I have a deep nostalgia for things like this, drawn and engraved with a care and precision that has been erased by computers. It is the same sense of awe and loss I felt when I saw the drawings for the UT clock tower in the Architecture archive at school. The archivist was describing the way that the architects worked, the materials they used for these detailed, precise drawings. I can remember her telling us that the paper they used is no longer produced, and the pens can only be bought from one company.
It is incredible that such a deep and ancient skill is now almost completely lost. The architects I admire from the last century all possessed skill with a radiograph I will never have, nor will any of my peers. Now that computers can replicate the work of a draftsman in a fraction of the time, hand drafting is dead. My heart hurts thinking about it. It tears me up to think that the beauty of architectural drawings is now so dependent on a computer. Plotters cannot create beauty. They can only replicate unconvincingly what a hand does so naturally.
To my eyes, a huge part of the natural beauty of hand drawings is the mistakes. Errors, imperfections, tiny jumps in a line, smudges, little wrinkles, the way vellum stretches a little when you press too hard. The hand wants to do something perfectly, but there are always traces.
I was chatting with a fellow employee over dinner at work a few weeks ago, and we were talking about working as architects, and she said that had she known she would never get to draw, she wouldn't have entered the field. I actually agree with her very much. There is nothing that I enjoy about sitting in front of a computer all day, except for the satisfaction that I derive from doing something well and occasionally cleverly. I think it is only my obstinate optimism that keeps me convinced that I will not always have to work this way. Sure, I'll put in my years as an CAD-monkey, but that is not the end-game. I will get to design how I want to design. I will work in pencil and ink and charcoal and watercolor and trace paper and vellum! I will draw on yellow trace paper, and on vellum, and on heavy Stonehenge, and I will wad it up or tear it in half when I completely botch it up! I will spend all night drafting with a parallel bar, 'til my eyes burn and my hand shakes! And I will be happy!
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