Improving my sketching

Hi guys,

I have attached a few shots of some recent sketch work I have completed. I was hoping that some of you might be kind enough to offer some advice and tips as to where I can improve!

I’ve recently set myself the task of at least trying to do one sketch page a day to try and improve my skills!

I look forward to hearing your responses and any form of advice would be deeply appreciated!

Thanks



Rj,

Most of these are looking a bit flat, especially the watches. Realize the close sides of the watches will appear larger than the far sides and the perspective lines should raise your surfaces some to add depth. The second two could benefit from some shadowing and line weight to make them pop more with depth.

Best of luck,
Pb

Cheers for the reply Pb!

What would you suggest is the best way of applying line weight to the sketches? I usually use biro and just keep going over the lines until I get something thicker, but I sometimes find its tends to sometimes lose its shape. Should I use a series of different fine liners instead?

I think your sketching reads well. It’s lacking pop and excitement but they are very clean and legible.

Right now the watches do look flat, but maybe that’s what you’re going for. You can probably do one watch concept per page and explore the hinges, knob, clasps, materials etc. Rather than have 8 different watches on one page, chose one concept and really work it out per page. Detail sketches and slight variations on the bezel shapes, etc.

The earbuds are just that…earbuds. Nice form exploration but no direction or detailing. Can’t really give more feedback.

The electric whisk also looks flat, no shading. The shapes look bloby and the handles too thick. Not a lot of form exploration, they all look blocky. Pay more attention to details; vents, buttons, cord, handle grip, etc.

Seems like you’re exploring without direction. Have you done any mood boards? What stylistic direction are you trying to achieve? Organic, monolithic, geometric, minimal, aggressive, inviting, etc. Chose one of the 3 projects and work through it paying attention to all the details. Maybe if you have some inspirational images we can give you more feedback. Why don’t you do some mood boards for the Electric Whisk and then some sketches that relate to those specific stylistic directions. I think that will give you more inspiration and direction.

Thanks for the comments FH13, much appreciated!

Yes I was going for a slightly thinner design than what would normally be expected from a conventional watch.

Rather than looking at images, I literally sketched these out in a few moments not really focusing on any detail, and just going with what I felt at that time. I was sort of trying to encourage myself to throw my ideas down and not be too scared to sketch!

These have also all been done on pages slightly bigger than A4 (Muji sketch pad, so not sure what the size is exactly!) so I will add that the sketches are quite small on the pages.

With regards to helping the sketches to stand out more with lineweights/shadows, is there any advice you can give me?

Thanks again!!

when I sketch watches, I often thing of the negative space as well, the space the wrist occupies. I feel it helps me thing of the watch as a more three dimensional object. Here is an example.

Rj,

Your line weight can be controlled by simply varying your pen pressure. Maybe the pen you are using doesn’t have good pressure variation?

Try just using a ball point.

-Pb

Thanks yo!

That has certainly helped me think more about sketching watches and to consider more elements of the watch itself.

Yeah I usually use a ball point pen. I’m thinking it might be the paper that these have been sketched on. Its quite thick (Muji sketch book) and so is not as thin as marker paper. I’m assuming and hoping I’ll get a better lineweight by sketching on marker paper.

I have also ordered some Berol Verithin’s (cheaper than Prisma’s) and so I hope to try and start sketching using pencil instead. I’ve been inspired by some of the lineweight that can be achieved by sketching with black pencil. I’ll hopefully post a few sketches next week when they arrive!

Thanks again all for the advice so far!