Freehand drawing is the basis for many kinds of artistic work: painting, sculpture and also architecture. It includes the sketch, a rapidly produced drawing in which depicting the typical characteristic is often more important than reproducing individual qualities and which, even more so than the drawing, aims at achieving a maximum of expression and power with little expenditure of technique and material. The drawing therefore always offers more information than the sketch.

Freehand sketching and drawing is generally used during the early stages of an architectural design, to depict ideas or concepts or to clarify basic questions about the form, construction or urban situation of a building. Sketches and drawings made at this phase can provide the basis for architectural models or technical drawings, which then make the design more concrete. They can also be made with rulers and stencils, if they have a design character.

Sketches and drawings are always a highly individual mirror as the skilled hand, raw force and tenacious impatience can be read from them, telling us much about how they were made and the particular nature of the author. In contrast to photography they are made gradually and thus interact with the person who produces them, who is in permanent visual contact with what he or she has already put on paper.