How to Draw Like an Architect

Everything in my life revolves around perspective.

First off, I have to visualize the space most often. It's nice for me to be able to take and look at a floor plan and kind of say, okay, so what am I looking at? And what I'll try to do is kind of then emulate that, and I start with just creating a simple perspective of one wall of that room. And then I'll move to the second wall, maybe the third and then the fourth to close the box. And I just want to know the space itself so I have a good feeling on what I'm drawing, and then I can draw those three columns in place and try to get the spacing.

Obviously, the height matters, so I have to understand how tall the space is. In this case, if the room is 20 by 20 and I'm drawing what I'm sketching for you here, it's probably a 13 or 12 foot high room if I look at perspective. If you look and break it down to rudimentary things, there is a horizon line through this sketch. That's my eye level. So that horizon line, and I said it was 12 to 13 feet. So yes, the horizon line's in the center. So this might be me on the paper if I'm standing in the center of the room. If I'm standing on the end of the room, I'm going to be this tall with the same perspective. And so the horizon line is where my eyes are, no matter what height I am in the sketch. So that makes that maybe more simple. Then I try to break down the room into detail. So we talk about interior architecture. Is there a ceiling treatment? So I start to try to play off the simple square that's in that ceiling and I see it in perspective.

Maybe there's an indirect lighting area. Is there something in the center like a light fixture? Well, that center I know is here, but if I want to find that center as an amateur, I'm going to do a cross that goes between the two. That's the center of that room in perspective. Then I can hang from that, my pendant or my chandelier.

Then if I put something in it, like let's say a chandelier, I'm going to lay that in as if I'm looking up at it, because here's my horizon line. So I'm seeing the bottom of that circle and the top, and then I improvise as to what's on the side, but that gives me that piece. And maybe there's another ceiling, like a medallion in a circle on the ceiling.

Maybe it has a crown molding on it. And then down to the middle of the floor, it's the same thing. Where's the center of the floor? It's right here. So now do I want to have a pattern in my floor, like wood? So I'm trying to just develop the sketch based on what I see. If there's windows, are those windows, basically in between these columns, and are they set at eight feet high? Which is a good starting point, which is about what I would say the tops of the windows are. Because it's a 12 foot tall room, I've got room for transoms, so now I can have transoms in that room. Now, depending on the style of architecture, what do the windows look like? If it's more contemporary, maybe there's a horizontal button in between that window.

But here's my glass, so now I'm going to put some texture to that. And so it's just a matter of layering and layering and layering. What's on this wall? You know, it kind of wants a fireplace, doesn't it? So then I might put a fireplace there, and of course I'm trying to get it in perspective so I can see the side of the fireplace here.

And is there a bookcase collection to the side of the fireplace on either side? And I'll try to line that up at eight feet too, because I like things that line up and go around the room to create something very organized so that I can begin to see the room in more clarity. Then I'll layer some thickening sometimes where I want to accentuate the things that are most important.

Now, I'm putting texture on the side of this instead of a straight line because I'm thinking in my heart and head that stone would be a nice accent in this interior. And whoa, this is why I always have lots of pens because they fly, they're like, in Pretty Woman, it's like the escargo. You had to be there, but I love that movie.

All right, so there's the fireplace. Now this is a flush hearth that's down at the floor. That way I have the ability to have more things above it, whether it be art or the dreaded TV, and then I can put texture on this architecture. So if I start putting stone, and as you can see, I'm drawing through the people that I gave you earlier, but that's okay because this is my base drawing, and when I do my refined drawing, I'll take all these layers and make them work.

Now I can start putting bookcases at equal spacing—and equal being a little bit of an arbitrary thing that I'm trying to make it look as good as possible. But I also know that books tend to be 12 to 15 inches tall, if you have art books. Smaller, if they're novels. And then I like to mix my books up with some artistic things on the bookcase.

So there might be some sculptures, candles, picture frames. And you’ve got to merchandise your architecture to make it look good. Because that layer starts to make a difference to people. And now, of course, the bookshelf has a depth, and because I'm in perspective, I'm going back 12 to 14 inches for my bookcase, and I will showcase that by showing shadows coming down as if the light above is shadowing the back of the bookcase.

Now, that doesn't mean to say I'm not going to also integrate lighting in the bookcase, because I do. I love to light everything, but I love indirect lighting, discreet lighting, and that's all a part of really good design. So there's kind of the flavor of how a sketch starts. Now I can build on that. So maybe there's an entry or a doorway coming into this room that I can begin to see from here and another room behind. This is maybe a wood floor. Maybe it's got a diamond pattern in it, which the wood converges in the center, and then I would layer in an area rug over top of that, which seems like a waste because I've got this beautiful floor. But that's nice because I start to put furniture in place.

And as you could see, I'm just layering things on the sketch, which the more I layer, the more you can understand the room itself. And again, I'm always doing it in perspective, which might seem complicated, but if you just see the room as I see it, it's all a matter of squares, boxes and rectangles. And I'm just putting them in the perspective as if they're in the right place.

And then, a lot of times, when I'm done with the drawing, depending, I'll highlight the corners with a dark line. It just accentuates it a little better, makes it feel more fun. And then, of course, at the end, you always have to sign the sketch. And what I found over having done 2,500 homes, probably designed 5,000, because 2,500 that are up means I've drawn a lot more, is that if I don't date this project, I don't remember when or where I did it. So that I remember whose home it is, because in a day I might work on three or four projects, and of course, I'm old, so the hard drive's full.