Architectural Drawing Specialization: From Sketching to Digital Visualization

Influences / David Drazil

When it comes to getting inspired, I like to look at areas other than architecture, such as visual arts, cinema, graphic design, etc. Here I'll tell you about the three people who have most influenced my work and the way I create.

Module 2

Drawing is a powerful tool that brings architectural ideas to life and explores their potential. For architect, conceptual developer, and creative director Pavel Fomenko, this practice is an essential part of his work. Through architectural geometry, three-dimensional thinking, and drawing techniques, he creates compelling concepts for clients worldwide. In this module, Pavel will guide you in using sketches as a way to think, visualize, and enhance your ideas.

13 lessons (2h 16m)

Presentation of Materials

Now, you will get introduced to and learn about basic tools of sketching. The choice of the sketchbook is an essential part of the drawing experience - it will define your format, set the boundaries for the size and scope of the drawing process. The paper quality and its weight will also determine the ease and type of sketching technique. We will also briefly examine the types of fineliners and mechanical pencils in regard to their practical use.

About Sketching

In this lesson, I will tell you about what it means to sketch and visualize your ideas. I will introduce you to the underlying philosophy of architectural sketching as a tool for exploring and imagining your thoughts. You will learn about using sketches as a storyteller and communicator. We will delve into sketching as a process of design, creative exchange, and human interface.

Drawing in perspective is more than just showing your design in 3D. It is an important visual tool that helps you to see and explore your work along the way. It helps you to understand the geometrical parameters of your design, distinguish its many elements and see its totality. Perspective drawing is a great tool capable of translating your imagination into an emotionally compelling and deeply informative visual representation.

About Perspectives

Exploring Views and Compositions

Drawing is thinking and thinking is emphasizing. Along with depicting your thoughts, you are expressing your design philosophy by giving a vivid presence in the storytelling. You achieve it by creating a visual situation where your design interacts with the viewer with appeal and clarity. Your design is a package of emphasis and you want the viewer to get the most out of its visual stance.

Fineliner and Color Practice

To let your drawing shine, you use lines and paper. Each line carries information that captures, cuts through, and enhances the vision of your sketch. Black lines carry sharpness, weight, precision, and practicality that, if used correctly, can deliver amazing visual clarity and richness to the way you convey your thoughts. The choice of fineliner and the way you hold it determines the speed and agility of your drawing process, and accelerates your conceptual focus. The use of color creates a necessary contrast and makes your drawing visually versatile, engaging, and interactive.

The Idea

Just like any other creative activity, drawing thrives on the notion of complete enjoyment. You write a book you WANT to write, make a movie that you WANT to make, play the music that you WANT to play, or drive a car the way you WANT to drive it. Your drawing has a purpose and that purpose is underpinned by the idea of what you want to express. Hence you choose the idea you WANT to show and enamor with, so the process of expressing it becomes enjoyable. In this lesson, you will learn how to define and imagine your idea on the basis of the proposed design for a residential high-rise building.

First Sketches and Exploration 1

In this lesson, you will delve into the realm of explorative sketching. You will learn how to think and study your idea by quick doodling with simplicity and agility. You will learn how to be fearless in your drawing, keeping the sole focus on seeing your design. First sketches are the ultimate expressions of yourself. They are dirty, messy, raw, and imperfect but yet personal, engaging, and descriptive. It is that first sketch that tells the ultimate story about you and your design vision. You will learn how to liberate your visual thinking and unravel it through spontaneity and improvisation. You will be sketching your design by separating, twisting, turning, and cutting through its geometry, seeing its volume from different angles, envisioning 2D plans and elevations, and visualizing its basic functionality.

First Sketches and Exploration 2

Let's keep building our sketch and see how tracing paper can be an amazing ally to expand our ideas.

In this lesson, we are moving on to the main part of creating the final project. You will take your experiences of exploration and understanding of your design and start translating them into a more cohesive, focused, and versatile visual story. You will finally get the chance to compose the image of the design by deploying your senses of perspective, geometry, shape, and space.

Laying Base

To make your idea visually convincing, you will need to express it with clarity and precision. Every line carries important visual information about your design. It has to be crisp, nimble, sharp, and focused. This is achieved by tracing the perspective with a black line, giving the image weight and outline. You control the line's continuity as you also assess its visual impact on detailing and outline. In this lesson, you will learn to apply line tracing beyond the mere drawing and use it as a tool for sculpting and sensing your design's three-dimensional setting. You will also learn how to highlight the volume of your design and bring spatial depth to your drawing by using shading techniques.

Tracing Lines

Any successful creative work, irrespective of its field, genre, or origin, is carried by a strong conceptual foundation, great execution, and compelling storytelling. You layout the idea, make it clear and infuse it with magical tactility which makes your work descriptive, penetrating, and purposeful. In the visual art of drawing, that magical tactility is the use of color. Along with adding a beautiful artistic dimension to your work, color is an incredibly subtle tool of clarity, graphical distinction, and visual engagement. Color distills, informs, and inspires. It elevates the quality of your drawing to a level of a unique visual experience. In this lesson, you will learn how to apply color to your work so it becomes vivid and distinct. You will learn how to think, see and define color based on what you want to accomplish with your work rather than making it merely colorful. Above all, you will learn how to be fearless and clear in your approach to using it in your drawing.

Colors

Try to remember one of your greatest experiences, irrespective of what it was. Maybe it was a great movie, a beautiful song, a delicious meal, or fantastic customer service. What makes those memorable are the tiny nuances that typically aren’t easily detectable, but yet make you conscious of the unique nature of those special moments. Along with consuming a product, you also discern the nuances of its taste and qualities. It makes you appreciate and enjoy it. The same can be said about how you present your design ideas and how the people on the receiving end consume your thoughts. In this lesson, you will learn how to add a final touch to your drawing by using annotations.

Amplifying Your Sketch

Final Tips

Let me share with you a few more tips to finish your creative process.

Module 3

In this module, London-based architects George Bradley and Ewald Van Der Straeten will show you how to create fun, sustainable, and functional interior designs using single-point perspective drawing. With their award-winning expertise in residential design, they’ll guide you in transforming spaces that not only look great but also enhance wellbeing. You’ll learn to approach design from a fresh perspective, imagining spaces that inspire and promote a healthier, more environmentally-friendly lifestyle.

14 lessons (3h 16m)

Materials

Let's see the materials and tools you will need to complete this course.

Why One-Point Perspective Drawing or Sketching?

In this lesson, you will learn why drawing by hand is such a creative and time-efficient tool to redesign an existing space.

A Brief History of Architectural Sketching

Let’s cover some of the history of perspective drawing and sketching in the world of architecture and design.

Now, you will learn about the fundamental elements of architecture and interior design.

Elements of Architecture

Documenting the Existing Space 1

In this lesson, you will learn how to measure up a space and how to produce the to-scale drawings.

Documenting the Existing Space 2

In this lesson, we will continue exloring the to-scale drawings.

In this lesson, you will learn how to create your brief and recognise the design opportunities of the space.

Designing in Plan 1

Let's keep exploring all the possibilities of the space we are working on.

Designing in Plan 2

It's time for you to learn how to apply the basics of design principles in a section drawing.

Designing in Section

Designing in Single-Point Perspective Drawing 1

In this lesson, we will generate the basic perspective drawing and test the ideas we talked about in the "Designing in Plan" lessons in our single-point perspective.

Designing in Single-Point Perspective Drawing 2

Now, we will finalise and ultimate the basic perspective drawing.

Making the Perspective Come to Life

We are now going to teach you how to add interior design elements to your perspective and ink up the drawing, ready for scanning.

Adding Colours and Materials in Photoshop

Let's see how we can add colours and materials in Photoshop.

Adding Colours and Materials Using Traditional Methods

Now, we’ll show you what other techniques you could adopt that might suit your strengths and skill set better.

Module 4

Renowned architect and digital artist Ehab Alhariri will guide you through his process of creating seamless architectural illustrations using Procreate. Learn how to use this powerful software to design, illustrate, and refine architectural sketches that are both visually striking and tailored to the needs and budget of your clients. Ehab will show you how digital tools can unlock your creative potential and make the design process smoother and more innovative.

12 lessons (2h 8m)

Why Sketching on Procreate?

In the lesson, I will talk about why sketching is important to architects, and how apps like Procreate have opened new opportunities to create architectural digital illustrations. We will also get to know more about Procreate basics.

About Perspective

There are more than a few types of perspectives, not just one. In this lesson, I will talk more about the many types of perspectives, and we will discover how to use Procreate features to create some of them.

There are many ways you can draw the same concept and the way you do it can tell a different story. In this lesson, we will look into how to create more dynamic compositions with tips that will help you make it more interesting and tell a better story.

Dynamic Compositions

Light and Shadow

Light and shadow give our world dimension and depth and also define volumes. Here I will talk about how they have a great effect on your final product.

Color and Texture in Procreate

Colors and textures are very important to any architectural illustration! In this lesson, I will teach how to choose colors and make textures in Procreate. I will also show how to use layers to compound effects efficiently.

In this lesson, I will start my project with a rough sketch on a new canvas, and repeat the process twice for an isometric perspective and a two-point perspective. These two sketches will be the basis for the final illustration.

The Initial Sketch

Now I will go over my sketches and refine them even more. Here is where the Procreate perspective grid will come to play and you will see its full potential until we get clean and neat lines.

Final Sketch

Color Palette and Textures

Colors and textures are very important in any architectural illustration. In this lesson, we will talk about color palettes, what they are, and how to use them in Procreate. I will then start adding textures to the different materials using the same method we learned in the unit "Introduction to Digital Sketching and Procreate."

Light and shadow are what give the sketch its third dimension. In this lesson, you will see how this step dramatically improves the sketch, and how we can figure out our shadows.

Adding Light and Shadows

Adding Effects and Background

Here I will add some effects, touch-ups, background, and some human figures to the illustration.

Now we will see how to enrich the illustration by adding a simple design process diagram using the original image as a reference. Showing this step-by-step diagram will help others understand your design better.

Design Process Diagram

In this lesson, we will see how to prepare the illustration for sharing. We will add a logo or a name, save it in a format that is more comfortable, and lastly, use one of Procreate features to produce a time-lapse video that shows the drawing process.

Exporting and Sharing

Module 5

Join award-winning illustrator JJ Zanetta as he shows you how architectural illustration can bring your design ideas to life. With over 10 years of experience working with architects and urban designers, JJ will guide you through the process of developing your own design solutions through drawing. You'll enhance your visual communication skills and learn how to create professional renderings that truly capture and inspire with your ideas.

16 lessons (3h 31m)

Identifying Area and Exploring Design Solutions

In this lesson, I will review identifying a site and the envisioning process. What inspires me about the site? What would I like to see, and how can it be improved?

Photographing and Community Insight

Take a field trip and visit the site. Photograph your subject, and talk to as many people as you can. Gain an insight into what you think will be a successful design, as well as one that will improve the quality of life for others who use it.

Procreate: Basic Functions and Tools

Now you will learn the basic functions and tools that I will use in Procreate. This project can be completed with analog tools as well: pens and pencils, tracing paper, along with rulers.

Perspective Drawing and 2D Composition

In this lesson, you will learn how to draw in perspective, specifically how it applies to drawing over a photograph as an underlay. You will also study 2D composition techniques that will engage the audience in your renderings.

Designing and Drawing Your Concept 1

This lesson encompasses designing through sketching anything that would be considered the “built environment. The objective in this lesson is to sketch your ideas and get them on paper. They need to be “accurate,” but not detailed. Focus on the idea, not the technique of the drawing.

Designing and Drawing Your Concept 2

In this lesson, I will take a step back at what I have just done and evaluate how I think the image is going to be perceived by the people whom we might present it to. First, I will evaluate if the image is engaging and how much is telling about the design. Then, I will analyze if the image is descriptive enough or if it doesn't show too much about the space we want to present. Also, I will think about what our audience might say about the design and what they are going to experiment with from an emotional and experiential point of view, but also, and very important, from a financial standpoint.

Preliminary Drawing 1

Now I will create our preliminary drawing. Focusing on sketching out our design proposal, I also must be sure to focus on drawing to scale and in perspective. Different design ideas can also be tested during this step.

Now that I have put the finishing touches on my preliminary drawing, in this lesson I will go back and reference the landscape architecture precedents and sketch some of the design concepts that I want in my public space.

Preliminary Drawing 2

It's time for you to complete a few drawing exercises that I think will be helpful to help you understand how to edit out your line work, what is the appropriate amount of detail, and just how we address objects in the foreground, mid-ground, and background. The first exercise will be drawing windows which are very important and can be very difficult to draw. In the next exercise, you will practice drawing trees. Trees are extremely important in all of our compositions because they add a sense of shade and life to our images.

Drawing Exercises 1

In this lesson, I will continue drawing trees to create the effect of perspective. In this case, I will teach you how to draw the background trees in order not to keep caught up in the details, and to focus more on the volume and less on all the activity in the foliage.

Drawing Exercises 2

The Final Drawing

In this lesson, I will complete the final line drawing of our composition based on the preliminary drawing.

The first lesson in this unit is to cover the first step of the rendering process, which is the masking process.

Masking Process

In this lesson, you will learn how to begin applying local colors to each layer. Local color is the natural color of an object, unmodified by adding unrealistic light and shadow or any other distortion.

Building Values

Shade, Shadow, and Final Details

Now you will learn how to paint shade and shadow as well as create the illusion of brush strokes to create movement across your painting. I will also review a few final tricks to add a little drama or effect to your rendering.

Exporting for Printing and Social Media

In this lesson, I will review how to export the various images of your process. This will be helpful as we present our ideas and designs to the public.

Time-Lapse for Presentation

It's time to familiarize ourselves with exporting time-lapse files that Procreate records. Let's get started!

Module 6

Let architect and illustrator Carlo Stanga show you how to use perspective to bring your architectural illustrations to life. With his global exhibition experience, Carlo will teach you the classic rules of artistic perspective for both interior and exterior spaces. You'll learn how to draw interiors using vanishing points and infuse your personal vision into each illustration. Whether you're new to perspective or looking to refine your skills, this module will help you transform ordinary spaces into captivating artistic depictions.

16 lessons (3h 41m)

What Is Artistic Perspective and Why Is It Important?

I will tell you about the artististic perspective as we know it today, a way to represent the 3-dimensional reality around us on a 2-D flat plan.

From Prehistoric Art to Greeks and Romans: Creating Vanishing Point Perspective

Here I tell you about the many attempts to represent the 3D reality on a 2D flat plan in art history. I will start from the most ancient art masterpieces, like this image in this Chauvet cave in France, where it is possible already to see many wonderful solutions to solve the problem. After considering prehistoric art, I will tell you about space representation in Sumerian and Egyptian Art, with many things in common and a kind of a psychological perspective, somehow like in children's drawings. I will tell you about Greeks and Romans attempts in creating the vanishing points perspective technique.

Chinese Perspective and Differences Between Asia and Europe

Now we will consider just the Western art attempts to reach a good representation of reality on a flat plan. Here I would like to teach you how Chinese, Asians in general, depict perspective in their art, focusing on differences between Asia and Europe.

Perspective During the Middle Ages

In this lesson, I will tell about you about the Middle Age art perspective and the first attempts of a possible space representation with Giotto and Duccio Da Buoninsegna.The art of the Byzantine, Medieval and Gothic periods was wonderful, but the images made no attempt to create the illusion of depth and space.

The 15th Century and the Revolutionary Vanishing Point Perspective 1

In the 15th century we see the creation of this new technique of the vanishing point perspective as we know it today. This is a very revolutionary idea, we see the reality like this also today through photographs! Filippo Brunelleschi shows the correctness of this technique. I will show you other Renaissance artists who used it very well, like Masolino, Masaccio, Mantegna and Piero della Francesca.

The 15th Century and the Revolutionary Vanishing Point Perspective 2

In this second part of the lesson, we will continue to see more examples of vanishing point perspective in the Renaissance.

How to Draw Simple Vanishing Point Perspective 1

Here, with our first project-illustration, I am going to teach you how to draw this interior with one vanishing point perspective.

How to Draw Simple Vanishing Point Perspective 2

Here I will keep adding the elements of the reference image.

How to Draw Simple Vanishing Point Perspective 3

In this third part of the lesson, I will correct some mistakes on my drawing and continue to add elements inside the room and also the landscape outside of it.

How to Improve the Simple Vanishing Point Perspective With Depth Effect

Now I would like to give you some more tips in order to improve the perspective effect and the depth: the aerial perspective and the shadows.

How to Draw in Two-Vanishing Point Perspective 1

In this lesson I will teach you how to draw the same given scene with two vanishing points.

How to Draw in Two-Vanishing Point Perspective 2

Here I will continue to work on the two-vanishing point perspective sketch and add some shadows.

How to Develop Your Personal Vision 1

In this lesson I am going to sketch here the third and final sketch depicting the same interior space, but with my personal language. I will invite you to do the same.

How to Develop Your Personal Vision 2

Let's finalize our final free-style sketch by adding some more details to it.

Your Personal Vision and Intrinsic Harmony

In this lesson I will set you free with your personal vision, but I will advise you to maintain an intrinsic coherence and armony.

Interior Design Representation

In this Lesson I would like to give some more tips about interior design representation. In particular it is important to respect the characteristics and the main features of the room and the different objects, the language this interior expresses.

Module 7

Last, but not least, architect David Drazil will teach you how to capture the essence of architecture through sketches and bring them to life digitally in Photoshop. As the founder of Sketch Like An Architect, David will guide you through the process of creating striking architectural sketches by hand and enhancing them with vivid details. Step by step, you’ll learn his drawing techniques and post-production methods to transform your sketches into stunning, professional illustrations.

20 lessons (3h 43m)

What You Need for the Course

In this lesson, you will learn about the materials you will need for this course as well as the right mindset to approach this learning experience with.

What Makes a Good Sketch

Now I'll tell you about what I think is the most important image-making aspect: composition. I’ll put on my analytical hat and break down a number of examples so that you understand what I mean.

Here you'll learn about linear perspective and atmospheric perspective. Both will be relevant for the project of this course. I'll tell you also about the five key elements of a linear perspective and then show you a few exercises to illustrate this.

Types of Perspective

Shading is important as it can make an object look more plastic and 3D, and it creates an illusion of depth. Here I'll show you how you can add shade and shadows to objects that are in perspective.

Shading in Perspective

Design Principles and Choice of Sketch

Next, you will learn about a few design principles which will be important to keep in mind during the image-making process. I will also give you tips on how to select the right sketch for the project.

The Foundations of Color Theory

The last notion I'll explain in this unit is color theory. You'll learn here about the basics of color theory and see how to create a color palette for your projects.

Creating the Sketch

The first thing I will do is refine the sketch I made in the previous unit. With a pencil, I'll work on its composition, add details, and end by adding a layer of ink with fineliners.

The Digital File and Tonal Values

Next, you will learn how to prepare the digital file on which you'll work for the rest of the project. I will also teach you how to create a tonal value study.

Textures and Reference Images

I will now show you how to search for reference images for a mood board that will help you determine the atmosphere and details of your drawing. I'll also explain how to collect and download textures that you can use later on. For this step, I'll be working in Adobe Photoshop.

Cleaning up the Sketch in Photoshop

In this lesson, you'll see how to open the digital file of your sketch in Photoshop, clean it up, and prepare it for the digital process.

Now I will move on to coloring the drawing. What I like to do is start with the sky, so here I'll show you a few ways you can add a colorful sky to the illustration.

Adding the Sky

I will now focus on the foreground of my illustration and add greater details and texture to it. I'll start by working on the trees. To do this, I'll import reference images of trees I selected previously and place them where I've drawn trees on the illustration. I'll then move on to the ground.

Adding the Foreground 1

What I'll do here is add the shadow of a tree on the ground so as to frame the image and the tower, which is the main focal point.

Adding the Foreground 2

Coloring the Trees and Vegetation

I will start here by adding color to the other trees and the vegetation around the building. For this, I'll use a textured brush and work on a three-color palette.

Texturing the Architecture

Next, I will add texture to the architecture. You'll see how to work with a “Smart Object” so you can apply the textures onto the illustration and modify it as needed. I'll also explain how to take advantage of the “Magic Wand Tool”.

Shade and Shadows

In this lesson, you will learn to apply shade and shadows to the composition in Photoshop. This will add plasticity and contrast to the whole illustration.

The Details in the Foreground

Here I'll be adding extra details and life to the foreground elements of the illustration. I will work on the cobbles and stones on the ground, the branches of the trees, and then add some leaves as well as two human figures.

I'm almost done! Here I'll show you how I add some final effects to the illustration, such as vignetting and color overlays (or god rays). Lastly, I'll explain how to export the illustration for both web and print.

Final Touches and Export