TUTORIAL >>> A quick tutorial (verithin and Marker)

Awesome thanks for posting this.

That’s a good morning wake-up call for ya!


All in all, the techniques involved here have only one purpose, that is to convey the design the clearest way I can. Everyone will have different techniques using different mediums and styles, so I think as long as if the sketch can clearly illustrate the designer’s intent, it’s a good sketch.

Thanks everyone!

I totally agree. I’ll discuss this with the other moderators.

How long did it take you for each step? That will also help people when trying to benchmark their results.

A page like that usually takes me under an hour. When I was quicker, with less attention on the “neatness”, I can manage one in 45min. We used to have to do 20 of these for each studio class back in college per week. 3 studios means 60 pages a week.

Also, smaller pages does not mean less time. It all depends on how much detail you want to include.

It seems like you have a very smooth transition in the grey area. You said you only used markers for the grey, is that right? So my question is, how do you get such a smooth transition in the grey?

Tria’s Letraset marker pads have a layer of plastic film behind them, which means you can “puddle” up the ink. I would say it’s practice and getting the feel of it. You may take a lot more ink to get a nice blend at first, but when you are familiar with the medium, you will know how to blend 2 shades with the fewest additional strokes.

I would also say that all of my marker nibs are pretty worn and soft, therefore they don’t create very distinct stroke edges unlike new,hard nibs. That’s the proof of experience! :stuck_out_tongue:

VERY NICE page MC. This is a design drawing. It accurately depicts the function, how the product looks, how it might work and how it may be built. You could show that to a room full of designers, marketers, and engineers and talk through how to make this thing. A great example.

Thanks for the tips Cow. I think I couldn’t get a good transition in my greys because half my markers were drying up. I replaced them and tried some experiments, it works well. I forgot the joy of markers, normally I just use a 1 or 2 grey for a bit of shading on a thumbnail.

Also, I forgot about verithins. I never really used them in school, but now I’m wondering why. Duh.

can we sticky this so it doesnt get lost?

great tutorial cow.

Wow, first time I saw this!!
Awesome drawings and explanation!

-J->

Another tip:

My professor used to say, include call-outs even at places where there really doesn’t need explanation, because call-outs make you sketch look more intelligent than it is, and it’s not like anyone’s really going to read them.

To me, everything on the sketch page is a graphic element, like arrows and call-outs. Therefore, I try to be strategic about where I place them to create a good composition flow. Of course, this will also mean you have to plan your sketches so that you leave the right spaces for your call outs.

by call outs do u mean annotations?

yes

One of my professors used to say they “add visual texture”… not really sure what that means, but they do seem to focus the non design types on the important parts of an idea sketch.

TUTORIAL SECTION!!! ALL IN AGREEMENT SAY AYE!

This is a great marker tutorial, but I am confused as to why this isn’t done digitally the whole way through (I’m really new to ID, so please forgive me if the question seems a bit naive). I love the look of a piece completed with traditional media, but only on the original canvas.

Great! There is definitely some pointers I never thought of.

Really nice work. Super clean. I must say however, I find it difficult to believe this was done in 1 hour. Props anyway and thanks for the tutorial.

I know this is an old post, Molested Cow, but what color pencil did you use for contrast/shadow in your tutorial? Do you use just a regular black Prismacolor for shading over the green marker, for example, or do you use a darker shade of green pencil for shading? I have tried both methods as I practice marker rendering (which I normally hate, compared to digital rendering) but with the black, my rendering examples appear a bit muddy but maybe that’s what’s expected, since it’s not realism we are after in marker renderings, right?

Thanks much. I love your tutorial!