Sadie's Daily Sketch

At the advice of yo and my desire to improve my sketching g skills, I’ll be posting a sketch every day (hopefully) to help document my progress.

I would love any constructive feedback you would like to offer. I will try to reflect on and analyze my work when I post it in an effort to grow both my technical skills and process.

Thank you for looking!

DAY 1 - Kayak Paddles



I decided to start with an object I use frequently in my life but have never thought much about from an ID standpoint. My first goal was to sketch a paddle from memory, refining the shape to a more accurate representation each time. I feel like I did manage to improve my rendering of the blade, accentuating the subtle curves and improving the proportions as I worked.

I found it difficult to generate several iterations of the blade, so I will make an effort to differentiate between each sketch in the future. I was hesitant to draw more than simple outlines of the components, and I don’t know if this is due to the simple nature of the paddle or just lack of practice on my part.

I also struggled with the idea of sketching entirely in pen. My usual system is to roughly sketch in pencil, then follow up with a pen to showcase the best lines. I wondered what methods more experienced designers use; I have never been frustrated with my sketching style before, but lately I find myself trying and largely failing to emulate more iconic ‘ID’ style sketches.

nice first sketch. I look forward to following a long.

Cool! Looking forward to seeing more of your sketches! :slight_smile:



Today’s sketch was an early-morning study of my bunny, Blaire. Capturing the moving subject was challenging, especially while she tried to eat my sketchbook. This one was more for fun and general practice, so I will likely post an ID sketch later.

DAY 2 - Climbing Shoes


Yesterday I drew rock climbing shoes as I worked at the wall helping belay and assist climbers. I think climbing shoes are unique from other types of footwear in their function and loud aesthetic. Climbing shoes are soled with sticky rubber to help grip surfaces, and they come in many varieties like laces, velcro, and slip-on. They have these interesting low cut ankles to allow rotation of the joint, and they are bought several sizes too small and worn without socks. Eventually, the suede stretches into the most form-fitting shoes you could hope for.

These shoes have unique forms as well, such as the strangely boxy toe and varying aggressiveness or curve to the arch. All of these features contribute to a function; the former to increased surface area and friction, the latter to make the show more accurate at the toe. Many have strange color and design inspirations as well; I’m a fan of So iLL’s retro inspired shoes, the first to offer colored rubber with great stickiness.

Overall I think climbing shoes are a joy to draw, and I hope to do more of my own designs soon!

Good, keep them coming!

Any more daily sketches? Keep them coming!

DAY 3 - Fat Water Bottles



After a break from sketching all weekend (to finish my first ID project for presentation!), I’m struggling to find my usual flow. My hands feel tight and these sketches reflect that.

I tried to improve upon the ergonomics of ‘fat’, 1L water bottles like my favorite Nalgene. I dedicated myself to starting in pen and being more deliberate with my lines, which was difficult for me. I think I may revisit this exercise when I don’t feel so stiff, because these designs feel a bit lackluster and I think a second try would yield better results.

I also switched to a Papermate Flair pen I found abandoned in my studio rather than my usual Microns, and I’m very happy with it. It makes it easier to pull long, purposeful strokes out of my sketches.

DAYS 2 & 3 Continued - Climbing Shoe Renderings



Since I feel kinda bummed out by my water bottle sketches, I decided to take some of my observations from Day 2’s sketches and work them into my first renderings. I just got my first Copic markers as well, so there was a lot of practice all around in these. From here on out I think I will try to render one nice drawing from my little daily sketches, both with markers and with my digital tablet, to get more rounded practice.

You’re off to a great start.
Don’t feel too bummed out by the water bottle sketches.
It’s really good to challenge yourself.
I always had a hard time drawing cylindrical objects until I learned to draw through with ellipses.
Scott Robertson has some awesome tutorials on draw through.
Check this one out.

That’s a great tutorial, thanks for sharing. I remember learning ellipses like that in my drawing class two years ago, but I’ve been out of practice and forgot about that method. I think I’ll tackle the water bottle challenge again today and see how draw through affects my results.

Right now I’m just trying to remind myself to practice, practice, practice. I used to have very good fine arts sketching skills, but those have fallen by the wayside. Once I get back into the habit, I want to work on developing a broader range of styles.

Did you get a chance to tackle the water bottle challenge again? I have a bit of an obsession with water bottles… there’s something so pleasing about them! I might try sketching some more too.

I haven’t! I have admittedly been distracted lately from my sketch-a-day goal— it’s a bummer how easily I lost focus. Perhaps tonight I will practice more water bottles! It really helps to have this group pushing me to post so I don’t let myself fall out of the habit.

Do you experienced designers find it easier to sketch on larger paper? I’m finding that my small, portable sketchbook is limiting me a bit and makes it significantly more difficult to use long, confident strokes.

No water bottles yet, but I drew out some concepts for a vacuum formed lampshade I’m creating for my next project, and practiced coloring with Prismacolor pencils on toned paper. I just got a Lighting and Rendering book, so I hope to learn more about adding accurate color to my sketches.

Happy new year to everyone!

I’ve dedicated 2018 to making sketching a habit, so I will be posting a sketch each day here and on my instagram, @sadie.lewman.design. My family is supposed to harass me if they don’t see anything for awhile, haha.

I’m expecting a new sketchbook in the mail today, but I can share my first sketch of the new year that was done on printer paper:


I realized later that the lower right pair of glasses has some pretty funky perspective issues, but I hope to see improvement over the coming year!

Following along - Great idea to follow sound advice.

Looking forward to seeing the progression

It’s been much easier lately to find time to sketch, but not so much time to post about it :open_mouth:

Here is a big photo dump of a handful of my recent sketches.



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