​Hi Reader, -- David here from SketchLikeAnArchitect.com​

I’ll be honest here (as always) - this year flew by much quicker than I expected and my gut feeling tells me that not that much actually got done.

But while digging into my “self-coaching” notes and calendar events, I’m genuinely surprised to realize how wrong I am…

Let’s unfold the more objective truth in this final recap of the most significant things that happened under the Sketch Like an Architect project in 2023.

Quick personal note (and arguably the most important change in my life) - right in January, our family grew as we welcomed our second kid to this world :)

Now to the rest of the things, roughly in chronological order:

📚 New products created & launched this year

New book illustrations/features

• ​TinyHouse by ArchiZoom (czech only) - I've illustrated 30 isometric drawings to scale of the best Tiny House designs in the Czech Republic and Slovakia
• ​Drawing Attention: Architecture in the Age of Social Media by Hamza Shaikh and collective, RIBA publishing, where I'm featured among other influential architects & designers

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​Big update of the first, best-selling PDF Handbook Sketch Like an Architect​

• updated with 36 new pages on perspectice, shading in perspective, 1- and 2-point perspective examples of both interior and exterior spaces, step-by-step tutorials, and more!
• Also created a Spanish translation which should be released next year.

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​Procreate Sketching Brushes​

• It started simply with me wanting to sketch in Procreate on iPad just like I do on paper. But I've never been really happy with the brushes I found online (both free & paid).
• So with every new project or commissioned illustration, I slowly started creating my own brushes that fit my needs and mimic the real-life tools like pencils, pens, markers or watercolor.
• After 3 years in the making, there's now my brushset with 20+ custom Procreate brushes available to everyone.

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​New BONUS training to the Draw Famous Buildings course​

• On top of the core 10 draw-along videos with famous buildings, there's now a brand-new bonus training, where you’ll learn:
  • 5 Practical Benefits of Digitizing Your Paper Sketches
  • 3 Ways of doing so + What to avoid
  • Detailed video walkthroughs & downloadable resources for post-processing in
    • Morpholio Trace on iPad
    • Procreate on iPad
    • Photoshop on PC/Mac

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​Perspective Drawing Made Easy​

• What started as a highly-requested LIVE training at first, got upgraded to a higher production quality pre-recorded course with 32 mini-lessons on perspective drawing, sketching from imagination, composition and more…

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LIVE In-person Workshops for Interior Designers

• In autumn, I started hosting full-day courses on traditional and digital sketching for interior designers in collaboration with Ambience Design, an interior design studio based in Prague.
• Check out these two videos from the workshops
  • ​Video from course 1​
  • ​Video from course 2​

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​Sketching Retreat 2023​

• Sketching Retreat is a free 6-day event with 40+ pre-recorded workshops on architectural sketching from your favourite instructors
• This is THE BIGGEST event of the year for me which I usually start working on 3 months prior to the actual event.
• This year was the 4th annual event, with the highest number of instructors (42) as well as attendees (18,000+)
• The Free event ended however the All-access-pass is still available
  • use the code XMAS20 to get 20% discount

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​1-on-1 trainings​

• While I can only work with so many people 1-on-1, it’s very rewarding to talk to brilliant minds and help them fast-track their progress, usually with switching from traditional to digital sketching on iPad
• 👉 If you’d appreciate 1-on-1 support to get a good start to the year, simply reply to this email and let me know more about you! ​(I have only 1-2 slots available for the next couple months.)

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​New Freebies​

• ​Architecture+Concept Development​ in Procreate on iPad​
  • incl. a video walkthrough and free downloadable Procreate & Sketchup files

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• ​1-Point Interior Perspective Funsheets for Color Marker Practice​
  • incl. the tools I use, color palette template, step-by-step perspective tutorial, and final linework for practicing

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⚠️ Things I did not accomplish but wanted to

• Looong over-due website update​ is still unchecked on my to-do list which pains me a little. Big “elephant”, completely within my control, just too overwhelming and not urgent enough for me to actually act on it.
• Focus on Youtube - another "slow-burn", long-term important (aka not urgent) worthwile endeavour that didn't get as much attention as I'd like to. Still made some progress tho...

📈 Investments in business or myself

I still believe that investing in myself is the best kind of investment I can make and improving the SLAA is a part of it, to create even better educational experiences for you.

• Marketing Website Audit (£5,000 GBP)
  • At the beginning of this year, I hired a great UK-based marketing agency to take a proper look at my website, as well as brand positioning, customer avatars, competition, and much much more.
• B-School by Marie Forleo ($2,500 USD)
  • One of the best(-known) business trainings from someone who achieved so much. I'm still going through it but it's wide-ranging, in-depth, and definitely worth the investment.
• LifeBook program on MindValley + Membership ($600 USD)
  • After a thousandth shallow productivity hack or time-saving Notion template, trying to improve my life, I've come to realize that nothing solid will come from the outside. Everything needs to start from within. This program seems to help with it a lot.
• Paid Advertising Agency ($10,000 USD)
  • Finally dipping my toes into the waters of paid ads and working with a number of very experienced guys to start this off on the right foot. #exciting-but-scary

​#️⃣ Community Growth in 2023

• reached 30k subs on Youtube + reached 1 million views​
• 243k fans on Instagram​
• 52k+ readers of this email newsletter
• 20,755 new students/customers/clients

❓ What’s coming in 2024?

Glad you asked! There are a few things lined up - some of which I've already teased in the last free LIVE workshop of the year.

But as always - Sketch Like an Architect is a community-driven project so I always love to hear from you!

What is the #01 thing you'd like to see next from the SLAA?

Hit reply and let me know, thanks a ton in advance!

Lastly, I want to sincerely wish you the very best in 2024, hoping you win in any and every area of life you choose to focus on!

David Drazil​
​Architect | Content Creator | Author
​Start Here | ​YouTube | Order My Books | For Beginners | For Advanced​

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PS. If you fancy any of the things mentioned above, don't forget to use the code XMAS20 for subscriber-exclusive 20% discount. The code expires on Dec 31st, 11:55 PM Prague time.