How did they do it?

Before there was air conditioning, how did architects and artists work when the paper got so soggy with humidity that it would tear under a pencil point? Not to mention sweat dripping onto their work. I'm not a hot weather guy. It was all I could do to sit out on the front steps to sketch a quick image of my old Saab 99 before 7:00 this morning, and it wasn't skin poachingly hot yet. My watercolor pencils were actually dissolving onto the paper, which was like a damp blotter. I'll revise this post later when I have something more to say than spluttering about the sticky weather.

my no air conditioning 1978 Saab 99GL on a subtropical morning. 8 1/4 x 11 9/16, watercolor pencil