Feedback on Sketching

Hello,

I would really appreciate some feedback on my sketching and ideation.
These are from an internship I did earlier this year, so hopefully they show a progression.

Thanks










That’s an interesting style you’ve got there!

Your sketches aren’t very “dynamic”, which is in a way refreshing. Don’t take this as a criticism, because it isn’t meant as one.

The sketches show a good understanding of perspective, the physical properties and behaviour of materials, thought towards manufacture and assembly and written thoughts to aid the viewer.

Some of the boards could do with being laid-out a bit better, but you’ve shown you can do this in others.

I always try and remember that a good drawing doesn’t equal a good design, and vice-versa. While these drawings don’t jump at me with a “wow”, I’ve pictured the end result you’re developing and I like it!

I like the style, it has a personality and character. I see the drawings you posted as idea diagrams. You are communicating a method of construction and an aesthetic potential. The aesthetic exploration is more limited in these drawings, the communication of the idea is quite clear.

The drawings have a feel like designer sketches of classic designers I have seen printed in books, as if not trying to prove or sell anything, just communicate with a group that already understand the idea.

Thank you for the feedback.

Do you mean ‘static’ as being flat, maybe a little boring? or that they haven’t been polished up to a presentation standard?

You are right about the layout, they are as I drew them (except for a little cropping to remove irrelevant notes, like phone numbers I scribbled down). I see ideation sketches in books like Design Secrets: Products and they are so detailed and so clean, I think they must have been photoshopped together, but then I see how good some people are at sketching and rendering and thats where I want to be (like this).

I struggle with getting down quickly my ideas onto paper, so the exploration is ahead of my pen. When I come back to some sketches, I sometimes have trouble working out what I meant, so I do annotate and write down explanations. I want to get to the stage that I can present a sketch quickly that speaks for itself, without having to explain it.

Both your replies made my day. Thanks again for taking the time.

I think these are good “working” sketches, meant for developing an idea and communicating with other designers on the team, but I wouldn’t consider them anywhere near client facing, and clients like to see sketches, which can be particularly usefull get early alignment on an idea befor lots of hours are invested in CAD (particularly for somethin as complex as task chair).

I’d like to see you sketch functionally with color to show how parts come together and work together.

I’d also like to see you explore individual ideas more formally with rigor. IE this concept is about “X” and show how all parts of the design relate to that.

Hi Yo,

Thanks for the feedback.

I’m nervous about applying colour, as strange as that sounds. I want to get the communication of ideas down better and faster, then approach rendering, but for example looking at what works on the OHDC ‘Super Soaker’ topic (esp. compared to my entry), I really need to use colour.

I just received a copy of “Sketching: The Basics” to help improve my sketching.

Is it better to to and get everything down as a 3D sketch, or work from 2-D and then move onto a say 3/4 view? I really like Waikit’s approach.

For me it clicked when i stopped rendering, and I started sketching with color. A nice safety net is an old fashioned photocopier. Get a rough sketch down, photocopy it and start throwing color down and then work more line weight in. Put away polish and focus on communication of the idea