ID sketching frustrations.

Not to beat a dead horse or play my violin…

I started Industrial Design with little to no concept of sketching. My first sketch (which I still have) was trash…I should upload it sometime just for the laughs. My first Design Visualization class in college I got a C. That was a wake-up call for me, as it was the lowest grade I received in all of my years in schooling. Countless times I doubted, but “by looking at those super amazing digital renderings” I was inspired. I wouldn’t give up.

None of those guys had instagrams when they were born, and none of them could sketch like that either. It takes work.

I’m now sketching for a living and I rely heavily on this skill that I acquired through thousands of hours of learning/copying/practicing.

-Pb

In so many ways I wish i had this opportunity - I have never had a chance to work with any designer who was my sr. except for 6 months. instead of the sketch approach i did the same as you YO but with CAID

About how long did it take you to really dial sketching down?
There are many different sketching styles, so its tough to really put a number on it. However, I started drawing in general at around 10 years old, discovered product design when I was 17 years old, and product design sketching didnt really ‘click’ for me until I was 21 years old… So I would say about 10-11 years before I felt confident with my sketching?

Do you feel like you have to learn to draw each object or can you just draw any object at any time?
There is always going to be a learning curve. You need to study, break things down, and analyze why things look and work a certain way. However, if you know the basic geo forms you will at least have a starting point because even the most complex shapes and objects are simply a combination of basic forms: sphere, cone, cylinder, cube. If you can draw these well and at any angle, youll be able to get the hang of new object quicker than someone who cant draw the basic forms.

Rendering, How long did it take you to learn? Marker? Digital?
Still learning to this day… I’m more confident in sketching than my rendering skills. It really comes down to do you understand how light and shadows work. I guess I still don’t really get it. :confused:

Does anyone else get freaking frustrated on insta by looking at those super amazing digital renderings some godlike automotive designers are producing these days? Seriously.
No not really. I dont get frustrated by other people, I get frustrated when its not working for myself when i’m practicing. But, you need to push through it, the more you dont get something, the more important it is to figure it out before you move onto something more difficult. Tons of practice makes perfect.

Rate the importance each, Digital and Manual Sketching. Which do you find more difficult?
Honestly, I think they are equally important. But its really less about the medium and more about do you just know how to draw/sketch? Once you know how to sketch, the only real difference between the two, is learning the medium. In manual sketching, learning how different pencils and pens behave and how to best utilize its perks. With digital, learning the various softwares you want to draw in, their pros and cons, what the various tools do, etc. The difficulty between digital and manual sketches is in learning the tools. If you don’t understand the basics of drawing, sketching, perspective, and rendering… your sketching is going to be difficult and crappy no matter which medium you use. :wink:

I love this thread.

I often find myself sitting down with the intention to practice sketching, but then decide that I just need to take a “quick look” online for inspiration on things to draw. An hour later, I realize that I just spent the entire time I had alotted for practice browsing other people’s portfolios. This is when I get those feelings of frustration. The internet makes it seem like everyone else in the world but you is putting out all of this really amazing work and it’s really easy to get discouraged.

However, you don’t get to see all of the other work/practice that happened before the designer posted their ten best sketches online. I find it really helpful to hear these real life anecdotes about how people spent periods of their lives sketching 30, 40, or 50 hours a week, which practice techniques they found most effective, etc… no wonder their sketches are awesome! This kind of stuff really helps me put my sketching ability into perspective, and set more reasonable goals for improving in the amount of time that I have to practice.

So… thanks to sketchie105 for asking great questions, and to the awesome Core77 community for answering honestly!

“Does anyone else get freaking frustrated on insta by looking at those super amazing digital renderings some godlike automotive designers are producing these days?”

Don’t look at insta. Discontent, misery, and unhappiness are the common reactions when comparing your own work (or life) to carefully curated and overly optimistic social media posts.

I’ve always been able to draw a little bit, and honestly have been a little lazy with putting in the extra work to get really good, because I was always able to get by. Now I’m trying to put in the work and discipline on the digital side. You can just ‘break’ so many rules on digital sketching, its liberating and scary.

In a way, me too. I’ve always been able to sketch pretty freely, but my car sketches were lazy. I made a commitment to get really good at car sketching over the last 12 months. I think the differences have been pretty dramatic… but it takes commitment. In the past I’d just do a car doodle and be happy with it. Now I doodle, I iterate, I overlay 5 times, I start over again, I take a break for a day and come back to it… it is more of a labor, but I’m happier with the result.

This has been so helpful. I feel, for me, there has been so many stigmas and insecurities about not being adequate at design sketching that it really inhibited my ability to understand that sketching is a craft that demands mastery.

Cheers, to all.

I think that’s the key, not just ‘‘sketching’’ but doing it with a purpose. Taking a bit of time, analyze the result and refine it. Just sketching with a purpose will improve your skills, but I think doing it this way you’ll also improve at designing.

At our company we have a good balance between sketching/cad/prototyping, definitely you can see how your skills improve on all levels. I particularly enjoy sketching the most, so I try to spend some time sketching at home as well. For me the key is finding a sketch I really like on tumblr or pinterest and trying to replicate that style. Cars and shoes are fun to sketch because you can do pretty much whatever you want and there are tons of styles and examples out there.

About how long did it take you to really dial sketching down?
For me it is different because I had always been drawing as a kid, and I intuitively started rendering objects in various materials.
So I had an advantage. To turn that into a professional ability to create design concept sketches using digital media I would say has taken me about 500 hours. Practice, repetition and refining your imagination skills are key.

Do you feel like you have to learn to draw each object or can you just draw any object at any time?
It is rather the aesthetic qualities I have to learn for new projects. For very organic, complex design languages it takes me some time to get a grip on how they ‘work’ spatially. When you have mastered enough sketching ingredients it allows you in the end to draw anything.

Rendering, How long did it take you to learn? Marker? Digital?
I still haven’t mastered marker rendering very well as I stepped to digital quite soon, driven by the company I was working at. And I am fine with that even though for some sketches markers work much nicer. Learning to decently render shadows and materials as well as developing my own style has taken about 200 hours.

Does anyone else get freaking frustrated on insta by looking at those super amazing digital renderings some godlike automotive designers are producing these days? Seriously.
I enjoy looking at those a lot and learn from them. I am also aware of the pitfall of overrendering or overdesigning - in the end it is about the quality of the entire project and sketching is only one way of developing a design.

Rate the importance each, Digital and Manual Sketching. Which do you find more difficult?

Does anyone have recommendations of Instagram accounts to follow that have great ID sketches? Perhaps some of the g0d-like and some of the more down to earth.

Lots of good posts. It boils down to drawing every day. Yo mentioned underlays and overlays on the previous page. Tracing over your own work, or a CAD image or a picture is always good. The more you draw the better. Ask for people to look at your work…most are happy to give you feedback. Follow people on Instagram. I have learned/been inspired all the time from people I follow.

People ask me how I sketch on Canson/construction paper in pen without an underlay…the answer is simple, I have done tons and tons of underlays.

I am also a believer in CAD and Sketching as partners. Each pushes the other and helps improve the “other side of the coin”.

@ceelee Here are some super sick insta accounts that I follow.

@marc_mpv
@mxrxvs
@blaster701
@reid.schlegel
@hudsonriodesign
@sketchfresh
@sketchpowers
@gaetano_crispi
@abidurchowdhury
@soyalcreative
@thesketchmonkey
@d2lo
@cardesigndaily
@alferezdesign


Just some… Literally could go all day. Great inspiration from the above.

Cheers

Sketch happiness average. About what percentage of your completed sketches do you find successful?

Open to all.

Cheers

[ Deleted ]

Lol. Well put.

dude, i just started looking for all those acounts and then realize that, minus 2 or 3, i follow all of them haha! How is your sketch now? Did you evolve like you expected?

Another good one:
http://www.simkom.com/sketchsite/

About how long did it take you to really dial sketching down?
When I got to university it felt like everybody could sketch… except me. Most people had done art, or a foundation year before going to university… I hadn’t. I still remember really vividly the one (one of the very few) tutorials we had on sketching, where we had rulers and erasers taken off us, and spent ages sketching a matchbox, only to be told to screw up the sketch and throw it in the bin. It felt a bit harsh at the time, but it was the beginning of understanding that a sketch isn’t always meant to be a masterpiece. It took me ages to catch up, and hours of practice and tips from others. I’m not really sure I’ve dialled sketching down, but for me the Sharpie was a revelation, it lets me get the idea down, without being too prescious about the sketch itself, and this can be really important. I tend to use sketching as a form of communication, so the Sharpie is my favourite tool!

Do you feel like you have to learn to draw each object or can you just draw any object at any time?
I don’t think you can learn to draw everything… I think as soon as you develop a style (which took me a long while, but when somebody commented on me having a unique style I was pretty chuffed!), and a favourite perspective, you can draw most objects. Then move from there with perspectives and styles that suit different products (although I’ve found it difficult to shake off that style I spent so long trying to find…!)

Rendering, How long did it take you to learn? Marker? Digital?
This is probably my weakest suit. I’m still working on establishing a render style that doesn’t take me the whole day!

Does anyone else get freaking frustrated on insta by looking at those super amazing digital renderings some godlike automotive designers are producing these days? Seriously.
I love seeing what other people are up to, it’s great to see how people approach things differently, I agree though, it can be frustrating when you can’t replicate it. But you never stop learning!!

Rate the importance each, Digital and Manual Sketching. Which do you find more difficult?
I think they all have their own importance, it depends what you’re using it for, none are more or less important than the others, it’s all about what works for you. For me, it’s ideas with a Sharpie, a pile of A3 paper and headphones; then A Wacom and Sketchbook pro, or an iPad and Procreate for something more polished, more pitch presentation level. I also love digital sketching to overlay products, build CAD, sketch over the top of it to get the look / feel right, then take it back in to CAD, it helps me think.

I copied my reply on another topic (analog vs digital) because it’s also relevant for you.

to set the context:
23 years independent industrial designer (>100 clients), part-time teacher at UGent university in industrial design and design communication.
sketching and rendering: 80% digital 20% analog
personal doodling is often done on a scrap piece of paper using the nearest ballpoint I can find. Although I’m picky on the flow of the ink (more expensive doesn’t mean better here).
Client projects almost always start of digital right away. For that I use mobile and desktop solutions.
Mobile: Ipad pro + pencil + concepts and procreate and sometimes sketchbook pro when I need guides like symmetry. Macbook Pro with wacom intuous medium on mischief, Ps, Sketchbook Pro
Desktop: Macbook pro with wacom cintiq 27"

I never scan analog sketches anymore to enhance them digitally. Only to archive them. I graduated in 92’ (yes) in a period when digital sketching was practically non existing. I mastered the art of using markers but since I discovered wacom in 1999 I hardly touched a marker since.

A big issue for me is my workflow. Sitting in a meeting sketching on the Ipad pro, sharing that screen to a bigger screen really facilitates the decision process. If there is a physical sample or mock-up on the table it’s so easy to take a picture from one of the drawing apps and draw over a dimmed layer. Or if a 3D model exists of the basic shape or components that need to be integrated I load that model into a 3D viewer, take a screenshot and use that as layer. It’s all about efficiency and powerful communication. As the designer at the table it’s your job to make sure everybody understands.
To do that on the spot in a qualitative way you need self-confidence. That comes from skill. To get there you need to practise (a lot).
I my ID classes the students that excel are the ones that sketch all the time. To master a tool you need to spend time on it. What’s very important as a designer or creative, is that the tool doesn’t slow down the flow. If I need to explore loads of options in a design (technical or styling) I always use a tool with an infinite canvas like concepts on ipad or mischief on desktop. It allows you to continue working in all directions without the need to create a new document for every idea. You also keep track of your thinking process. That’s also a good communication tool.

I don’t care what tool is being used by others. The efficiency and result are more important. As an ID you need to find a good balance between efficiency, communication value and artistic value. The last one should be ok and nice to look at because it can evoke emotions, but not at a cost. For instance using a strong perspective can be very dynamic and can look sporty and aggressive, but if only a really trained eye of a designer can imagine how the product really looks like, you’re off limits.

to end a note on the correctness of the visuals. Train yourself and be very critical on proportions and perspective. I often see presentations with several sketches of the same concept on one page actually showing different products. If you draw multiple viewing angles of one product it should really keep the same proportions.

success and have fun!

Nice to see one of my students on that list @hudsonriodesign. He had skills before me though, good natural talent.