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Using real working drawings from a 50 year career, Ron Slade shows how drawing remains at the heart of the design process in the everyday working life of engineers and architects. The book explains simple techniques that can be learnt and used to enhance any professional’s natural ability. Using over 180 categorised examples it demonstrates that drawing remains the fastest, clearest and most effective means of design communication. Unlike many other books on drawing in the construction industry, this book is ‘engineer led’ and science oriented but effectively shows that there is a close affinity between the working methods of architects and engineers.

A young art student enlists as a combat engineer in World War One. He draws what he sees in a number of canvas-bound sketchbooks which he carries in his helmet. From the time he enters training camp, throughout many battles and until he returns to the U.S. after the Armistice, he is constantly drawing whatever is around him. Once he is home, he returns to art school and his sketchbooks are put away. Ninety years later, his son runs across them in his attic. The Lost Sketchbooks is the book that tells the story of his experiences in The Great War and finally shares his marvelous artwork with the world.