Architectural Sketching: An Introduction

With McLean Jenkins

Architect McLean Jenkins introduces viewers to a new ICAA original series: Architectural Sketching. With an expert's eye and years of experience, McLean demystifies the sketching process and outlines the basic materials needed to keep an architectural sketchbook.

Stay tuned for upcoming episodes in this series!

Materials

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• Brushes: Kolinksy Sable (natural hair) round #6, #8 #10
• Watercolor block - 10x14 – Arches, Hot Press 150 or 300 lb. paper
• Palette – plastic rectangular with mix of small and large mixing trays

Watercolor Paint Tubes:

• Basic Transparent:
  • Aureolin Yellow
  • Rose Madder (red)
  • Cobalt Blue
  • Viridian (green)
• Vivid & More Opaque:
  • Alizarin Crimson
  • New Gamboge
  • French Ultramarine
• Earth tones I use a lot for mixing, especially applicable to architecture:
  • Light Red
  • Burnt Umber
  • Burnt Sienna
• Others frequently used for mixing:
  • Cerulean Blue
  • Indigo

Drawing Materials:

• Fountain pen with waterproof ink
• Pilot rollerball
• Micron
• Graphite
• Conté pastel pencil
• Faber-Castell Pitt oil-based pencil

Bibliography

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Seeking Venice (Cercare Venezia, Italian version). Renato Pestriniero (text) & Neil Watson (artist). Vianello Libri. 1999.

Venise. Aquarelles de Turner. Preface by Andrew Wilton (in French). Bibliotheque de l’Image, 1995.

The Sketchbooks Revealed – Richard Diebenkorn. Cantor Center for the Visual Arts | Stanford University Press, 2015.

Turner’s Sketchbooks. Ian Worrell. Tate Publishing, 2014.

Hopper | Drawing. Carter E. Foster. Whitney Museum of American Art | Yale University Press, 2014.

Drawn From the Source: the Travel Sketches of Louis I. Kahn. Eugene J. Johnson & Michael J. Lewis.

Expressive Watercolors. Mike Chaplin with Diana Vowles. North Light Books, 2001.

About the Instructor

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McLean Jenkins is an architect with ICAA Member Firm McALPINE in Atlanta, Georgia.

McLean, a Charlotte, NC native, has helped the firm expand its practice to Atlanta, where he has lived for the last 11 years. He received his Bachelor of History from Davidson College, NC and then his Master of Architecture from the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

McLean’s passion for both disciplines is demonstrated not just in his work for the firm, but in his art: he has won several awards for his drawings and watercolors, including the J. Neel Reid Prize awarded by the Georgia Trust for Historic Preservation. In addition to extensive travel in Italy, he has also lived and worked in Prague, and seeks to add to his travel adventures with his lovely wife and interior designer, Laura. Together with their son, Archer, and standard poodle, Louis XIV, they make their home in Grant Park.

Tags: video, lecture, education, classicism at home, video course