Drawing with care

I have been teaching basic drawing course (technical drafting to be precise) skills for first year students for a few years now. Each time I teach, it is a great reminder to myself saying one needs to draw with ‘care’ – and thats all matters.  The ‘care’ gets manifested in the drawings implicitly. It is this ‘care’ which translates into actual construction too. I am looking for new ways in the class to emphasis this point. Here is a drawing i made for this week’s class to make this point. The difference between object A and B is just an extra bold silhouette. It takes only 10 % of extra time to finish the drawing but then makes the drawing read many times better. The extra line itself doesn’t matter per se, but the time and mindset it takes to take a bit extra ‘care’ is what matters. Drawing as carrier of ‘care’ and ‘attention’. 

In the seminal book ‘Why Architects Draw’ Edward Robbins makes this observation while talking about Moneo’s drawings and design process ” This emphasis on the craft of drawing comes from the belief that craft must be a part of the whole process of design and building. This care for craft and for beauty must start at the very beginning of the process of design and be kept all the way through that process. As drawing is essential to design, it too must al­ways reveal a sense of craft and a sense of the qualities of beauty that in the end one wants one’s building to show.”