Core77

[cdesign]

Looking to improve my sketching. Here are some sketch pages I've done for projects. I'm not entirely sure I've found my identity or "style" for my sketches, any and all advice appreciated!

Hope to update this thread to catalogue my journey for others to learn from as well.

[ralphzoontjens]

I remember that sculpture from your portfolio.

These are good sketches. You can give them more character by varying line widths and letting the lines be a bit looser, for example extending beyond the products and making lines thicker at points closer to the viewpoint. For your identity also think about colors, you use a lot of pure black but it can also be something else, you can even have bright red drop shadows. Look at automotive sketches for examples. Overall your pages are very crowded, think about presentation and how your sketch panels would go at the side of your design story.

[gmay3able]

Hey cdegisn really nice sketches, I especially liked the black and white earbud sketches and your treatment of shadows on these! Looks like you have great digital sketching style in both line weight and rendering. I'm looking forward to seeing your thread develop!

Would you be up to try some analog sketches? I have been switching between digital and analog sketching and I'm finding that things in one medium are challenging in the other medium and they're great complements to improve your sketching as a whole. Maybe you could try posting some of those!

[cdesign]

I remember that sculpture from your portfolio.

These are good sketches. You can give them more character by varying line widths and letting the lines be a bit looser, for example extending beyond the products and making lines thicker at points closer to the viewpoint. For your identity also think about colors, you use a lot of pure black but it can also be something else, you can even have bright red drop shadows. Look at automotive sketches for examples. Overall your pages are very crowded, think about presentation and how your sketch panels would go at the side of your design story.

Thank you for the critique. I like the idea of using different colors instead of blacks. I'm going to give that a try and post some here soon.

Hey cdegisn really nice sketches, I especially liked the black and white earbud sketches and your treatment of shadows on these! Looks like you have great digital sketching style in both line weight and rendering. I'm looking forward to seeing your thread develop!

Would you be up to try some analog sketches? I have been switching between digital and analog sketching and I'm finding that things in one medium are challenging in the other medium and they're great complements to improve your sketching as a whole. Maybe you could try posting some of those!

Those earbud sketches are my favorite too!

You know, analog sketches really scare me, I'm just so inconsistent. Some days I can crank out beautiful sketches that have a lot of character and such in short amounts of time, other times I can't do anything so I turn to digital sketches. I just ordered some copics, for this thread I'm going to give analog another shot. Thanks!

[yo]

One thing hat I like that I'm seeing here is the volume of sketching. This is the right amount to be going on a regular basis if you want to improve. When I fgraduated college and got my first job at a design consulting studio my target was to sketch 8 client ready concepts per day. I was working a 10 hour day so a little less than one client ready idea sketched well enough that a client could get excited by it every hour.... I did that most days for about 4 years. The first couple of years I couldn't do it. Some days I would sketch 15 sketches per day but end up with 1 or none that were good enough in both concept and execution to show a client. By the 4th year I was doing 10-12 per day and working with CAD modelers on executions client down selects.... my point is it takes time, commitment, and a certain level of sheer volume to get there.

[cdesign]

One thing hat I like that I'm seeing here is the volume of sketching. This is the right amount to be going on a regular basis if you want to improve. When I fgraduated college and got my first job at a design consulting studio my target was to sketch 8 client ready concepts per day. I was working a 10 hour day so a little less than one client ready idea sketched well enough that a client could get excited by it every hour.... I did that most days for about 4 years. The first couple of years I couldn't do it. Some days I would sketch 15 sketches per day but end up with 1 or none that were good enough in both concept and execution to show a client. By the 4th year I was doing 10-12 per day and working with CAD modelers on executions client down selects.... my point is it takes time, commitment, and a certain level of sheer volume to get there.

Thank you for the insight. Hope to see an improvement with this thread, more content coming soon.

[cdesign]

I've been sketching everyday, but my perfectionist attitude has really hurt me from getting feedback from others. Most of my sketches end up crumbled up in the corner. I decided I am going to post something close to everyday. It's the only way I'm going to get better.

First developmental freehand sketches in awhile. Anything more than ideating I go for digital to keep it clean and neat, I want to try to get great at freehand. 45 minute sketches cylindrical form development.

[yo]

I agree, just force yourself to post. Think of it as a vial record of your improvement. The purpose is not to be perfect, but to track your progress!

[gmay3able]

Great first analog sketch post! Totally agree with Michael, just keep practicing and posting to build up the muscle memory. Don't be afraid to take a stab at a sketch and then fix it with an overlaid sheet on top of your first sketch.

When I'm frustrated, it has always helped me to go back to straight line exercises and ellipse exercises. Warming up with a few sheets of each before a sketch helps a bunch too. Sketching a bunch of basic solids like cubes and cylinders is also good exercise. Since you're just getting back into analog, you could try switching back and forth between exercises (25 or more sheets front and back) and the next day a few sheets of concepts, setting a pace that challenges you but is realistic. Also, maybe you could post your first sheet and last sheet of exercises to see how you progressed in one day! Just some ideas.

Keep it up!

[cdesign]

Best (free) way to scan in drawings?

[KenoLeon]

Dropbox on iphone or android, takes about 1 second and it's free:

This is from a computer screen though

[ralphzoontjens]

That is not bad but there is only one good way, just buy an all-in-one laser copier with ADF scanner.

C, doing more and more of these sketches is the best way to get it all in your fingers. Keep learning from every sketch, never let it become routine. Mainly what I would advise now is that you work on the communicative value of your sketches, not just seeing them as tools to explore design but as part of a dialogue between all project's stakeholders. One thing is composition - pre-plan your sketch board to some extent, use groupings, bounding ellipses, some idea for the background, places for arrows and text depending on what you want to communicate.

Also experiment more with variations in perspective, this is all about what the sketch has to communicate.

[yo]

a handheld scanner is $75 bucks.

https://www.amazon.com/Brother-DS-620-M ... le+scanner

Invest.

[KenoLeon]

Yes we sell scanners

Mine is a wand type which I prefer because you can scan odd paper sizes like butcher paper rolls in one go (about $60), It's also super convenient for scanning books:

https://www.amazon.com/VuPoint-Solution ... nd+scanner