Andy's "Sketch-a-few times a week"

I’m finally starting a sketching thread. I’ve been getting lazy and rusty on the daily sketching so I thought I’d make a thread to actually document my sketching progress for feedback. Starting with 3 a week and building up to 1 a day as my skills improve and get faster.

The most recent 3:

Braun Sixtant


A timber and bent steel bar stool

A quick powerpoint doodle ( I saw an opening for a big electronics company that makes these a few days ago)

Practising clear materials and liquids. I’m also playing with different brushes in sketchbook to see what they all do.

A glass and cork pedant light. Still playing with clear materials on my Ipad.

The beginnings of some kitchen knives

Finished off the kitchen knives with some deep blue to make them pop.

Quick earbud doodles

There’s been less sketches than a few a week leading into the end of the year :blush:

Timber speaker box and bent up legs. It was fun to use tan paper again.

First sketch of 2018! I’ve been hiking a lot while holidaying in New Zealand, so here’s a quick outdoors jacket to get my hand used to using a pen again after the Christmas break. Keen to get back into it :smiley:

002/365. Thinking about hammers with swappable heads and handles for adjusting weight and balance. I’m back from my holiday with some catching up to do.

Breakfast pot and pan scribbles. Note to self: sketching with a sharpie means I need a bigger piece of paper and bigger sketches

I could design bike parts all day every day! Having fun with profile views of a direct mount stem for my fox40 fork, without sharp points that you could bash your knees on during those :open_mouth: moments.

Working out a style of arrow that I like. The top right is winning at the moment

I think the top right is much too complicated. Those center ones are working better. Think of it in context of a concept sketch. It should tell you direction but not take too much attention from the sketch.

Thats a fair call Yo, I got caught up in making them look interesting. I’ll sketch something that I can use them on to see the result.

Perf steel street chair on a polished concrete slab:

nice touch with the perf in the cast shadow!

Thanks! One of the things I really love about perforated metals is the range of shadow patterns that they cast.

Ideas for a better rubbish bin:.

  • A lid that opens away from the handle.

  • A big roller wheel rather than 2 solid plastic ones.

  • A Dyson style roller ball instead of wheels.

  • A sealing lid that keeps the smells in.

  • A lid that pivots sideways, slides and trapdoors.


    A few things I dislike with the one I have right now:

  • The lid opens towards the handle and wheels, so when you have your bin parked against a wall you have to reach over and awkwardly lift the lid enough to get the garbage in. Parking it backwards fixes this but makes it hard to get out when the bin is full and heavy as the handle and wheels are on the wrong side.

  • The lid doesn’t seal so the smell gets out. This weekend here in Adelaide is going to be 42 deg C which makes for some extra smelly rubbish.

  • The solid plastic wheels make it hard to move on uneven ground when full (or over any kind of small lip at all).

The perf shadow - and overall sketching style for that matter - is nice, make sure to make it precise to the form, it will read much better!
I agree the rubbish bin needs a make-over and has been needing it for years. Do some research on use-cases for different demographics. We have the same design in the EU, and definitely the lid, wheels and overall aesthetics can be improved. Look at soapbox wheels for a start. If consumers nowadays are investing in biweekly cleaning by a dedicated company, they will surely be able to afford a more high-end container. If we could all recycle our current ones into a new design with a better lid and more expensive wheels, it will be a success.

I like the notion of recycling all of our existing bins directly into a better product. The massive hurdle on the cost front is that rubbish bins are generally purchased in bulk by local councils, which tends to mean that low cost has more purchasing sway than good design. I’m thinking of turning this one into a mini project and I’ll have some more concepts up over the next few days. Thanks for the feedback!

First sketch putting together some of the ideas for my rubbish bin concept.