CLASS MATERIALS

sketchbook image courtesy of
Christine G. H. Franck via Flickr.

Field Trips

Homework assignments will quite often require traveling to buildings in your town, city, or wherever you happen to be.

You will need

• transportation, 
• a camera or smartphone to take pictures, 
• a couple of sketching pencils* (or pens, if you are proficient) and 
• paper (I prefer a small sketchbook with unlined paper, but whatever blank paper you like is fine).

*note: Sketching pencils are considerably softer than the #2 pencils made for writing. See the explanation here.  I suggest you start with a 2B and a 4B.

Drawings

If you have a digital drawing tablet and can confidently draw with it, that is totally fine.  The rest of us will please draw by hand on paper and scan the drawings to post (it's your job to make sure we can read the drawings: in my experience, scanning is preferable to photographing).
In addition to the above list, you will need:

• 8.5x11 gridded paper: 8 by 8 
• 11x17 gridded paper 10 by 10  
• 9 x 12 tracing paper pad
• 12" roll of tracing paper
• Occasionally other household items

Don't Sweat It

"Fort Wayne Arts Center: Site Plan Sketch, 1963" 
by Louis I. Kahn, as seen at Art Institute of Chicago. 
Image courtesy of Nathan Y via Flickr.

You can get all of this at your local art supply shop, Hobby Lobby, Michaels or online at Amazon (using the links supplied above) & Cheap Joe's.

You will NOT be required to draw artistically or well (not even famous architects are held to that standard.. see the image to the right).

You WILL BE encouraged to learn how to communicate information by drawing.  This is a skill that's useful in every aspect of life!

By the way, the word "sketch" implies a bit of messiness and smudginess and an unfinished quality.