Project: New approach to drawing tutorials.

Design Discussions general design discussion
1

Hi, I wasnt sure where to post this.

I am doing some research on users and their goals and experiences on a forum, sketching, and more. So I have gathered a list of 31 questions that I would like to have answers for. At the end, if you feel that some questions are too personal or could be reworded to get a better answer, please give your feedback. Full sentences or answers that explain “why” would be appreciated versus one word answers.

Thank you for your help, here are the questions:

7 Questions about forums:

  1. How did you find out about Core77 and its forum section?
  2. Which section are you most active in?
  3. Which sections do you think are the most active and useful on the forum?
  4. Which sections are irrelevant for you?
  5. What do you mainly use the forums for?
  6. How often do you ask for help or ask questions?
  7. How often do you give help or answer other member’s questions?

6 Questions about challenges and competitions:
8. Have you ever participated in a challenge or competition?
9. Why did you decide to participate?
10. Was there a prize?
11. Would you have participated without a prize?
12. Did you actually finish and submit a final for the challenge or competition?
13. Did you receive any feedback on your submission?

3 Questions about blogs:
14. Do you own a blog?
15. How often do you update your blog?
16. Is it more of a news blog or a content blog of your work?

15 Questions on sketching:
17. When did you start sketching?
18. How did you learn to sketch?
19. If you learned from a tutor or from school, how often did you meet or have class them?
20. If you learned on your own, did you use the forums, video tutorials, or another method?
21. If you learned on your own, which method was the most useful? Why?
22. If you learned on your own, which method was the least useful? Why?
23. Approximately how long did it take for you to see any real improvements?
24. How often do you sketch?
25. Do you like to doodle?
26. Have you ever doodled on a napkin or other object while at a café or other location?
27. Do you keep all your doodles?
28. How do you keep track of your sketches and doodles?
29. Do you usually scan your sketches or take a photo of it?
30. Are you a student or professional?
31. Which field of art or design are you in?

2

Filled it out but you might want to slim this down. Even at a minute per response its 31 minutes of someones time. Might deter a few people. I had free time so it was ok, but normally I’d pass up such a lengthy survey.

3

7 Questions about forums:

  1. How did you find out about Core77 and its forum section?
    Dunno.
  2. Which section are you most active in?
    Dunno.
  3. Which sections do you think are the most active and useful on the forum?
    This is two questions. I don’t know which is most active. Business practices is most useful.
  4. Which sections are irrelevant for you?
    The high profile industry related threads (cars, fashion, etc)
  5. What do you mainly use the forums for?
    Like to see what the shape of the world is.
  6. How often do you ask for help or ask questions?
    Often enough.
  7. How often do you give help or answer other member’s questions?
    When I have something that seems relevant to say.

6 Questions about challenges and competitions:
8. Have you ever participated in a challenge or competition?
Nope
9. Why did you decide to participate?
I don’t participate because a design awarded by other designers has no practical value to me.
10. Was there a prize?
Doesn’t matter.
11. Would you have participated without a prize?
It depends on time investment. It needs to provide notoriety that can be meaningfully leveraged in a client scenario, or cash, or both.
12. Did you actually finish and submit a final for the challenge or competition?
n/a
13. Did you receive any feedback on your submission?
n/a

3 Questions about blogs:
14. Do you own a blog?
no
15. How often do you update your blog?
n/a
16. Is it more of a news blog or a content blog of your work?
n/a

15 Questions on sketching:
17. When did you start sketching?
When I was 2 or 3.
18. How did you learn to sketch?
By sketching.
19. If you learned from a tutor or from school, how often did you meet or have class them?
n/a - I learned design sketching techniques in college, and used what I learned most days in one studio or another.
20. If you learned on your own, did you use the forums, video tutorials, or another method?
I continue to learn sketching (among other skills) by learning what other people do and seeing how to fit it to my work.

  1. If you learned on your own, which method was the most useful? Why?
  2. If you learned on your own, which method was the least useful? Why?
  3. Approximately how long did it take for you to see any real improvements?
    You improve some, then you plateau. Or you get tired of how you’re doing it and try something new. A few months usually if there are intense projects to apply it to.
  4. How often do you sketch?
    Depends on what’s on my plate. Sometimes every day, sometimes not for a few weeks.
  5. Do you like to doodle?
    In the right frame of mind, yes.
  6. Have you ever doodled on a napkin or other object while at a café or other location?
    I hate napkins because my pens always eat them and I don’t like hanging out at restaurants. I like to draw where I can focus on it.
  7. Do you keep all your doodles?
    No. Most get trashed within minutes or hours.
  8. How do you keep track of your sketches and doodles?
    I don’t. They aren’t art. It’s just working drawings or a way to keep my muscle memory intact.
  9. Do you usually scan your sketches or take a photo of it?
    Both. Depends.
  10. Are you a student or professional?
    Professional.
  11. Which field of art or design are you in?
    I am in product design and development, not art - purge that word from your vocabulary because this is a business service and we should NEVER present ourselves as artists because art is subjective and that opens up whole cans of payment worms.
4

Thanks for taking your time to respond to these questions Sain.

This is just part 1 of my research questions, Ill slim it down to like 10-15 for part 2. Although, I didnt realize it would take a whole 30 minutes, if each question took a minute, this is quite alot of time Im asking for. Even still, it would help alot if more people could take their time to answer these questions as it is part of an assignment at school.

Thank you.

5

at least most of them are short answers…

7 Questions about forums:

  1. How did you find out about Core77 and its forum section?
    A friend showed it to me in 1995, in a school computer lab.
  2. Which section are you most active in?
    General, students,employment, transportation, footwear, sketching
  3. Which sections do you think are the most active and useful on the forum?
    Same
  4. Which sections are irrelevant for you?
    None are irrelevant but I dint find myself in materials or soft wear because I have those resources at work, and other sections are just less of a priority for me
  5. What do you mainly use the forums for?
    I like discussing design, so for fun
  6. How often do you ask for help or ask questions?
    Maybe 5-9 times per year
  7. How often do you give help or answer other member’s questions?
    Daily in my opinion anyway :wink:

6 Questions about challenges and competitions:
8. Have you ever participated in a challenge or competition?
Yes
9. Why did you decide to participate?
For fun
10. Was there a prize?
Didn’t matter
11. Would you have participated without a prize?
Doesn’t matter
12. Did you actually finish and submit a final for the challenge or competition?
Yes
13. Did you receive any feedback on your submission?
I suppose

3 Questions about blogs:
14. Do you own a blog?
Yes
15. How often do you update your blog?
Weekly on average
16. Is it more of a news blog or a content blog of your work?
Design news and opinion

15 Questions on sketching:
17. When did you start sketching?
As a child
18. How did you learn to sketch?
By doing it a lot
19. If you learned from a tutor or from school, how often did you meet or have class them?
N/A
20. If you learned on your own, did you use the forums, video tutorials, or another method?
Books, peers, live demos from professionals, professional mentors
21. If you learned on your own, which method was the most useful? Why?
All of them were useful

  1. If you learned on your own, which method was the least useful? Why?
  2. Approximately how long did it take for you to see any real improvements?
    Years I suppose
  3. How often do you sketch?
    Daily
  4. Do you like to doodle?
    Yes
  5. Have you ever doodled on a napkin or other object while at a café or other location?
    Yes
  6. Do you keep all your doodles?
    No
  7. How do you keep track of your sketches and doodles?
    I don’t, they are sketches, not masterpieces, the act of visually recording it and discussing it is enough to move the idea forward
  8. Do you usually scan your sketches or take a photo of it?
    Scan the keepers
  9. Are you a student or professional?
    Professional
  10. Which field of art or design are you in?
    Innovation including product, experiences, and services

Odd set of questions, what is this for?

6

You should shorten this before you do part 2. I blew through it and only tried to answer questions as quickly as possible rather than as thoughtfully as possible.

When you do a questionnaire like this, figure out what the top 4 or 5 things you NEED to know are and ask a single, good, open ended question for each. No more than that - no multiple questions in the same question. Then drill down in part 2.

7

You’ll get more quality answers with a shorter survey that asks more in depth questions.

7 Questions about forums:

  1. How did you find out about Core77 and its forum section? Friends in design school
  2. Which section are you most active in? Used to be sketching, then students/schools, now I’m all over. CP shows General Design Discussion with 15%
  3. Which sections do you think are the most active and useful on the forum? I feel like you could look up these statistics on the forum itself. I find GDD, students/schools, and projects/portfolios the most useful.
  4. Which sections are irrelevant for you? Not sure. The inactive ones are irrelevant. I use http://boards.core77.com/recent.php instead of going through sections. I hop in whatever topic I find interesting.
  5. What do you mainly use the forums for? Discussing design, giving people feedback on projects, getting feedback on my projects, giving/getting advice on design as a profession.
  6. How often do you ask for help or ask questions? Varies depending on how much time I have. Sometimes as many as a few times a week, other times once a month.
  7. How often do you give help or answer other member’s questions? Basically a couple times every week.

6 Questions about challenges and competitions:
8. Have you ever participated in a challenge or competition? No.
9. Why did you decide to participate? -
10. Was there a prize? -
11. Would you have participated without a prize? -
12. Did you actually finish and submit a final for the challenge or competition? -
13. Did you receive any feedback on your submission? -

3 Questions about blogs:
14. Do you own a blog? Yes
15. How often do you update your blog? When I need to or have something to say. When I documented Modai, it was twice a week on average. Nowadays its once a week/2 weeks.
16. Is it more of a news blog or a content blog of your work? I post opinions I have on things, as well as things I work on. News blogs can handle news, but I will blog about my opinion on the news.

15 Questions on sketching:
17. When did you start sketching? Design sketching was 4 years ago in freshman year of college. Drawing since forever ago.
18. How did you learn to sketch? Looking at other people’s works and trying to copy them. Art classes in high school
19. If you learned from a tutor or from school, how often did you meet or have class them? Once a week.
20. If you learned on your own, did you use the forums, video tutorials, or another method? Yes, yes, yes.
21. If you learned on your own, which method was the most useful? Why? Video tutorials/copying other peoples drawings from their portfolios. Figure drawing and still lifes were useful too.
22. If you learned on your own, which method was the least useful? Why? N/A
23. Approximately how long did it take for you to see any real improvements? No idea. Plateaus for a few months to years, then suddenly I realize something.
24. How often do you sketch? Not much anymore. Job starting on Wednesday, so bound to start up every day again.
25. Do you like to doodle? Yes.
26. Have you ever doodled on a napkin or other object while at a café or other location? Only for the sake of doing it. Not because I actually had something to sketch.
27. Do you keep all your doodles? Digitally.
28. How do you keep track of your sketches and doodles? Digitally manage by date, then by topic.
29. Do you usually scan your sketches or take a photo of it? Whatever fidelity it requires. If it’s just to communicate to a groupmate, picture. If it’s for folio/client, scan.
30. Are you a student or professional? In between. Just graduated and interning.
31. Which field of art or design are you in? I design products and experiences, physical or digital. My degrees are in Industrial design and Human computer interaction (Interaction design).

8

19 yr old Industrial Design Student from London
I had an account for the forums before this one but I forgot it.

9

Thanks for the responses guys.
Yea, Im starting to see the pattern here, and Im gonna rethink my questions. Il be putting up a Revised Survey later tonight and Ill also fill you guys in as to what these questions are for.

10

Updated Survey Part 2.

Doodling:

  1. When you see yourself doodling, is there a specific topic you doodle about? What are they and why.

2A. Do you need to have a specific topic in mind to start doodling? Why or why not.

2B. Have you ever found yourself unable to come up with something to doodle? A lack of topics and/or inspirations, how did you overcome this situation, be specific.

  1. Have you ever seeked a forum or another person for topic suggestions to doodle? Why or not.

Bonus Question:
4. Whats the wildest, most random, or pointless thing you have doodled? Why and how did you decide to draw that?

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  1. When you see yourself doodling, is there a specific topic you doodle about? What are they and why.
    It’s usually something I’m thinking about. Cars - I’m replacing one. Furniture - I’ve been acquiring a Lane bedroom set from the 1960 catalog. Sneakers- been trying to get out and pick up some new sneakers but time conspires against this errand. Cameras - I like them. Steel guitars - I like them and am learning how to play one. Infographics - I’m trying to visually articulate the thinking process that drove some projects in my portfolio. Sometimes it’s just something in front of me like life drawing. Sometimes it’s diagrams of an idea I read about. Random forms.

2A. Do you need to have a specific topic in mind to start doodling? Why or why not.
Not really. Sometimes I draw cubes and cylinders or random shapes. Staying in practice.

2B. Have you ever found yourself unable to come up with something to doodle? A lack of topics and/or inspirations, how did you overcome this situation, be specific.
That’s when I draw random shapes. Or I am physically and mentally exhausted from doing too much.

  1. Have you ever seeked a forum or another person for topic suggestions to doodle? Why or not.
    Mostly when it comes to the Wacom. The wacom is hard for me because it lacks the tactility of real media, and perspective lines are constantly scaling up and down and moving as you zoom in/out. Makes it a difficult sketching tool to use.

Bonus Question:
4. Whats the wildest, most random, or pointless thing you have doodled? Why and how did you decide to draw that?

I drew a “bird machine” once - just the result of drawing without purpose. Also started storyboarding a graphic novel about Ben Bernanke and the Fed during the bubble back in '06. I was interested in monetary policy and I thought the runup in housing prices brought on by sketchy lending could only end badly - thought it would be interesting to do a story about Bernanke as a conflicted man with no clear sense of what policy levers to pull or what the outcomes would be. Thought the idea of Greenspan having been in that role for so long before Bernanke could create some nice tension between the former and current chairman as he tried to fix the problem.

12

I think you should tell us what this is for.

13

I never doodle, pen to paper always has a purpose, or a solution to work out, or get out of my system.

14

I agree, Michael. This is one of those threads where the starting question(s) might be better received if he (or she) identified themselves with a signature. Anonymity has it place in these forums, but I would like to encourage a bit more transparency.

So what do you say, sketchroll, mind telling us who you are and what this is for?

Thanks,

~w~

15

Introduction Time!
Hi everyone, I am a student doing a project at my school on the topic of drawing. It’s a topic I chose for myself and my classmates have chosen different topics that they themselves would like to tackle. Drawing is a very interesting skill to have. There are few who are naturally talented, but most have reached their level of technical skill through hard work and practice. Then there are many who still have a hard time grasping the idea of drawing and even more who are just not interested in drawing.

I think that there are two main types of drawing: doodling and sketching. These two types although similar are completely different in how someone responds to it. If you were asked to doodle, it has a very informal feel to it, as if anyone can do it and has little to no requirements in terms of skill level and quality. Kids doodle, parents doodle, even non-artists doodle. But once you tell someone to sketch something, there is an expected level of technical skill. It immediately makes the drawer a bit tense and there seems to be a level of quality that is subconsciously felt and needed. There are rules and styles that you feel like you need to follow.

On that note, I would like to talk about “learning how to draw.” As you know there are tons of resources available both online and offline that teach you how to draw. The thing is, most of these are only effective to a certain extent and the reason is this. Nearly all tutorials are made through the eyes of someone who can already draw well. Due to this, teachers tend to communicate steps that “sound easier than it actually is” to someone who is trying to learn to draw. The split-second decisions that a tutor makes while drawing is nearly impossible to communicate through words, as it would get verbose and even more confusing. We also cannot expect someone to sit through a 1 hour video tutorial on how to draw a cube. Not only are these tutorials demanding to the user in time, every single one of these follow the same process. Watch or read what I did and try to duplicate it yourself afterwards. A book shows you how to do something step-by-step then asks you to follow along and try it yourself. A video shows you how its done in motion, a bit more effective, but it requires concentrated focus and lot of time to learn one or more specific things. You need to closely follow along, as just hearing the audio is not enough as you need to see how the tutor does it. Forums are great for multiple feedback sources and emphasizes the ability to communicate back and forth between the poster and the respondents, unfortunately it’s rarely instant. Despite being able to receive good and detailed feedback there are pros and cons to posting on a forum. For one, there has been cases where the amount of feedback you may receive is directly connected to your skill level. For example, if you are good, you may receive more feedback than a beginner, as it is easier to say “good job” than “fix this and that.” Also, creating a new thread and posting your work in itself is a very difficult task for most people. Creating a thread is mentally taxing on the user as it asks you to build enough courage to create a thread, then it asks you to make sure your work is presentable, and finally it asks you to post despite the risk of never receiving a response. Also the work presented by skilled people is a double-edged sword, it is a great source of inspiration, but it is also a force of intimidation to those who are less confident in themselves.

The Challenge
How can learning how to draw be absolutely inviting, engaging, and fun for anyone? How can it be better than anything else already available?

So, thats where I am currently at. I don’t think I have been asking the right questions though, this has been a learning process for me.

16

When I was in design school, I took many drawing courses. Foundation drawing, Drafting, Design Communication, Product Rendering, Life drawing and attended several drawing workshops. The pedagogy was based on stamina and quantity of effort. Draw, draw, draw…All those courses helped me understand how to look at the world and capture it on paper, as well as imagine a new world and capture those thoughts on paper in order to fit and work within the would around me.

That said…I often became bored taking an entire class of drawing primitive shapes, making orthographic views of 3D objects or drawing nudes twice a week for 9 weeks. This stamina approach to learning has its merits, but it does nothing to create an inviting, engaging and fun environment for learning how to draw. Those who did not have stamina or drive ended up not learning and disappointed with their grade and abilities after the course.

I now teach drawing to 1st year undergrad product design students. In order to address the boredom issue I suffered through, I’ve managed to divide up the 16 weeks into a variety of progressions that begin with simple 1,2 and 3 point perspective and move through primitives and end the semester with several weeks of nude life drawing. My method focuses on developing the minds eye as well as developing the ability to look at the world and accurately capture what it is you are looking at. This compression of subject matters and variety of technique learning keeps the students alert and anticipating what will be the next interesting week will bring. Students in their 20s today have an insatiable appetite for information and contents. Changing the game weekly keeps them interested and on their toes. Attendance figures are high and a good metric for measuring interest and the development of drawing discipline.

Additionally, students need to see their progress as they move through the various exercises of learning. Thus, weekly critiques are were 90% of where the learning and understanding occurs. I encourage the students to “steal” or “borrow” things and techniques they see in others work during the critique. Organizing and handing in a full portfolio of the semesters work for a final grade also forces the students to learn organization and to value their work protecting it from harm. Students who can see a progression of their learning in a sketchbook or portfolio with dates on each work are much more engaged and relatively satisfied with their new abilities at the end of the course.

Finding inspirational material and unique published work keeps you adding new techniques to your own style as to evolve as a professional. Sketching in front of a marketing person is different from sketching in front of a mechanical engineer. Know who you are communicating with and sketch accordingly.

I visit Feng Zhu from time to time for a fix.

http://www.fengzhudesign.com/index.html

17

That’s nice, but we still don’t know who you are, where you are in school or what year you are… C’mon, don’t be afraid, you’re asking some good questions here. Why not take credit for being inquisitive? There are a lot of students who post on these boards who have signatures with links to their Coroflot portfolios. You’ve got our attention, let’s take that opportunity to get to know you.

Just my 2 cents.

~w~

18

Here are some key quotes from interviews.
Please number the ones that you can personally relate to.
Thanks.

  1. Inspiration can be intimidating.
  2. People better than me and younger than me makes me depressed.
  3. I know I have to practice to get better.
  4. I don’t know where to start.
  5. Inspiration won’t necessarily get me to draw.
  6. Inspirational images and work is cool to look at it.
  7. I’ve posted my work on forums before, but the lack of response made me depressed.
  8. I posted once, didn’t get feedback, so I just lurk now.
  9. I don’t draw everyday, I have no motivation to.
  10. Weekly and monthly challenges are cool, but the entry level feels high.
  11. I wish I could win or get acknowledged more often.
  12. I wish practicing could be fun.
  13. I play a pictionary-like game called “Draw my thing” on my omgpop.com, it’s fun.
  14. I kind of wish I could see how other people would tackle the same task. For example, I want to see how my friend would draw the same bear that I was trying to draw.
  15. I draw when I feel like I can learn something new, like a new technique.
  16. I wish I could see best-of examples of how to render chrome, show scale, and so on.
  17. I like to learn from others.
  18. I like to draw with others.

More quotes coming soon.
I think just in these interviews I can already see some patterns in what people want and experience when learning how to draw.