DOI Heft:
Special winter-number 1896-7
DOI Artikel:Mitchell, Arnold Bidlake: Architectural sketching
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17298#0358
Architectural Sketching
skelton church, yorkshire
from a drawing in lead-pexcil by arnold mitchell
be drawn that will enable the
draughtsman to adequately re-
present it in a rapid sketch.
For architectural sketching,
a preliminary course of large-
scale sketches of the various
forms and features which go
to make up the design of a
building seems essential, and
it is for want of this prelimi-
nary work that so many other-
wise clever draughtsmen fall
short where architecture is to
be represented. Of course,
there are other considerations
which must be taken into ac-
count, and not the least of
these is, that without a fair
knowledge of the laws of or-
dinary perspective, the result
may be disastrous.
Perspective is important in
any drawing, but it is excep-
tionally so in a sketch of
buildings, consisting, as they
do, almost entirely of straight
lines ; in many a general sketch
difficulties to face as are met with in the present this matter may be shirked or slurred over in some
day, and whose accumulated experience, jotted way or another, with architecture it is impossible
down in the pages of a sketch book, cannot fail to do so.
to be of enormous advantage and assistance, not The inexperienced sketcher, too, sometimes
necessarily in the slavish reproduction in modern finds considerable difficulty in the choice of
work of the precise forms and details of a bye-
gone time, but in the gradual process of saturating
the mind with the best examples and the best
methods of the old builders. What more thorough,
what more complete, education in style and in
design can there be, where such a process is
constantly and systematically pursued ? ^ jifnf $
If architectual sketching be of so great value to \ ^rH^'XitJi^t^^-h
the student, the question may reasonably be asked,
why is it not more commonly practised ? To this
various answers may be given. As with all sketch-
ing, the chief difficulty consists, not in knowing
how much there is to draw, as in knowing what
should be omitted from the picture ; in fact, the
whole drawing may be described as a shorthand
note of the subject.
Mr. Walter Millard (than whom there is no
more qualified authority) puts the matter tersely
in saying that the white paper should do the i-^^^^. ' '^%$&'4 -
greater part of the work, and not the pencil; and j . ; *. -affi
those who, through following this precept, have ' >'i \f> '^'i
attained a certain facility in architectural sketching .•—' £/r-^^%^2Z
will agree that no sounder advice could be given
The process of short-handing appears then to ; •' ' '1^$; '-;« I^L^i
be the important point, but it is a process that can
only be acquired by a preliminary stage of hard,
painstaking drawing to a large scale, and in the
fullest detail. Put in another way, it is only a south-west tower, Lincoln cathedral
precise and accurate knowledge of the detail to from a drawing in lead-pencil by arnold mitchell
•35
skelton church, yorkshire
from a drawing in lead-pexcil by arnold mitchell
be drawn that will enable the
draughtsman to adequately re-
present it in a rapid sketch.
For architectural sketching,
a preliminary course of large-
scale sketches of the various
forms and features which go
to make up the design of a
building seems essential, and
it is for want of this prelimi-
nary work that so many other-
wise clever draughtsmen fall
short where architecture is to
be represented. Of course,
there are other considerations
which must be taken into ac-
count, and not the least of
these is, that without a fair
knowledge of the laws of or-
dinary perspective, the result
may be disastrous.
Perspective is important in
any drawing, but it is excep-
tionally so in a sketch of
buildings, consisting, as they
do, almost entirely of straight
lines ; in many a general sketch
difficulties to face as are met with in the present this matter may be shirked or slurred over in some
day, and whose accumulated experience, jotted way or another, with architecture it is impossible
down in the pages of a sketch book, cannot fail to do so.
to be of enormous advantage and assistance, not The inexperienced sketcher, too, sometimes
necessarily in the slavish reproduction in modern finds considerable difficulty in the choice of
work of the precise forms and details of a bye-
gone time, but in the gradual process of saturating
the mind with the best examples and the best
methods of the old builders. What more thorough,
what more complete, education in style and in
design can there be, where such a process is
constantly and systematically pursued ? ^ jifnf $
If architectual sketching be of so great value to \ ^rH^'XitJi^t^^-h
the student, the question may reasonably be asked,
why is it not more commonly practised ? To this
various answers may be given. As with all sketch-
ing, the chief difficulty consists, not in knowing
how much there is to draw, as in knowing what
should be omitted from the picture ; in fact, the
whole drawing may be described as a shorthand
note of the subject.
Mr. Walter Millard (than whom there is no
more qualified authority) puts the matter tersely
in saying that the white paper should do the i-^^^^. ' '^%$&'4 -
greater part of the work, and not the pencil; and j . ; *. -affi
those who, through following this precept, have ' >'i \f> '^'i
attained a certain facility in architectural sketching .•—' £/r-^^%^2Z
will agree that no sounder advice could be given
The process of short-handing appears then to ; •' ' '1^$; '-;« I^L^i
be the important point, but it is a process that can
only be acquired by a preliminary stage of hard,
painstaking drawing to a large scale, and in the
fullest detail. Put in another way, it is only a south-west tower, Lincoln cathedral
precise and accurate knowledge of the detail to from a drawing in lead-pencil by arnold mitchell
•35