Looking to improve

Thanks guys I am taking your advice on board :slight_smile:

I tried to go with a self service petrol/gas station type of machine for this one (now i look at it, it kinda reminds me of an old arcade machine lol):

I started a sketchbook that i will use when I am out and about. No coffee shop sketches yet… just car park. Apologies as I am unable to scan these ones…

Really digging that petrol station edition coffee maker. A few refinements to think about:

  1. could the shape of the drip tray echo the upside down us shape of the flat surface it fits on?
  2. does that orange thing on the side need to be there under the cup dispenser? Feels superfluous and would be an extra part ($$$)

These are some of the things I think about when I look at sketches. I might do an overlay of that one if you are cool with it.

Hey Michael, I see what you mean.

Feel free to do an overlay it would be great to see your take on it.

all right, I took you sketch out for a spin. I figured I would do a digital sketch.

I like what you did there… I guess mine was very 90’s lol. I noticed you omitted the cup dispenser… Any reason or just for ease of sketch? Cheers :slight_smile:

Another coffee maker… Maybe this one would work well in the corner of the kitchen…

I like these petrol station coffee maker concepts! Especially this latest one. Keep it up :slight_smile:

I don’t know if you have Photoshop, but you can improve your sketchbook photo with a levels adjustment. Hope this helps:


Thanks I will try this

I love seeing so much improvement in your work. Definitely photoshop photos of your sketch pages. You can take the saturation down to 0 as well which will help when using levels.

Just one designer’s take. I tend to like to group things into as few elements as possible. So all the controls are at the top (I was indicated a touch screen there and just one or two physical buttons. The drip tray part break relates very much to the form to visually eliminate a line again. The cup dispenser I just didn’t think it needed the extra complication. Most gas stations have those dispenser things built into the counter or racks on the counter. This way it would be conceivable easier to gang 3 or 4 of these in a row as well. But I didn’t put too much thought into it. If I was doing this as project this would be an area of investigation of course.

Thanks Michael!

Not too pleased with the outcome on this but spent had too many attempts at this one now. Trying to draw all the ellipses without screwing up too much is definitely a challenge… It seems with me the more I want it to be right the worse the outcome hehe… Anyways I think its time for another topic

Elipses in perspective are difficult… thrown in off axis eclipses in perspective and you have a real challenge! Don’t beat yourself up, that is a tough one to pull off!

Probably not going to be posting much now until after Christmas. Still sketching but I have a family portrait to complete before the 24th so that is going to take up most of my free time no doubt. Merry Christmas all :slight_smile:

Post the portrait as well! Working on other things always helps your sketching.

One of the things that helped my sketching the most when I was a young designer was making models. At the firm I worked for junior designers often made the models for senior designers. Making models of other people’s sketches improved my sketching so much. I understood the purpose of the sketch more deeply and so adjusted my “style” to be less “fancy” and more about communication of intent.

Probably not going to be posting much for the next month or 2 as my schedule has become really tight due to work commitments as well as other things. :cry: Hopefully be back up and running sooner rather than later! Still gonna try and sketch where time permits.

Happy new year btw. :slight_smile:

Can’t find 15 minutes each day?

250gb I’d challenge you to try sketching in 5 minutes. :stuck_out_tongue:

That’s a good quote yo. I have been trying cutting back on my usage of “trying” when I communicate my intentions to others… I noticed it makes me sound and become more confident. A little mental trick.

It’s been a while. Took a longer break from here than planned.

Car sketch to get the ball rolling. Kinda rough. Back wheel is out.


I plan to get started in some digital work to polish my future sketches. Any recommendations? Wondering whether to dive in on a 13 inch cintiq or take smaller steps with an intuos pro?