It’s not a secret – or at least it shouldn’t be much of one. Architects should be on Instagram and I would like for them to post pictures of what they do during the day. There is so much good stuff out there that people are doing and few people know anything about it. I am making it my personal mission to singlehandedly change this by proselytizing the benefits of sharing information in a medium that is readily available to the masses.
Case in point … on my own Instagram account, I share a fair amount of sketches and details, all sorts of ideas that I am working through. I submit as exhibit 1 and 2, some random details that I sketched up and published on Instagram for all the world to see:
For better or worse, I know that I like looking at these sorts of drawings and I’ve assumed that others would like to see them as well … even though I know somebody will occasionally feel the overwhelming need to point out that I’ve forgot a termination bar – that’s okay, they’re simply trying to watch my back for me.
Not all of these sketches and drawings are world-class examples of best techniques, but that’s okay. In fact, it’s kinda the point. Most of the time, if not ALL of the time, sketches are captured moments of temporary thoughts or ideas that exist along a timeline that will continue far beyond the moment that has been captured. Sometimes this idea is lost on people who follow my account and they will comment as the drawing being shown is being handed to the contractor for construction – which is, to the best of my knowledge, never the case.
As I settle into my new office and become more and more familiar with my new co-workers, I am discovering all sorts of new and interesting things. One such example is Scott Case, a Senior Project Manager in our Interiors office. He still has a drafting table and a parallel bar and he works through and sketches out solutions for discussion with the other members of his team. When I first saw his drawings, I had a moment, just the briefest of moments, when I thought a stack of my drawings had ended up on someone else’s desk … and yes, I am aware that I just gave myself a backhanded compliment.
All the sketches in this post can be clicked upon and will open up much larger in a new window if you would like a closer look.
So I thought I would show you some of the drawings Scott had on his desk and I’ll let you judge them for yourself, but if you don’t like them, there might be something wrong with you. Even if you are one of those people who can’t understand why some people still prefer to work through these sorts of issues with pen and paper instead of drafting them straight into some computer software, you should be able to appreciate them as artistic tools of communication.
One thing that stands out immediately for me, and possibly the reason why I thought I could have drawn these, was Scott’s use of pen weight. I’ll need to ask him if Francis DK Ching had an impact on how he implements pen weight into his drawings.
There is no rhyme or reason for the details I’ve selected to show you … these details represent the first handful that Scott gave me (with permission) to share with the people who read this website. I spent Friday morning convincing Scott to set up an Instagram account with the hopes that he would make it a habit to routinely share with people who follow his account what he is currently drawing. I sincerely hope that Scott feels as passionately about posting images as I hope he does because I am here to tell you that the drawings I am showing you here simply do not exist on Instagram.
They don’t … and I’ve tried looking for them extensively. If you know of any accounts that do, please let me know and I will go out of my way to celebrate them for wading out into the cold, fast-moving waters where few dare to go.
Scott is relatively new to this idea of sharing information and I will be the first to tell it’s scary … like “first-date for a 15-year-old” kinda scary. You have no idea what’s going to happen, maybe things will go okay, maybe you’ll make a fool of yourself, maybe people will be mean. That hasn’t been my experience and when I shared one of Scott’s sketches on my Instagram feed last week in an effort to convince him there was an interest, there was overwhelming support for Scott to freely, and frequently, post examples of his interior detail sketches.
Case in point … or should I say “Scott” Case in point, is to simply look at the detail sketches Scott has allowed me to share in today’s post. There is a ton of information in there that anyone who wants to take a few minutes can learn.
Scott is new to Instagram and only set up an Instagram account because I pestered him incessantly to do so. As of this writing, he hasn’t posted anything yet but I am confident that I can get him excited about the sort of collaboration and community that can happen when you share your knowledge with others. I know there are people out there that would benefit from seeing Scott’s work … you can follow him here.
Happy sketching and sharing,
