Turkish Delightful: Sketching and Kvetching

This trip through central Turkey is happening at all due to Catholic University's Architecture and Design program. There are fourteen students here, one professor, one professor emeritus and me, the "Scribe". Everyone is here to learn about Turkey from an architecural perspective, but they are also here to sketch and improve their drawing techniques. So much of modern architectural practise is done on computers through a plethora of 2D and 3D programs, and students are in danger of moving through the corridors of education without a fundamental skill.

Eric has made it his mission to get everyone back to basics. He has written an excellent book by the way, "Drawn to Design" (available on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Drawn-Design-Eric-J-Jenkins/dp/3034607989

sketching in Safranbolu

sketching in Kayseri

Almost every day we are taken out to sketch, but to sketch with a purpose. One day it might be to draw something that challenges us individually, another might be to put down on paper the plan of the site, or it could be to find the essence of a building in a limited number of lines, or only drawing the shadows, or draw spaces within spaces. We plop ourselves down and EJ walks among us, suggesting here, illuminating there, encouraging everywhere.

After an hour or two, sketch books are laid out for all to see and analyze what they like or what is unusual, etc. etc.. Everyone is very good at participating with opinions and questions, which is even easier as every person here was already proficiant at drawing when they arrived. Walter, although a seasoned architect, sketches along with everyone else and puts his book out when asks, his work of course always of great interest and proficiency.

When we arrive somewhere someone invariably asks "Do we need our sketchbooks?" to which Eric always replies "You always need your sketchbooks." There's often a bit of a groan as some of these books are on the large side of portable. Despite this, books seem to make their way to dining tables and hotel lounges before and after hours.

I ask you, when someone is 24 and gorgeous and staying at an multi-star hotel with a free evening, what do you think they would do? Well ok, maybe sometimes. But a lot of the time they were finishing the sketches they couldn't conclude within the 2 or 3 hours set earlier. !!!!

At the end, I found it truly astounding to see how much every single student here had improved, many by an enormous leap. It's very exciting, as was asand I feel lucky to have been a paid up student along with them.

Of course just paying for the trip does not a student make, and I have always been a complete boob when it came to drawing - anything. But I tried gamely, taking out this pencil or that, using my eraser in a day more than anyone else in a month, and trying to "see" space the way Eric described it. I learned a lot looking at everyone's sketches but I never put my sketchbook out at 'show and tell' time - there was nothing the students could learn from my work.

But I did promise to open my book, and so I do, with some sketches here vaguely in chronological order. I am still not proficient at drawing and may never be, but I now know the difference between a vault and a squinch, and I also know that, with practice, I can occasionally draw what I see reasonably accurately. To me, that's a complete success.