Yo: sketch videos

Sometimes after a long day of meetings and intense design for production decisions I like to blow off a little creative steam with a sharpie sketch. Tonight was one of those nights. The reason I like doing these with a sharpie is it forces me to have bold and have fun. The drawing tool forces me to be in the moment and not try so hard to control everything.The medium forces commitment. In this sketch notice how I’m drawing my lines so quickly that the sharpie can’t replenish ink in the nib fast enough. This is how I get those lines that seem to grate out and get thin and faded at the end. Next time you are feeling creatively stuck take a shot at a Sharpie. Remember, the purpose is not to create a beautiful sketch, it is to shake you up.

Note: this sketch took 4:50 in real time.

I typically focus on looser sketches on this channel for a few key reasons. First because I think rapid visualization is an amazing tool as a designer to both collaborate and influence in real time. Second because they are fun to do. But there are times when a 20 minute sketch just won’t do and yet moving to CAD would be too much. This is a quick example of my typical workflow on a more long-form render. This entire process takes about 4 hours, so it isn’t quick, but the result is something a bit more impactful. In the future I’ll do a one of these where I really break down the steps, but for now, this is how I do it:

  1. SKETCH: This can be by hand or digitally in AutoDesk Sketchbook or Photoshop. The important thing here is to get the overall design down. This particular rough sketch took 6 underlays to get to this point!

  2. SHAPE: Either in Illustrator, or Photoshop, or Sketchbook, I block in the shapes in just grey forms. Here I am really paying attention to the silhouette, the proportion, the snap of the lines. Spending time here ensures you won’t be wasting time on the next few steps.

  3. SHADE: Just using black and white airbrushes I shade the form in pure B&W. You can really see what you are doing when you remove color from the equation here. If it reads in B&W, it will read in color.

  4. DETAIL: Everyone wants to rush to this part, but if you spend a lot of time on 1-3, this step goes quickly. Here I have selected some areas to be glass, added some stripes, graphical color blocks, as well as struts, wheel details, tire texture, and various grille patterns in the voids.

  5. HUE: this is a subtle step, but I put a new layer over top, set the layer style to Color only, then airbrush some warm and cool tones to push and pull the concept on the page.

  6. LOGOS: as a last step, since this is a race car, I added some sponsorship logos. :slight_smile:

I’ve been getting a lot of requests to do a sketch demo of a boat. Specifically on how to get the overall hull shape in perspective. Personally, I love drawing boats. I don’t know much about them, and I rarely go one them, but I love the elegant forms of their hulls. The first thing I do is draw the overall volume the hull occupies. Once I have this it is easy to draw in the 2 arcs that make the left and right (port and starboard … like I said, I don’t really know much about boats) as well as the arc of the bottom of the boat. All of the other details hinge off those three lines. This sketch took about 30 minutes in real time. Give it a watch and comment bellow with any questions. I also love getting your requests in the comments.

YO!

Thank you for all these great videos and tips on sketching! Could you do a video demonstrating varying levels of opacity? fully transparent, frosted, etc… ?

Thank you!

Ying

Ying, great idea, I’ll work on that one.

Easy as ABC… it has been a long time since I posted a video so here is a very quick 3 minute doodle with a Sharpie​ this morning before calling into a conference call. Turn on the sound to hear the markers squeaking on the page… if you are into that sort of thing :slight_smile:

I can’t believe 2016 is just about over. I thought you all might like to see every fun free time sketch I did in 2016. There are about 250 sketches here. I wanted to put this together to show you just how many rapid visualization exercises I do in a year. Remember, these are just my for fun sketches. This doesn’t include all of the sketches I do for new product development projects I’m working on at Sound United or with freelance clients. Obviously I can’t show you those until those products launch! It is important to sketch at a high volume like this so your skills are sharp and you can freely express your ideas without hesitation. A great sketch is about three things, developing an idea, communicating the idea, and inspiring others to believe in that idea. A great sketch can be incredibly persuasive. So set yourself a goal to do just one fun sketch a day in the next year and you will see your skills dramatically improve. Happy 2017 everyone, now get sketching!

look forward to more of your work in 2017, yo!

to everyone else, i recommend watching this a .25 speed so you can look at the drawings a little longer. also, protip, if you pause the video you can use the period button to move forward frame by frame. comma button goes backwards by a frame.

I filmed the next 6 sketch demo videos in the core77 series I’ve been doing. Here is the next:

Why is sketching still important? I’m really excited to be able to share this short video piece I did for Hector Silva, who founded Advanced Design Sketching. In this video I talk why I think sketching still so important in today’s design world. there is also a bonus behind the scenes look at my home design studio … can you have a bonus at the beginning of something? This bonus is. If you have watched any of my previous videos you have seen the sketch surface on my desk. Today I zoom out to show you what you don’t see.

See more Advanced Design Sketching videos: Facebook

A new sketch demo went live on the c77 home page:
http://www.core77.com/posts/61654/Drawing-Cars-is-Hard—Heres-a-Way-to-Make-it-Slightly-Simpler

[ Deleted ]

Yes, we are all trying to be different… in exactly the same way :slight_smile: Thanks Keno, I think sketching can be a very powerful tool but only when coupled with thought.

a couple of what I am calling “quick take” videos:

The next episode:

In my last video I sketched one of the most complex products you can represent on paper, a car. Lets take it down a notch. In this episode I’ll be sketching a front load washing machine. I wanted to draw something rather geometric to show you a particular technique of sketching with drawing tools. My very first boss out of design school, Aaron Szymanski at Evo Design, had this amazing technique where he could draw with straight edges and ellipse guides but still keep the sketch light and airy, not too tight. The way he showed me that he did this is by moving the drawing tool slightly as you go back and forth across your lines. This way the lines feel sketchier. So I’ve brought out my Rocky’s Modern Life ruler and an ellipse guide to show you how to work up a sketch with this method.

I’m very excited to be speaking at StrukturEvent during Design Week Portland on April 26th. I’ll be speaking about design leadership and what it takes to elevate design in the decision making process in a corporation… since the primary audience is outdoor designers, I couldn’t resist sketching up an liner for my softgoods Saturday Sketch. For those of you who don’t know, I’m trying to post a sketch every single day of 2017 on my instagram account… it has been a challenge some days, but they are starting to add up! https://www.instagram.com/d2lo/

motorcycle demo:

new one went live today:

Awesome!

I always struggle with adding grain. Are those prismacolour markers? The fine tip they have makes the grain look a lot more legitimate than the thicker ones I’ve tried.

Thanks for this Yo, I’m definitely going to be using this next time I put some furniture concepts together :slight_smile:

Yes, those are prisma colors. Try working very lightly with your paper pressure. Just barely touch the paper.