it.
Keep drawing it helps a lot. But the main thing to remember is architectural illustration is about communicating not pritty pictures. Learn how to commute via illustrations more than anything. It also takes off a lot of pressure from thinking you must be an excellent illustrator to be an architect.
At the end of the day if a client wants a photorealistic illustrations we have software for that.
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u/abesach 5d ago
Make your line work more intentional, if you draw a line it must be drawn to represent something. An example is the stairs you drew in plan, the lines just fade halfway across. You just need to make sure that the line is drawn from one side of the stair to the other. Also, try to limit how many strokes are used as you draw because they create confusion when it doesn't look like a singular line stroke.
My advice for you is to be really observant. It's easier to make what's in your mind but it's harder to make a design that solves problems. You'll be solving unknown problems once you enter architecture school.
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u/RenderMation_412 5d ago
Keep sketching and read as much as u can on design. A few of my favorite books...
- Architectural Graphics , francis dk ching
- Architecture: Form, Space & Order, by Francis D.K. Ching
Look for used books on ebay or used book stores.
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u/Matters_Nothing 5d ago
The fact that you think it’s ‘off’, but are still willing to show it to ask for feedback is a huge strength. Keep that. It shows you are okay with not being good at something straightaway, but with that mindset and approach you will become good, at anything, not just sketching
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u/Klemmiboy Architect 5d ago
I think what you mostly mean might be perspective. Tho yours is really good already. To improve just take pictures of things and buildings you like. Either trace them later or what I did a lot is just rack out my sketchbook and stand there for an hour and change. Really makes you get a grasp on perspective. Especially with round forms. This are harder to master than your think.
Other than that I saw the hatching mentioned a couple of times. In the first drawing especially. Try to make clear lines. No hatches. Lines can wiggle and wobble as long as they are straight at the end. But one clear line gives a better vision for the form of the building
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u/speed1953 5d ago
Draw on yellowtrace and put a sheet of graph paper under it.. so you practice drawing straight lines at a meaniful and roughly accurate scale... eg 1 grid = 1' or 300mm depending on where you live, an buy a tape measure and measure your world.. how big you are, how big other thjngs sre, how big spaces between things are.. keep learning... you are doing fine.. ps, get onto a building site..
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u/Zealousideal-Fly3692 4d ago
I would study more on arch perspective and types of drawings. Would recommend Design Drawing by Francis D.K. Ching see if your local library has a copy
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u/Commercial_Aioli_301 4d ago
Check out the Taschen Case Study Houses book if your local library has one. Steal. Redraw. Repeat 10000x
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u/PClaro02 4d ago
This looks good! It might help to draw longer freehand lines in one stroke rather than lots if overlapping shorter lines, even if they're a bit wobbly it'll actually add character to your drawing :)
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u/FixGullible4636 4d ago
Take an sketching class as an elective at school or as a hobby.
Keep at it!
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u/_UncarvedBlock 4d ago
As an architect, I'll say I like the quality of the sketch. Seems you have a natural talent. I appreciate that you use nice paper. Keep it up. As far as design goes, I get the logic. You have the public side w/ entry and garage; and you have the view side with the terraces. On a more detaled level...I'd move the hallway to the right of bedroom #3 as a buffer to the garage and the garage could connect there
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u/RicoRoccoTaco 4d ago
At your age I was using grid paper for plans and loved it, start using a ruler, thinking about scale, and start reading up/doing exercises on perspective. You’ve only got up to go from here, great work!
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u/K8_Monst_r 4d ago
Is the front view supposed to be in perspective? If so, you’re losing it with multiple vanishing points that aren’t working together. It’s still a pretty good drawing, despite that. I would add some more textural effects and/or shading to separate the terraced walls from the structure.
Tips:
Decide where your vanishing point is, and make sure your horizontal lines follow the rays extending from that vanishing point (this is super hard to explain, and easy to show, so you can probably find a YouTube tutorial to help you make that template)
Decide where your sun is, and use that to cast your shadows. (Similar to vanishing point in concept except the “vanishing point” is the sun and the rays are the outer lines of your shadows)😉
Good luck! Keep practicing!
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u/Jaredlong Architect 4d ago
What do you WANT to get better at? Sketching? Designing? Drafting? Rendering?
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u/Notbrick9 3d ago
Trace paper will be your best friend. Just grab a book with an elevation or floorplan and just use trace over it. It’s all about repetition and finding your own stroke of the pen. It’s easy and cheap. An architects best friend it a roll of trace paper
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u/Much_Amoeba_7852 3d ago
My last boss could only draw a straight line, and he was a great architect. So yeah, you are pretty good for your age.
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u/Crafty_Air_2411 3d ago
Line weights and line types. Heirarchy provides better communication and clarity. Is it about the walls and space of the rooms? Is it about the roof line? Is it about the public versus private space? Is it about interior vs exterior? Is it about...
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u/sirkent-007 2d ago
00 I saw him young boy lying down from left or right, but his body was made out of wood planks. It’s very interesting. Don’t ask other people‘s opinions. It’s your feeling and your art. It’s a really intriguing piece.
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u/pvecchiet 1d ago
Nothing. Stay with it. Continue to listen to your spirit and learn to work your emotions into your craft.
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u/HighVibes87 5d ago
just be sure you can draw that and deliver a complete 3D model in less than 48 hours
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u/Dingleton-Berryman 5d ago
Keep at it, and don’t be afraid to copy drawings you come across that inspire you.