Winner, Non-professional

The winning sketch by a nonprofessional was drawn by Brian Droste, 25, an intern at the firm Wight & Company. While enrolled in the five-year architecture program at Notre Dame, Droste studied in Rome, where a professor introduced him to light-and-shadow drawing studies, the inspiration for his sketch. Droste says he has always been fascinated by the work of architect Bertrand Goldberg, and his Marina City (1964) in particular, because of the way light bounces across the buildings, emphasizing petal-like forms. Droste completed his sketch in about 10 minutes using a fountain pen. “The pen bleeds so quickly—it makes you go so much faster,“ he says. “You have to commit and not go back, almost like a watercolor.”

View the Cocktail Napkin Sketch Contest main page.