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Guided Sketching with Narinder Sagoo

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Monday 17 May 2021

“I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies” Le Corbusier.

The Club held an on-line sketching evening on the 10th of May 2021. Our host was Narinder Sagoo, a member of the Club and a Senior Partner at Foster and Partners where he leads the Design Communications Team.

Narinder studied architecture at Leeds and the Bartlett and joined Fosters in 1996, he works closely with Norman and gave us a fascinating insight into the creative processes of the practice. Drawing is at the very heart of it, Norman Foster is a brilliant draughtsman himself, and he encourages drawing and sketching throughout the design process.

After showing some examples of his own work and method, Narinder lead the attendees through a series of exercises that explored different aspects of freehand sketching, from loosening up scribbles, to portraits, landscapes and finally works from memory.

Using an iPad and Procreate, Narinder demonstrated how to de-mystify the process and how to get rid of the inhibitions that surround sketching, it was particularly interesting to see the pencil portraits of strangers that he does on his commute to the office. Drawing is both a form of therapy and a form of communication, and as Narinder said it is a “way of listening”.

For all these reasons drawing is a skill that every architect should master, in the age of Teams and Zoom where we spend our time looking at screens, drawing helps us see the world around us.

Below is a selection of works submitted by those who attended the sketch night - click on any of portraits to have have a closer look!

Portraiture

Timo Hädrich by Dennis Austin

Mike Stiff & Sophy Twohig by Dennis Austin

Portrait Study by Anais Blehaut

Untitled I by Anais Blehaut

Untitled II by Anais Blehaut

Untitled III by Anais Blehaut

Timo Hädrich by Anais Blehaut

Untitled by Tchaik Chassay

Untitled by Katherine Chimenes

Timo Hädrich by Richard Coleman

Peter Murray by Ella Denison

Untitled by Ella Denison

John Lyall by Omar Elnagar

Sophy Twohig by Hugo Ennis

Untitled I by Roddy Langmuir

Untitled II by Roddy Langmuir

Untitled III by Roddy Langmuir

Narinder Sagoo by John Lyall

Sophy Twohig by John Lyall

Peter Murray & Mike Stiff by John Lyall

Untitled I by Peter Murray

Untitled II by Peter Murray

Untitled I by Sarah Pellereau

Untitled II by Sarah Pellereau

Narinder Sagoo by Mike Stiff

Mike Stiff by Sophy Twohig

The View From my Window

Dennis Austin

Anais Blehaut

Katherine Chimenes

Sea view by Hugo Ennis

Roddy Langmuir

View from my desk by John Lyall

Sarah Pellereau

Mike Stiff

From a Memory

Tchaik Chassay

Roddy Langmuir

Peter Murray

Sarah Pellereau