This is my attempt at drawing St Paul’s Cathedral (I’m a 16 y/o aspiring architect). Any Compliments or Criticisms would be appreciated! [practice] : architecture

I suggest you try actually free-handing your next drawing. Tracing a photograph can have some worth because you get a feel for the sometimes weird geometries of perspective, but nothing more than that. Your lines are very imprecise, wobbly and blurry on closer inspection. Also try not to cut off the foreground, its where the drawing gets most difficult perspective-wise because of the steep angle and you still have to get the lines right where the building meets the ground.

The whole “Aspiring Architect” thing: dont try to get positive, meaningless feedback from a freaking subreddit (however highly esteemed) to inform your career choice by posting a fake free-hand drawing. There’s multiple things wrong with that. If that’s what it takes for you to feel you might be able to work in Architecture, don’t even start.

I’m in my 2nd year of the Masters course in Vienna. I’ve never been great at free-hand drawing, but I still can say that I feel confident in my abilities as an aspiring architect at this point. Being able to draw accurate spatial perspectives takes some talent, but it’s also very much a skill that can be trained. Working in architecture takes multiple forms of creativity, being able to sketch well is just one small aspect. In fact, I know several people who started in Architecture because they could draw well, but are totally lost when it comes to conceive an architectural structure. I just finished a semester project where I had to design dense housing structures at a newly-formed mobility hub in Vienna. I aced that course, my presentation was on a high level visually, and free-handing only ever came up when I was trying to work out different aspects of the design for myself.

My point is, free-handing is just one tool in Architecture, and most often, it’s used informally, maybe just for oneself, and the artistic quality is secondary.

If you can absolutely not draw spacially at all, maybe that’s an indicator that the field isnt for you, but being or not being able to make artistic renderings of St. Pauls is not a viable factor on which to base your decision to study or ditch Architecture.

It may help to ask a peer that does creative work what impression they have of you. I had some talks with my Arts teacher in high school who used to work in stage design and create glass windows for churches, and he encouraged me to pursue something creative, because he said he saw a mix of creativity and being able to work practically/figure out practical problems. That gave me the courage I needed to get into Architecture even though everybody was saying the pay is shit, the hours are long and there are few jobs^^