InktoberArchitecture: Why Architects Still Need to Sketch in a Digital World

It’s time to dust off the desk, grab your favourite pen, and roll out the trace because InktoberArchitecture is here!

In this episode of What the RFI?, host Matt Brennan welcomes back Nathan Taylor, Building Envelope Consultant, artist, and creator of the global sketching movement InktoberArchitecture. Together, they dive deep into how hand sketching connects creativity, communication, and construction in an increasingly digital and AI-driven profession.

This episode explores why architects, designers, and students are rediscovering sketching as a tool for problem-solving, storytelling, and learning. Nathan shares the origins of the challenge, his favourite prompts from this year, and why drawing, even on a napkin, can change how we design and think.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

• The story behind InktoberArchitecture and how to participate
• Why hand sketching still matters in the era of BIM, Revit, and AI
• How a quick field sketch can solve problems faster than an RFI
• The power of community and visual storytelling in architecture
• Practical tips for getting started: tools, pens, prompts, and mindset

Whether you’re an architect, student, or creative professional, this episode will inspire you to slow down, draw more, and reconnect with the craft that started it all.

Learn more and join the challenge:

👉 BuildingScape Blog

👉 Follow the hashtag #InktoberArchitecture on LinkedIn and Instagram

⏱️ Chapters

00:00 – Introduction: Dust off the desk and grab your pen

• 02:00 – Catching up with Nathan Taylor: CSI, AIA East Bay, and new projects
• 03:15 – What is InktoberArchitecture? Origins and inspiration
• 06:40 – Why architects should still draw in a digital world
• 09:30 – This year’s prompts and creative interpretations
• 13:20 – The role of hand sketching in Construction Administration
• 17:00 – Field sketches, RFIs, and real-world problem solving
• 20:30 – The muscle memory of drawing vs. digital design
• 26:00 – The community behind InktoberArchitecture
• 31:30 – Favourite sketches, firms, and global participation
• 33:45 – Overcoming the “I can’t draw” myth
• 39:50 – Favourite tools: pens, paper, and the art of imperfection
• 42:30 – Digital sketching and apps like Morpholio Trace
• 45:00 – Architecture culture, creativity, and balance
• 48:00 – Sketching as stress relief and collaboration tool
• 50:00 – How to join the challenge and where to find Nathan
• 52:00 – Final thoughts: pick up a pen and start sketching

🎙️Website - WhattheRFI.com

🍏Apple Podcast - What the RFI?
🎧Spotify - What the RFI?
🎥YouTube - @WhatTheRFI

Episode Transcript

(01:00:00):
dust off that desk,grab that favorite pen.
Where's the trace?It's time to sketch for Inktober October.
Let's get into it.(upbeat music)
Welcome to What the RFI, I'm Matt Brennanand this is the podcast all about CA.
And today I'm returned with a specialcase, Nathan Taylor.

(01:00:25):
Now, last time,Nathan, you were on the show,
it was at CSI and you'renot going this year, right?
No, double booked,I'm actually presenting
in AIA East Bay, they have awaterproofing symposium
that'll be presenting the week before.So just a little bit heavy
on the presentation timesand other conferences.

(01:00:48):
Yeah, no, and fair enough, hey, butthat's, it's all good.
And today we're tryingthings a little different.
This is live on LinkedIn.This is the first time
we've done a live showin this kind of manner.
Last time I'd ran a show, wewere on the AIA Spire stage,
which was incredible, a lot of fun.We had a live
audience, but we didn't go liveto the mainstream.

(01:01:09):
So we're gonna try thisout and see how it is.
We're gonna come to questions laterand see if actually anyone's actually
working on a Saturday.But we'll cover those questions
if there's anything in that.So we've got so much to cover.
It's been a long timesince you and I've reconnected.
I know we're talkingweek by week and everything,
but doing a showtogether, it's been a while.

(01:01:31):
So one, I'm thrilled to do this one.I'm very thrilled to get
into what we need to talk about.But before we get into that,
for the ones that don'tknow you, Nathan, little intro,
who are you, what's your background?My name is Nathan Taylor.
I am a building envelope consultant.Currently work for ECS Limited.

(01:01:54):
New company, it was just,older company merged together with them.
So we're now a much larger group.For the most part we are doing,
or my part at work will beconstruction administration,
onsite work, forensics investigations,a little bit of peer review,
and a little bit of site safety.Nice.Nice.

(01:02:15):
And this episode is all about sketching,which I really like.
And is it something that you're really,really passionate about?
And that's what we're gonna get intoand dive right into it.
And the big question is,what is Inktober architecture?
I know we're a little bit latebecause we're a few
days into October already,but in high level, what

(01:02:37):
is Inktober architecture?Yeah, so Inktober was started a while
back by some artists.They put out a list of
prompts for every day in October,a prompt to get you started,
and you do a drawing every day.I believe Bagan is an ink thing,

(01:02:57):
but it's any medium at this point.I kind of took that and
adapted it to architecture,so Inktober architecture.
And the idea was to create a prompt listwhere people could get a head start,
a little bit of inspiration,and start sharing their drawings,
whether it be hand-drawn orcomputer or markers, pencils.

(01:03:19):
That wasn't the big point.It was to get people
back to drawing againand to sharing it,
being able to inspire eachother, learn from each other,
and just use visual communication.So for the last,
I think this is the fifthyear that we've been doing it.
It's been growing pretty steadily.Last year we had nine different countries
and just shy of 500 people participate,which was pretty good.

(01:03:43):
This year we're only acouple days in so far,
but we already havethree different countries.
We have a firm inFrance that's participating
for a second year in arow, which has been good.
A lot of people from PuertoRico, which has been great,
and then across the US.And hopefully we can pick
up some Canadians here too,if we're lucky.
But yeah, we got a littlelist goes out on social media.

(01:04:06):
It's all over Instagramand LinkedIn at this point,
share it on Facebook as well,and trying to get people to take a look
and jump right in to share the drawings.And it is such an incredible thing.
So going back fiveyears when this all came up,
and like I said, startwith the tattoo industry
and that stuff and you saw it,what sparked that interest going,

(01:04:29):
hey, I want to do thison the architectural side?
Walk me through that idea,walk through the audience through that.
Yeah, so I had actually participatedin the kind of the art
side of it for a while,while living in China even.
And it was just reallyfun to see a bunch of people
sharing artwork and thenthe different variances.

(01:04:50):
Like if you have aprompt for a single day,
just everybody takes that differently.They all have their own ideas
about how to make that into a drawing.For example, the first one
for Inktober this year for uswas a napkin sketch.
Well, the obvious thing for an architectis to sketch out something on a napkin.

(01:05:12):
But what do you sketch on it?Do you do a building
section, do you do a window,or are you trying to do a conceptual idea
like you would whenyou share with a client
over a napkin sketch?Or in some cases, we
had somebody last yearfor the napkin sketch prompt
literally do a charcoaldrawing of a stack of napkins,
which was hilarious.So everybody takes it differently.

(01:05:33):
They have large napkins wherethey folded the whole thing out
and like gone crazy with markers on it.Might happen to be a blue
jay this year, but on a napkin.So whatever it happens to be,
we're just looking forsome creative insight
and something toshare with everybody else.
Again, inspiringpeople to get drawing again,
using their hands and using the brainto put things down on paper.

(01:05:55):
Yeah, 100%.And like, why should
architects care about drawing?Like why, you know, because
we're in a digital age, right?You know, we can use Revit.
What's your take on that?I do enjoy digital stuff as well.
There will always besomething about analog
and doing it by hand.There's a connection

(01:06:15):
between the hand-eye coordination.It's all going through your brain.
So it really helps you learn thingswhen you're drawing by hand.
I do know a lot of peoplewho are drawing on tablet now
trying to get the same effect.It's not something I've
really grasped onto yet.I still like a traditional sketchbook,
but it's that transfer ofthought through your hands

(01:06:40):
and using your eyes to kind of learnas you're creating something.
It's kind of like, I hadsomebody describe it as,
if you're drawing theexterior of a building,
you're trying tounderstand how water's gonna flow
over a roof and a facade or a cable.And if you think of it
in your mind as like,the rain literally falls onto the roof

(01:07:01):
and then it travelsdown the slope of that roof
and it gets to the edgeand either goes over the edge
to a lower roof or into a gutter.And then that's gonna move differently
at a different angle,possibly a different slope.
And it's gonna flow alongthe side of the building
and it needs to be outboard ofinstallation and waterproofing.
And you have your siding orcladding of whatever type.
And the thought patternof following that water

(01:07:24):
is basically what you do witha pencil when you're drawing
that exterior line around a building,trying to gather that.
So, I mean, even at Aspire,you had one of your guests on stage there
talking about live sketchingwith a bunch of architects.
Like that's exactly whatyou wanna do is get outside,
see actual conditions, draw them,figure out how they're put together.

(01:07:46):
Because in the architecture andconstruction industry,
you go out and you look at something,you're all automatically thinking like,
how did they build that?How's that actually put together?
And from a drawing aspect that helps youlike better
understand and retain that ideaof how something's put together.
And they even had an actualdedicated sketching workshop
at Aspire, which was,and unfortunately it just,

(01:08:08):
there was so many good classes,so I couldn't necessarily
get into there and take part.But yeah, I heard a
lot of amazing things.And like you said,
there was the live sketcheras they were doing the main keynote
and he was kind of drawing things,what was hearing here from his visual.
And that's exactly kindof like what's really cool
about this event thatyou've kind of put together.

(01:08:28):
And like you said,we've got a list of prompts.
And again, for theaudience listening, your goal,
we'll get links in thedescription and all that,
where to go, but basicallylike go to the Instagram,
go to the LinkedIn andsee that and download this,
put it in, print it out,put it next to your monitor
as a daily reminder, it'syour calendar for the next month.
And through the 2025 prompts,any particular ones that

(01:08:54):
you're excited about to get in,have you already started thinking about?
Like what are your topthree out of this 21 list?
So I do, I put this up onsocial media pretty early.
So if anybody has a busy scheduleand that wants to participate,
knows they're not gonnabe able to draw every day,
they can always get a headstart.So it's good to do that one.

(01:09:19):
This year's napkin sketch has always beenone of my favorite ones simply
because it's kind of an iconicarchitecture aspect of things.
I also have day 17,which is draw something
from the buildingscape Instagram pagebecause we post
building photos every day.So being able to pull
from that is always fun.I have coffee sketch on here this year,

(01:09:41):
which is kind of a shout out to thecoffee sketch podcast.
Also, architects andartists get together,
have coffee and draw,another great little thing
to check in if you get a chance.But they also are
participating in Inktoberwith an architecture flair.
So it's a cool community to get intoand little prompts that

(01:10:03):
can bring things back inand kind of like make
people think about thingsa little differently.
Like nobody does blueprints anymore,but I have blueprint as a prompt.
Like how are you gonna decipher that?Are you gonna actually
try to create a blueprint?Are you gonna draw with blue?
Like who knows?It could be anything.
It could be a courier with blueprintsstrapped to their back.

(01:10:24):
I mean, it literally could be anything.And that's the thing, like
when I was looking at theseyesterday and putting
the show notes togetherand I was like, finish, that's kind of a,
I'm a runner and everything and I've donehalf marathons and 10Ks and all that.
And like, there's a finish line,but there's also something
unique where you could totally,anyone's gonna think of
a little bit different.And I think that's the

(01:10:44):
subjective part of this.This isn't a contest, this
is just between you and youand drawing every day and
exercising that memory muscle,getting into that and really
pushing that creative side.We're gonna have a whole little segment
about that coming uphere, but yeah, definitely,
some of these things are just,you can go so many
different, like even home,like again, everyone can

(01:11:06):
go to naturally draw a home,but they can also draw an
outdoor forest or whatever.I don't know, like it's pretty cool.
Vintage is another fun one.Where do you feel in your home?
Yeah, like vintage what?Like are you a car fanatic on the side?
Are you looking for like areally cool old drafting table
from back in the day?I mean, all of these can be taken

(01:11:29):
in any different way theywant, which is the best part
and seeing the diversity ofpeople's creative thoughts
when you get these.I mean, you say finish and you're like,
oh, I'm a runner and Ido this and I'm thinking,
oh, interior finishes,like what kind of finish?
Totally different. Thewrong side is stainless,
like is it a cabinetry thing?So in having a single
word or two words thereis enough to where anybody

(01:11:49):
can read it any way they want.And that's the best part.
And I think that's like,that's the really cool
thing when you start,you mentioned, and I
remember seeing this last yearon your post, like you
were posting like again,this like full architecture out of France
or whatever firm where itwas is that they had this wall
plaster with everyonedoing their sketches
and what a cool thing.Like, you know, if I was in your shoes,

(01:12:11):
I would be proud of that momentbecause like you've started a movement
and you've been, youknow, you keep it going.
So anyways, kudos that,yeah, let's keep going.
There's so much exciting about this,but out of this 31 list,
what is your absolute favorite?Which one are you looking forward to?
Or however you already done it?I have not done it yet.
I am curious about whatI'm gonna do for movement.

(01:12:33):
The last couple ofyears I've had movement
and I've purposely come up with adifferent one each year.
And they've been prettygood creative changes.
So figuring out how to do movement,but you know, flat paper
rendition or something.Yeah.
There's always alittle bit of a challenge,
but also making it creative and fun toshare is a big thing.

(01:12:55):
So again, how are yougonna decipher the word
and use it in some kind of a drawing?So that'll be the one to look out for.
Halfway through the movement.Day 18, mark your calendar
guys, mark your calendar,right in almost just over
the middle of the month.So the role of how in
sketching in a digital age.And we kind of touched
on this at the beginning,why it still matters.

(01:13:18):
Heck, we've got AI, we'vegot BIM, parametric design,
all these fun tools of it.But you kind of said right
away, and I love your example,drawing and you're kind of like the way
the water beats downand coming down from the
cladding and everything,you're thinking about that.
And it's similar to whatI had written down too.

(01:13:40):
For example, likewhen I met Richard Nager
and one of my oldprincipals and everything,
and he like when he reallywanted us to kind of get back
from being so outsidein this Revit world,
click, click, click, click, click,you weren't
understanding what you're doing.And that's exactly what I
find with hand sketchingand drawing and I still do it.

(01:14:01):
We had friends over lastweek and I was trying to explain
them to 21st learning andwhen it comes to schools
in K to 12 and how we did the pauseand how we open all these rooms.
And right away, I'm like, I'm trying toexplain it by words.
I'm like, no, let me get my pad of paper.And we were just sketching
away and just being fluent.And I'm building this in my mind.
And that's exactly what hedid is he took a piece of paper,

(01:14:21):
he started to draw this wall.And as he was drawing, he's like,
everything I'm drawing,I'm building my mind.
And that's so true.And it connects you with it.
And I liked how you said that, it doesconnect you with it.
And I'm old school.So yes, we had cassettes back in the day,
which really CDs weremy kind of jam, right?
And that's when the day's a Napsterand we would have all the albums.

(01:14:42):
And I had this card book fullof these CDs and everything.
But by putting thatfinger 11 CD into the CD player
in my car, that action or the same thing,taking a vinyl record and
putting it onto a turntableand hitting play, you
remember that so much morebecause you've built a

(01:15:03):
connection with that music,with that artist and it's just the music
becomes so much more alive to you.And later down the road,
you're like, I remember tracking,I remember tracking, that was, oh,
remember the hidden track?You had to listen for
that extra three minutes,you got that bonus
track that was in there.In today's world with digital,
I'll listen to the songs,I'm like, that's incredible.
And yes, I can go favorit on my iPhone and stuff,

(01:15:26):
but the retention ofknowing it is just not the same
compared to this.And I don't know, I think that's what
you're kind of sayingtoo.
Yeah, and it's similar toother things we've talked about
in the past with construction.A lot of young designers
go in and they've learnedhow to draw specific
detail or a specific section,but then seeing that built

(01:15:47):
is another learning tool,like seeing it, how
it's actually constructedis different from how it's drawn,
especially if it'ssomething that doesn't show up
in section, if it has to be seen in ISO,where you have to be able to
see it in three dimensions,how it's laid in.
And drawing was kind of themiddle ground between that.
If you sit down and usedrawing for communication,

(01:16:08):
which is what it is for architecture,but take it back to the
very, like the early side of it.So like conceptual design stuff,
you're working through aspecific area on a building
or a specific detail, andyou're with another person,
and you're going back andforth on how to do that.
Nobody's gonna sitthere and try to describe
how that's gonna happen.They're gonna pull out a piece of paper,
or piece of sketch, and start going at itand working out things.

(01:16:30):
And that's what it is.It's really just a communication tool.
And that's one of thereasons why I still really push for
and advocate for hand drawing so muchis because you might not have a computer,
you might not have the software with you,you might have a tablet with you.
How many times do youwant to hand your tablet
off to a contractor, letthem scribble all over?
It's just, you put a pieceof paper or scrap a cardboard,

(01:16:51):
or a piece of plywood onthe wall, a couple sharpies,
you'll work something out really quick,and it'll be perfect.
So being able not tocreate like fine art,
but to communicate anidea really clearly visually,
10 times faster than trying to liketalk it out with somebody.
And that, you answered my question.I was like, are you

(01:17:13):
faster doing sketchingversus actually drawing the computer?
Again, there's somecool tools and all that,
but you said it yourself10 times faster in doing it.
And with that, and again, you kind ofanswered my other questions.
Are you doing this in thefield with your field reviews
on site, hey, there's aproblem with contractor,
and you come together, howare we going to fix this?

(01:17:34):
Yeah, and fortunately itwas installed incorrectly,
but how are we goingto rectify this scenario
to make it right?I'm assuming you're just
grabbing that pad and paper,like I said, that piece of cardboard,
whatever you can get your hands on,and doing it right there.
I always have drawn stuff with me,if not to possibly three different
notepads of some kind.I mean, I travel with my

(01:17:57):
travel nafad for my own sketches,and Inktober, anything else in there,
but I have another tabletthat's just for working out
things on site with people.Again, it's a
constant communication thing.I haven't been to a
site where something hasn'tneeded to be visually worked out.
And it's also kind of thelanguage barrier as well,
or I guess it's the way tobridge any language barrier.

(01:18:18):
If I'm on site, my Spanish is horrible,but if I need to work with a contractor
who speaks mother'sSpanish, we both draw the same way.
Like visually, it's goingto mean the same thing to us.
And right away, we can workthrough that pretty quickly.
So I've leaned on that tool quite a bit,and it's been great.
Are you taking those sketchesand actually put them

(01:18:40):
in your field reports?Sometimes I will also
work through rough sketcheson site so that
everybody's there working togetherand to formulate it, and
then refine them betterwhen we get back into
the office if need be,and put that into an RFI
response so that it's formalized.But yeah, I mean, that is the goal.

(01:19:00):
You want to keep a goodrecord of what's going on,
and this is basicallya conversation piece.
This is how it was worked out.Here's a photo, you take a photo, you
have it with you now,and then when I get back to the office,
I'm going to formalize thisand put it in my response.
But yeah, I don't knowif the cardboard sketch
would be in the report,but certainly a refined one
once back in the office it would be.Yeah, it would be kind

(01:19:25):
of cool in that senseof taking that, or even
of putting it into an SIand be like, this is what
we sketched, this is it.It's pretty clear to
me, and yes, at some pointyou would have to
follow up with the As-Biltsand get that into the architectural and
mechanical drawings,whatever the case is,
and proceed with it.But I know a lot of engineers,
like structural engineers will do that.They'll just have a couple blank pages.

(01:19:45):
They'll actuallyphysically sketch all the beams
and everything in the welds and justboom, and that's it.
And it's a legit thing, right?Whether it's more clean
lines out of a Revit programor whatever the case is,
but it's still a document.You're still giving clear
direction based on that sketch.Yes, it may not be to
scale, but again, I would imaginewith your kind of
familiar with the hand sketching,you probably are to scale.

(01:20:07):
Like, do you find that whenyou're drawing floor plans
and details?Like if you actually took a scale to it,
could you be bang on?You'd probably get pretty close with,
I don't know about it, bang on,but it's pretty close, I would say.
Again, you get usedto certain things too.
Like if you havesomething adjacent in your sketch
that's scalable, if we have a door,then you already know

(01:20:29):
the size of the doorand everything next to
it can be pretty closeto where it needs to be.
One of the other goodthings with this though is just,
from a forensic aspect or going in andlooking at conditions
that are alreadybuilt, being able to see,
well, something's notthe same as the As-Belt
or sketching out specific conditions,or I have a wall with a ton

(01:20:50):
of mechanical penetrationsand just trying to map this out as well,
being able to pullsomething out, sketch that out,
show where things are sothat I can take it back
and start adding measurements to it.It's not me marking up a photo.
I actually have measurements and sketchesabout the different
types of penetrations,conduits, pipes,
whatever else is coming througha curtain wall or the wall,

(01:21:11):
some kind of mechanical penthouse.Being able to capture
that pretty quickly in paperis another really
good visualization tool.It's also something I can hand off
to somebody else pretty quickly.So if I've mapped these
out and put dimensions on itand I can hand it somebody to draft
while I start doing something else,they can add it to a
markup or an As-Belt as needed.Right, and yeah, and you read about like,

(01:21:35):
with it myself and the floor plansand then I roll my trace over it.
Once I kind of draw thatfirst door and that little wall,
I don't know, my mindkind of automatically sets,
okay, this is the scale we're drawing.So when I start drawing doors,
I'm not drawing themas like a two foot door
or a four or five foot door.You get into that consistent
because you've kindof somehow you've just
configured your mind to beat it, which is really cool.

(01:21:58):
I think it's really cool in that sense.So you get used to it 100%.
We're gonna get into thekind of the tools of the trade
and everything later down the road here.But let's talk about this
community and social media aspectbecause again, it's one
thing to go to the prompts,draw it, and that's fantastic.
Take great gratitude injust what you did, right?

(01:22:20):
Own it, right, and enjoy itand that you're physically,
consistentlystretching that memory muscle,
which is really, really important, right?Don't lose it.
It was aninteresting, I was listening to,
there was a podcast and everythingand it was about AI and of course,
everyone's talking to AI and yeah,it was Simon Sinek, that's what it was.

(01:22:42):
And it was really cool because like,again, I'm dating myself.
I had that Rolodex, right?I had that thing where you put,
you had the phone book in that hard,kind of flip up thing
where you put it to the Mand then you push the
button and boom, it pops upand there's all the M's, right?
You'll be calling up.And as a kid, like I had that for my
friends and everythingbut I always had that

(01:23:04):
muscle memory I could call.I always would be at
friend's place and be like,hey, let's call the gang.
You know, we had like 30 core peoplethat we just hung out all the time with.
And I'm like, and I wouldrattle off phone numbers
and the friends would belike, how do you know this?
I'm like, I don'tknow, it doesn't matter.
It's just, we're good.We can get everyone to get together.
The moment that flipphone came out into our world
and then of course, iPhones, you know,memory, I can barely remember.

(01:23:28):
I know my number, thank goodness,but I don't know anyone's
number because it's just,you know, you just go up,
okay, call Nathan, boom,call Julia, cool, call us, whoever.
And we've let that go.And that's kind of the
same thing with the sketchingis like, keep doing it, keep going it,
keep strengthening that muscle.If you stop going to the gym, you know,

(01:23:49):
two, three, four, five,even, you know, eight weeks,
that muscle starts to stopand it starts to deteriorate.
And if you stop it, you know,it's a thousand times
harder to get back on track.You know, there's my
soapbox moment for this show,but you know, I know
you can kind of sharethe same kind of
thing. I completely agree.So began dating ourselves.

(01:24:11):
I never got to do blueprints per se.We did hand drafting
and then I took a breakbetween undergrad and grads.
And in that time, the worldblew up and everything was BIM.
I think I even, I camein at the beginning of CAD
and then it, by thetime I got back into design

(01:24:33):
and architecture again, it skipped thatand was in like 3D everything.
Like Rhino was already coming outand Grasshopper and everything else.
So it was like a whole, Imissed the big chunk of this.
But when we did ourhand drafting courses,
like way back in the beginning,we're doing lettering
still and everything else.And one of the line weight

(01:24:53):
issues that we kept getting,like having a pencil that
you're able to literally rollon your fingers and rotate so
the line didn't change shapeas the lead deformed.
Like you'd have a long straight linethat was perfectly uniform.
And like you'retalking about muscle memory,
it's that same thing.Learning how to roll that pencil was,

(01:25:16):
that was like muscle memory too.Like after a while, it's like what you do
when you pull your pencil.And it's the same thing
now with drawing, I think.It's one of those skills that,
like you said, if you continue to use it,it always gets better and better.
But if you're not using it,you're gonna forget some of it.

(01:25:37):
But it's something thatyou can use all the time
in everyday life.I mean, simply putting notes together,
you're making them a little more visual,adding things to it, errors, people,
whatever you need to do.You know, leaving messages
for my kids in their lunchboxor whatever, like things like that.
Awesome.There's so many different ways

(01:25:59):
that you're gonna use something visual.But I also do think
that it's a really core,important little
learning tool from the aspectthat you do think about
things completely differentlywhen you're drawing them.
You're not losing that disconnector you don't have that
disconnect from a computerwhere you're not directly interfacing

(01:26:20):
with what you're using.You're going through this
mouse and through a screen.With pen and ink or a
sketchbook and pencil,you're actually pulling
something across that paper.You're making something
visually directly in front of youthat you were building
through your mind as you see itand putting it into practice
with the movement of your hand.And that retention is gonna be there

(01:26:43):
for a lot more things.You're gonna think
about what you're buildingon that piece of paper
completely differentlythan you will if you're
pulling a line across the screenand you know, clicking yes kind of thing.
So I will always be anadvocate for hand drawing for sure.
But I also really do pushfor people in the office,

(01:27:04):
even working through something,pull the cell, let's have a
sketch, we'll figure it out.And I've been very pleasantly surprised
that usually even people who are verymuch on the computer
are happy to do that and geta big kick out of it still.
And I love your comment about lunch.No, I do similar

(01:27:25):
things too in everything.And one of the things, you know,
been doing it for quite some time now,but before I go for a conference
and pull out a pad ofpaper and I, you know,
here's me being cheesy,romantic and everything,
but I write a love letterand everything to, you know,
Julie and I, you know, special, you know,significant other here.
And I go and hide it somewhere, you know,where she'll find it in the morning

(01:27:47):
and when I'm on theplane and that kind of stuff.
But it's that, again,it's the same thing.
Doing it by hand,writing a handwritten letter.
And it was the last timeyou got a handwritten letter
in that sense.And the impact that it, you know,
it's just a different thing.And it just goes back
to that muscle memorybecause everyone's typing.
Again, trying to putthat in that process.
And it's a different world.So, we totally went on a

(01:28:09):
side tangent, which was awesome.Cause I think there's a lot of moments
from that point right there.So let's get into, you know,
the audience is probably going,how do I get involved in this?
So this is, you know, where, first off,where can they go find this list, Nathan?
What do they tag and what do they do?How do they participate in this?
Yeah.Oh, just to start drawing.

(01:28:32):
You don't have to share it with me,but I'm happy to look at it if you do.
No, if you want to see the prompt list,the easiest place is
probably on Instagram.Just building a scape, all one word.
It's posted on there.You might have to flash
back a couple of days,but every day the new prompt will be up
with whatever sketch I'm posting as well.You can also look at LinkedIn.

(01:28:55):
I'm posting daily thereand in the comment section,
I'll have the wholeprompt list on each one.
So if you need to go find it there,it's an easy way to look at it.
I do post on Facebook as well,but I'm not on there as much
and it's more family andfriends than anything else.
But I would say Instagram, definitely.Also, if you do jump on Instagram,

(01:29:17):
feel free to click on thelittle bio link and link trees.
We do have a blog set upwith some written articles,
a lot of which are about drawing.So feel free to jump on there as well.
But yeah, it's the easiest way to do it.If you do hashtag or add building escape
and inktuber architecture, Ican find them a lot easier.

(01:29:40):
I do try to go and look at all these.I take screenshots I like to post
and say thank you forpeople who do these things.
Again, last year having so many,we actually put together a
little screen share videoof all the different
people who had participated.We had firms from
different countries participating.So it was really cool to see how many
people got involved.So by all means, let me

(01:30:02):
know on Instagram or LinkedInthat you're doing this.
And I'll definitely chimein, say hi and thank you
and take a look atwhatever you're drawing.
Be happy to take a look at it.Yeah, that's the easiest
way to do it by all means.So great crap.
Recap your, go toInstagram, download this,
like it's a print it, have it somewhereyou can look at it daily,

(01:30:23):
jump on, do your sketch.If you're feeling good,
confident, and you wanna shareand be part of the whole community,
post it on your favorite platform,hashtag buildingscape,
hashtag Inktober architecture.And I think, I really
encourage listeners to do thatbecause you want them to
be part of this, right?And not only that

(01:30:44):
you're doing it for yourself,but then like you said,
look at the other'sindividuals doing the work,
like look, pull upInktober architecture, hashtag,
and you'll see everyone that's doing thisand be part of this community,
be part of thismovement of this hand sketch.
And again, you're justcompeting with yourself.
It's not a competition, it'sjust doing it and enjoying it.

(01:31:05):
And in either thisyear or previous years,
is there a standout sketch that youremember someone doing
and based on the promptand everything and going,
oh my goodness, that'sgonna stick with me for life?
Oh man.You've seen a lot.
There actually have been a bunch.Yeah, so trying to
pinpoint one specificallymight be more
difficult, but situationally,there's been a couple of really fun ones.

(01:31:26):
Every time that I've had a firmparticipate together,
where they'll post andthey'll have like their wall
in their conference roomwith everybody sketches,
like day one, day two,phenomenal, love seeing that.
There have been a handful of architectswho have done these with their kids.
And so they'll posttheirs and their kids.
And that's always fun,I love seeing that too.

(01:31:47):
My son has participated a couple of timesand it's really cool to
see him like try to work outand his mind is like,
well, dad's an architect,I should do something about a building.
And there'll be like aprompt that has nothing really
to do with architecture.And he'll try to figure out
how to make it into a building.And I'm like, okay, he's
using his mind to be creative.And so like those are the
ones that really stand out.I do get a big kick out of the people

(01:32:10):
who are really pushinghard to do every day,
which is a hard ask.It's a lot of drawing.
I mean, 31 days in the monthand not only making the time to do it,
but then like trying to be creativeand come up with
something new that's interesting.The few people who have pulled that off,
huge props, like amazing stuff.But also just anybody who's sharing,

(01:32:33):
I love that you're given a little bitof inspiration to other people.
And again, these don'thave to be work support.
They're like short sketches.But the fact that you took
time, made a sketch, shared it.You probably inspired
somebody else to at leastlike sit down and try to
work something out on paper.And that's what this is all about.
Yep, exactly.And last time saying like,

(01:32:55):
I really encourage theones that are doing it.
Yeah, totally post it.Cause like you said,
their friends, their network,and then just the bigger
the movement it becomes,like it just becomes a cool thing.
And again, it's just not a competition.It's just enjoying it.
And so here's ones thatare on the fence, right?
How can we provide some inspiration,break through some of the barriers?

(01:33:15):
And I think always the oneyou hear from time to time,
is like, Nathan, I can't draw.What would you say to someone like that?
So, you know, I'm not a good drawer,I'm not a good sketcher.
I don't even really do it.Like, what would you say?
One of the best reasons we start withnapkin sketch, right?
It's not even a nice piece of paper.If you mess up, I promise.
There's another napkinsomewhere around here.

(01:33:38):
The idea of being like, itdoesn't matter, you know?
If you put ink on a napkin,it's gonna like bleed out really quick
and it's gonna be messy.It doesn't have to be perfect.
Or even look great.It's that you're
leading your way into it.And now how many architects
really do still draw by hand?Like, I'm not looking for like,
really push hard on people.But yeah, I just want you to

(01:34:00):
break loose and have some fun.So they don't have to be perfect.
They don't have to be likeworks of art by any means.
I just, I'm happy to see people doing it.So, man, if I can
participate, then it, great.Everybody can.
Yeah, quality.I have fun.
That's what it's about.It's not about making an artwork.

(01:34:22):
You're not trying to sell this.A napkin sketch is not gonna
be framed on the wall probably.So yeah, just go out,
enjoy yourself really.And again, if you don't
feel confident about it,you don't have to share it,
but at least take the time.Sketch something out and enjoy yourself.
Well, even like the sketching, right?I think now you got the
wheels turning my own mindand like, yeah, when we would do

(01:34:42):
kind of first schematic design, right?We wouldn't be in Revit.
We would have the trace.We'd just start pulling out examples,
doing bubble diagramswhere we want spaces within it.
And once we kind of identified,then we started drawing
the really rough sketch boxesfor a school or whatever.
And this is where we'regonna have a learning stairs.
Oh, this would be cool if wedo some pockets and cubbies
and you're doing that.And my key advice

(01:35:05):
when you are doing this,all the architectural firms is
take a photo of this stuff, right?Record a mini video,
put it, this is the story,what happened with this
building from the start,where it all began, right?
With the coffee on the table, copies,you know, that spilled
coffee around the stains,get that, get the people in there

(01:35:25):
that were part of this inspirationin bringing this building
to what was just sketchesto look at what we built.
What did we do as a team, right?And I think that's really important.
And we miss, a lot ofarchitects miss that, right?
They just throw their sketches out.It's like, hold on, let's document this
because this is fantasticstuff to put on a website.
You know, again, social media,like as we're talking about this event,

(01:35:47):
but showing that story,especially when you go to like
community engagement sessionsand it's, you know,
people really appreciate that,that this came from nothing to an idea,
actually puttingsome, you know, that pen.
And again, it's messy.And I think that's what we appreciate.
We don't wanna be perfect, right?We want the more natural aspect to it.
So again, if you're in that boat whereI don't feel my drawings are good enough,

(01:36:11):
just post it, just post it.You ever had someone tell me
that this is a horrible drawing, Nathan?I, oh yeah.
I've framed people before. Really?Someone told you that
that drawing's horrible?That's the best part.
So what the best part wasis I worked for kind of a,
I guess, green design startup in Chinafor a short period of time.

(01:36:35):
And they had some really big ideas.And during one of the
sit-down lunches with my boss,he and I basically did a napkin sketch.
I think we actually used apiece of like A4 or something.
But we drew out a bunchof crazy stuff on there
and it was nothingmore than a working sketch
of a bunch of different ideas.We had Chinese and English written on it.

(01:36:57):
Like, I think we had a Sharpieand a couple of
different pencils or something.So it ended up,
that project that we were talking aboutkind of got put to the side
and we got busy with other stuffand we were doing modular green walls
for office spaces and stuff like that.And sure enough, I came into his office
to have a meeting at one pointand that sketch was framed hanging

(01:37:19):
in the corner of the office.And I didn't even know it kept the thing.
I kind of worked up and looked at it.He's like, yeah,
that'll come back to me later.That project's on hold or whatever,
but something's gonna happen with that.And I'm like, you framed that?
And he's like, yeah,that's a good memory.
And I'm like, all right.And there was nothing
good quality about thatother than the fact that
it was a little squigglethat shared ideas that definitely got us

(01:37:45):
both thinking about a bunch of stuff.And it was really cool
that he took the timeto like put that up somewhere
and it's kind of like your parentshanging something on your fridge.
Really meant something.Yeah, yeah.
Well, that was nicesparking another memory
and everything.This was something I did.
We were just learningperspectives in high school.
And then that one point perspectiveand I did a kitchen, the overall kitchen.

(01:38:08):
I think I got like nineor 10 or 10 or whatever.
It was really well done in that sense.And of course, from that
sketch, I still have it.I know it's in one of
my kind of storage boxesand I should pull it
out, but my grandma was so,and she's no longer here and everything,
but she just loved itand she got it laminated
and put it on the fridgeand lived there for life.
And I think that's thecool thing about this stuff

(01:38:30):
is the longevity thathow it can live out there
because it's so fantastic.It's so raw and it's
that real talent with it.Withdrawing this.
Full of old sketchbooks.That's awesome.
And so you should write.It's probably 30 on there.
Well, even like think ofart class back in high school.

(01:38:53):
Like I still got my books that I didand it's kind of cool to
go, look what I did back then.Why am I not as good as,
because again, I was doing it every daycompared to now I'm busy.
And it's like, maybe that'sa new year resolution goal.
Say, look, sketch every dayor sketch every once a week
or something into a book.And I don't know, but you got
a favorite pen that you like?Is there one that you're

(01:39:14):
like, oh, this is the one.This is what gets me from good to great.
Yeah, I guess.So I do like microns.
I actually, when we getlike a stack of these.
I think I've got mine too.So say, yeah, so like
microns, I really like.Yeah, yeah, it's like,

(01:39:37):
I got the uniball one.That's, if anyone's looking on the,
watching the web or the YouTube channel,but yeah, the uniball,
the uniball vision fine.You know, that's my favorite one.
But there is a different one.I've been using a lot of
Statlers also recently.Yeah, very nice.
Fine line work, I think.A Sharpie is still one of my go-to.

(01:39:59):
I've also tried really hardrecently to like break it up.
I'm creature of habit, I'll pencilsomething and then ink it.
And if you wantsomething to be more spontaneous
and like enjoyable, like that's not whatyou should be doing.
You should just have at it and go.So like Sharpie on a napkin
where it's gonna bleed a little bitis a great way to start an idea.

(01:40:22):
So I've been trying to do that.I've also got a hold of
some white paint pens,which have been really fun.
So like you're on a brownnapkin with a white pen,
changes things up a little bit.So we've been trying
to break out of the moldand just do some kind of free form,
go at it and just get an idea downinstead of being really picky and
meticulous and detailed,which is, that's what I do.

(01:40:45):
You know, trying topick a part of drawing
and put all the details in it.Sometimes you need to break loose and do
something different.So that's what I've
really been trying to doon my Inktuber stuff actually
has been trying to breakloose a little bit with it.
Nice, very cool.So because digital is here
and then everyone'sgot iPads and everything,
I've got my own iPadand I've never
purchased like the iPad Prolike the big, big one

(01:41:08):
and stuff like that.But have you played with
the digital side of things?Like have you sketched
with the Apple Pencilor Samsung tablet or whatever?
Do you kind of like that?Or is it always, nope,
I'm going back to trace,I'm going back to napkin,
I'm going back to that stuff.So yeah, I still, I'm a
diehard sketchbook person.I have played with a
tablet and an Apple Pen.They're not bad.

(01:41:31):
It's not that I don't like it.I'm sure the more if I did it,
I'd probably get more used to it.Back in the day, I used to have the
bamboo, like tablet,where you draw on the tablet
and it would come up on your screen.So I guess that was my intro
into trying to move more digital.Always enjoyed drawing in Photoshop,

(01:41:56):
like scanning in drawingsand then adding and
changing to them and stuff as well.Did a lot of work with that early on.
On a tablet, like morefolio trace is really good.
So you can startplaying with those things.
Yeah, thank you for bringing that one up.I would like to jump in a
little more and learn that,but it's a whole other time.

(01:42:17):
How much time do you have?I can always pour the sketchbook.
I don't usually carry a tablet with me.So if I start carrying one,
I might have to make the jumpand do a little bit of both that way.
I'll definitely post on social mediawhen I do it though, I'll tell you that.
Yeah, I know it's, yeah, I've done a lot.Like more folio trace,

(01:42:37):
that's a really cool appbecause it's really retro.
Like the controlshaven't changed over the last,
I think it's been out fora decade and everything,
but yeah, it's cool.You can just change, like
you basically have your sketchand you can layer and layer and layer
and basically put newtraces on top of each other
and change your opacityand that kind of stuff.
And it's a digital piece of trace,basically what it is.

(01:42:58):
And they do it really well.And then you can load in
blocks and kind of put that in.Yeah, I've seen some amazing work.
Like people spend hours onit, but again, I'm like you.
I rather pick up something solidthat I can touch, feel and draw and see
the bleed naturally.It doesn't matter how
much they program it.Yes, they can make it look very similar,
but it's just differentwhen you're doing yourself.

(01:43:19):
And like you said, rollingthe pen, rolling the pencil.
So hands down, no, that's really cool.And yeah, I was like, I
was curious about that.Being this on a
LinkedIn, we do have commentsand I'm gonna see, let
me just jump down here.I'm gonna bring them up.
So Christopher Bennett,congrats on the first live show,
Ink E. Ober, awesome.Thanks Chris, appreciate it.

(01:43:41):
Jamie Morris, sketchly definitely helpsyour better
understanding and existing conditionin the field.
Absolutely, 100%.I don't know, you wanna
add anything to that, Nathan?No, I'm glad you're enjoying it.
Love to see your sketches,by all means, share please.
Yeah, and then we got twocomments from Dawn Rickert.

(01:44:02):
I just ran across thisrambly and just dropping in.
Oh, thank you forjoining us, appreciate it.
You can't design withouttrain of thought of sketching.
Hands down, yeah, absolutely.I totally agree.
And I think that'sall the comments there.
So again, not bad for afirst online LinkedIn.

(01:44:22):
And I think for going forward,we'll start really
investing in doing thisas like when we do these
guest shows and stuff like that.I think it's kind of fun.
So anyways, well,let's get back to the show.
And that was just a funlittle thing to try out.
So diving intoarchitecture, culture and play.
How fun challenges like this can balancethe serious side of architecture.

(01:44:47):
You know, what are your,that kind of that opening line,
what would you, how wouldyou respond to that, Nathan?
Very much the truth.I mean, just think of most people
in the architectureindustry are probably overworked.
It's a pretty high stress run.Everybody's working a little over time.
Unfortunately, early on in college,we're doing late nights and studio time

(01:45:12):
and everything else.So you're already kind
of wound up and on edge.So having something on the side
that you're able to break loose from,that's gonna give a little bit of
pleasure and enjoymentthat's still creative is great.
And that's one of thereasons why drawing is great.
You can take it with you,it's small, a little sketchbook.
You can do it anywhere.You can change up the tools
and have a little bit ofvariety with it as well.

(01:45:34):
But it's a great release.And it's a good way to
spend just a little bit of timeto take something out of
you, put it somewhere else,help you feel better,
cleaned up and calm down.So yeah.
You find, so safer on site, right?And there's a problem,
you know, the geothermalor the mechanical
engineer or mechanical sub-trade,he put the lines in the wrong location.

(01:45:57):
And this isn't just,oops, I'll just move it over.
It's like, oh my goodness,this has been weeks of work or something.
Tensions is high.People are frustrated.
People are angry.Finger point is about to start.
You find sketching almost stopsand just kind of like
in that crazy tornado,that hurricane in that
moment and just kind of says,okay, stop, let's look at this.
And just the moment you start sketching,you find that that tones

(01:46:18):
down and it just, you know,call this, I don't know
what you wouldn't call this,but where it brings people to this,
brings them together and it brings themthat kind of calmness.
I think that, you use itas a distraction technique.
So say you're running aplumbing or utility line

(01:46:38):
and there's an obstruction.You know, you're gonna have
to move it somewhere else.There's something in the
site that nobody knew about.We've had projects recently
that had similar problems.Everybody's scrambling.
We have deadlines, you know,excavation needs to happen now.
We're supposed to beputting a hardscape over this
in the next week.Pulling out a site plan,
throwing trays over it,or just an extra copy of

(01:47:00):
a site plan, large format,where everybody can
lean over it on a tableand start putting
different colors into it.Like, can we run it this way?
Can you drop it a foot and ahalf and do it this direction?
Working through it in that way,nobody's focusing on
each other or what happenedor who's fault for not
noting this previously.Everybody's looking at that drawing.

(01:47:21):
And it turns into not somuch a what went wrong,
but how we fix it,which is always a better way
to start that conversation.It should always be about making it right
and making it do whatit's supposed to do.
Might not be the sameplan you had before,
but it's much better to look at itfrom a corrective standpoint

(01:47:41):
than have everybody really angry about,oh, deadline, you're not gonna make it.
And, oh, it's a budget thing.And, well, let's work through this first
and see if there's aneasier way to do this.
And then we'll talk aboutimplications with budget
and things like that.So, yeah, if everybody
can kind of lean downand focus their energy on something
that's happened on a piece of paper,it almost always goes a
lot smoother afterwardsin the discussion when it

(01:48:03):
comes to the harder thingslike budgeting and schedule
changes and things like that.So, yeah, definitely try
to break out your paperwhen you can.
I love it.That was well said.
And one thing I've been wanting,I didn't know where to ask the question,
but are you besides architecture?And I know you're
sketching it for this month,but throughout the year,

(01:48:24):
are you just, again, going campingand throwing out your sketchbook
and sketching that sceneor just that thought or that, you know,
you have a crazydream, maybe, I don't know.
But are you sketching just generally?Yeah, no, I draw a lot.
So, for work, of course,doing that quite a bit.
But also just carrying out sketchbooks.It's like the go-to way

(01:48:45):
to relax in the evening.So, yeah, drawing all the time.
I would say I basically carry oneeverywhere I'm going.
Creating some, not as much.Trying to encourage my
daughter, she likes to paint.Cool.
But yeah, no, a little bit of watercolor,a lot of markers, a lot of ink.
I have a sculpture background,but I don't have a

(01:49:06):
place to do that so much.So, it's a little bit different
when you're trying to domolds and pour hot metal
at your house, it doesn't want to work.So, but, you know, I try to stay creative
as much as possible.It's my way of relaxing and trying to
kind of calm down for long days.That's awesome.
Where there's wisdomright there, for sure.

(01:49:28):
Absolutely.So, we got to wrap this up.
We're coming pretty closeto the hour and everything.
The big, big thing is, of course,where can people find you
and where can they find the,again, just reiterate where can they find
this Inktober architecture?Definitely check us out on Instagram.

(01:49:50):
It's probably the onewe're going to be at the most.
If you are looking for a little bit morecontextual things, by all means,
go to buildingscape.wordpress.com.That'll have connections
to everything else as well,but it'll have the blog on there.
It'll have a backstoryof how this all started.
When I started posting dailyarchitecture photos online,

(01:50:15):
and then by all means,check us out on LinkedIn.
It's just me personally.I don't have a page for
Building Scape on LinkedIn,though you'll see a lot
of stuff posted there.We do post quite a bit,
and by all means, reach out.If you want to connect or if you want to
grab a comment on something,I'd love to hear your opinions on things.

(01:50:38):
Yeah, absolutely.Well, thanks for that.
And any kind of finalwords to challenge our audience
to take part in this amazing event?You know, what would be,
again, if you had to summer up,I just met you for the
first time in the elevator,your elevator pitch,
what would that look like?Go out and just
hashtag and search Inktoberor Inktober architecture and

(01:50:59):
to see the creative crazinessthat comes in.
And huge caliber differences of qualityand professionalism.
I mean, again, I have a bunch of kidsthat are doing this too.
So you're gonna see abunch of different stuff,
but just get inspired.Look at all the wildness
that these people think up.It's really, really cool

(01:51:19):
to see people come togetheron daily prompts and topics and just
start sketching stuff.And some of them are amazing
and some of them make you think.And if you go out and
just search those hashtags,you're already on the way.
But also if you're ableto share, by all means,
you will likely inspire somebody else.So try, share your

(01:51:42):
drawings, working sketches,like you said, something
you get working througha detail or a conceptual
idea or a space planning issueor diagrams, share those
things online, by all means.It shows the fact that
you're able to conceptually thinkof something off your computer screen
that you're using your brain,you're putting things on paper.

(01:52:05):
Me personally, I would love to see them.So if they pop up on my feed,
I will definitely countone out of my promise.
Awesome.Well, heck, I'm inspired and no excuses.
I got to get sketch and take part of it.We're at the fourth today.
So yeah, definitely.I'm a couple of days
behind, but you know what?There's always time

(01:52:25):
to catch up and do it.So thank you for
putting this together, Nathan.Thanks for being coming back on the show
for a second round.This was awesome.
And it won't be the last, of course.Next time we will, next show will
probably be us togetherlive at some kind of conference or heck,
I just got to come downto your neck of the woods
in California.It's tough times down there, you know,
and surfing year round, can't complain.Let's do it.

(01:52:46):
But let's do it, absolutely.And heck, we can sketch at the same time,
but live cast then,but thank you for being part of this.
This was awesome.And yeah, looking for the next one
and looking forward toseeing everyone's sketches
going forward from todayand after kind of
hearing about this episode.So with that said,
architects and sketchers,keep designing those blueprints

(01:53:10):
and contractors keep making them reality.We'll see you on the next one.
(upbeat music)