New at Design

Hello,

I am new in design area and want to ask a question. I mostly see designs drawn as real as they are photos.
What softwares do designers use at their drawings? What do you suggest me to improve my sketching skills?

Drawings or renderings? I haven’t seen many id sketches that look realistic. I think most people are using Wacom tablets with Sketchbook, Photoshop or Painter to do digital sketches. Illustrator could also be used to create renders but not with a tablet. For CAD renders, most people here are probably using Rhino and Solidworks with a renderer of choice, Vray, Keyshot, Maxwell, etc.

Great examples of ID sketching can be found here in these sketch forums! Serach through them for sketch tutorials and browse through the doodling thread (found here: doodling) to see good examples of design sketching. These sketches will range from quick sketches all the way to digital sketch renderings done in Photoshop or sketchbook pro.

The best way to get better at sketching is to sketch. I’m not sure what your sketching skills are like but assuming you have no prior experience in sketching you’ll want to start with the basics. Sketch basic shapes in perspective and focus on correct perspective and line quality. Draw some cubes, cones, and cylinders to learn how to draw in perspective. Don’t be afraid to draw in the horizon line and vanishing points in order to get your perspective right (exercises like this: http://attachments.conceptart.org/forums/attachment.php?attachmentid=689189&d=1244128259). Most products derive from these basic shapes so learning to draw them correctly is important. Also focus on make single, confident strokes instead of short “sketchy” ones. If you want to check out some books this one is pretty good: Amazon.com.

Once you’ve gotten more comfortable with drawing basic stuff in perspective start with basic products like printers, toasters, microwaves. Things that are simple shapes. Once you are comfortable with simple products, move on to more complex ones.

To get feedback post them in the sketch forums! Don’t be afraid to post stuff it can be one of the best ways to learn. Even if you think your sketch is bad it can benefit from a little constructive feedback. Learning what things you are doing wrong prevents bad habits from forming and getting a few compliments on what you’re doing well helps a lot with confidence.

Sorry this post was so long, hopefully it makes sense to you and helps you get started.