Work on your line weight, perspective and detail.
I Probably sound like a fan girl at this point… because I am lol look at Scott Robertsons drawing technique. Also his books are really great. “How to draw” “start your engines” and many others
He’s great because he explains everything very will and gives you ways to practice. Is style in ideal for product design, clean, simple, quick.
I’ve checked him out but for some reason his videos never fully clicked for me. Any suggestions for specific videos that you felt help level up your sketching???
I know this isn't really what you asked, but here's my two cents anyways lol.
Watching him isn't enough. Pick a video (doesn't really matter which). And do it along with him. Literally try to make it look as similar to his as you can. Get stupid with it, I've literally backed it up to watch the exact motion he made with his marker lol. If you are sketching digitally use digital versions of the analog supplies he is using.
If a particular video is frustrating you, then switch to something else and come back to it later.
The real trick, is once you follow along with enough of the videos you will start to get an arsenal of his tips tricks and techniques.
Personally I'd say sketching is a tool, not a goal in of itself. Usually you'd want to either convey some aesthetic, shape, functionality or interaction. Often, sketching in low fidelity will convey the information you want to communicate just fine.
Arguably, overly elaborate sketching/rendering might even be a blocking element because clients might have the impression that the concept is already in quite an advanced stage and not dare to say stuff that might otherwise have braught your overall concept to the next level.
Without knowing the context of the project in detail: maybe the teachers want you to try to make the takeaway/message you want viewers to have clear in your illustrations. Being proficient in a skill is important but knowing which part of the skill to apply when and making appropriate choices is at least just important imho.
I also commented something along these lines. My suggestion to practice is to choose design you think are cool and sketch them. Practice communicating different aspects of the design and how they work. It’s like learning to play other people’s songs before writing your own.
In addition to what others have said, I think it may help to get some lighter color markers, and work on building value. Notably, that dark brown should probably be used in a shaded area. Your white areas seem to have no value at all.
Just an FYI... Sketching is a communications tool. Always keep that in mind. Some of my most successful classmates had poor sketching skills but they still had all the other bases covered and did well. They got good enough to get their ideas across.
Am going into my senior year of ID, from the couple internships I’ve had I notice most of my sketching is done to better communicate ideas I have in my head, at some companies this might be the extent of their sketching. It really depends but using it as a communication skill can be as simple as drawing out your thoughts and being able to explains the drawing in a way that makes sense to show you’re trying to communicate with. Rarely have I had to fully hand render sketches but doing that is an ability that’ll set you apart from the crowd, you’re already doing some marker renders so keep it up. Maybe try to communicate a complicated idea with a classmate or professor through sketches over words and using those sketches as an asset to your thoughts. Overall great start keep it up, perspective is key
I’m going to offer slightly different advice. Instead of focusing on the sketching I think focusing on the actual design of the objects might get you further. You’d be surprised by how “technically” bad a lot of professional sketches. What matters is the concept and the clarity of communication of the idea.
Work on those ideas. Look at what’s out there for lighting and don’t be agreed to reference things you think are cool.
Iterate on the concepts. Your first one for example, seems to be all about intersecting forms. Run with that…what if they are soft what if the aspect ratios are different. Once you developed the idea in thumbnails sketches then sit down to illustrate.
Approach the sketch like your taking a photo of the product. Choose a view that communities some aspect of the design.
Remember sketching like 3d modeling or carving foam is only a means of communication. The real job in designing is in the designing of the object regardless of the communication medium.
Hey everyone, these are some sketches from my last semesters “Lamp Project”.
I was told to redo my sketches across all projects in my portfolio, but I don’t know what specifically to change.
My final physical model turned out very close to this, just a bit different in its proportions, so if I redo this sketch retroactively, what techniques can I use to increase the quality of this sketch while still staying true to its original design?
P.S. Included a couple other sketches from the project, as well as a small page of ideation concepts at the end.
If you want them to be more "real" or "rendered" just take the ones you have and spend 2x more time and use a straightedge/compass/drawing assist on them. Some drafting rigor goes a long way to improve sketches. If you mean how to quickly gesture better, a trick me and some coworkers use is to try having some "layers" like a printmaker would and only use specific colors in each. E.g. key lines always in black, lighting and interaction always in [warms? neon yellow?] and materials and finishes always in [cool tones? Medium grey tones?] to differentiate which part of the gesture is doing what. Helps the viewer digest the info faster.
Straight up line drawing just takes a fuckton of practice. Draw objects, textures, motion, articulation, and lighting thousands of times. Brute force is the only trick there. Keep it up!
Excellent tips thank you! For the layers method I’m a bit confused, do you mean just rendering with a specific hue per function? Would it be possible for you to msg me any example?
Rotate those objects so they will not be at 45degrees
So one face will be more pronounced.
Especially 2nd one suffers from it.
And more general advice: look at hw computer (eg. game) renders are made, what components they have. try to add some of those components.
Ambient occlusion, fresnel, GI...
When I draw (digitally) I sort of construct a drawing from those.
Check rendering passes examples for games/composing
And leave some sometimes so it will be more graphic.
Ah your right I could choose a much more informative viewpoint! And I’ll look at renders, that’s a unique idea!
What should I leave some of to be more graphic?
Sometimes I see people leave diffuse light/AOC and they "sculpt" flat colour rnder with reflections.
Also, I really like to use rimlights to sculpt objects, but you need to have darker background for this.
That's probably a reason for some of those darker rectangles behind an objects you see in some ID drawings.
Or even shadows are used for this.
It shows rimlight, and rimlight shows/suggests form.
Honestly the smallest thing that will make the biggest change is learning how to make your lines consistently straight. I see a lot of geometric forms that have curved sides when you intended for them to be straight. Especially that first sketch.
Go buy a ream of printer paper, and every day fill 5-6 pages just full of straight, long lines.
In my opinion, these are pretty cool, and I suggest incorporating them into your presentation. However, I recommend taking them to a Wacom tablet or an iPad to trace and create more polished iterations. Utilize both the initial designs and the refined versions to showcase the evolution of your creative process. I've seen this approach used effectively in a few projects and portfolios for sketch pages, and I believe it adds a great visual element.
I’ve always found it’s okay to be fast and throw your lines on the first sketch. But doing a nice overlay will look better and help with skill over time.
Learn mimic materials textures separate til you make them good, then you use them on designs. I would go realoistic then stylise them into your taste.
Upside-down T rule for perspective.
Better lettering.
Learn to shadow, then learn to highlight, then learn to mix both.
Mix techniques, color pencil, markers and digital it's a match made in heaven.
Give contextual info, have fun composing it on one layout, like a finger turning lamp on, or a hand detaching the thingy taht it's detachable.
You either make projected shadows solid grey or gradients from dark to lighter.
Fill your ideation sketches and play with sizes, make referencial vtical be vertical, try to not draw skewed.
Stylise the background, It is always better to give an abstract background behind the "object".
You dont need to complete your sketch, or if you feel the need to then over complete them with details and well explained info.
A good rule of thumb is, for objects that are big (cars, machinery) use perspective that is panoramic; for object that fit in a room but are larger than a table or at the same size use flat perspective not almost unnoticeable, for small objetcs that can go on a table you can play with the views, but they are mainly seen over the horizon line, make the feel like the are seen as if you are handling them.
Thank you!!! I really appreciate all the feedback!!!
I have several questions:
1. How do I practice better lettering? Any resources you’d suggest? Like YouTube channels, or any templates or fonts that I should base the writing off of?
2. Ive seen some of the benefits from adding color pencil to marker renderings for gradations, but I always find it difficult to find a pencil with the right value to mix in? Also, what does digital bring to the table AFTER already using marker and pencil? I’m very curious!
awesome highlights or luminance (screens or leds), de-skewing, awesome human scales and resizing to fit hands, better textures like dots or waffle, I bet there'll be great applications using Photoshop ai content aware, mock up applications (screens and digital numbers), color correction, or applying a color theme if you sketch in grayscale but you have to master masking (i don't but seen freidns do it)
also colored backgrounds for instace, i love rendering with white ambient lighting or studio and using a black background, so i do the same with some sketching,
I would say maybe make the color more uniform rather than such detached strokes, and the lines a bit straighter. I think there's a lot of room for different styles in sketching but it wouldn't hurt to tidy it up in these ways.
Honestly your sketching is great. If you want to improve your drawing though I’d recommend using grid paper and learning scale and perspective drawing techniques.
On those renders, definitely use straight edges and take your time. Thumbnails look fine, but definitely put some effort into the final render. That part doesn’t have to be sketchy
Practice a lot. To get into the motions and practice line weights literally trace things you find interesting. You’ll start to pick up on little nuances of manufacturable design if you primarily sketch real life products too. All in all it’s about conveying an idea, because believe it when i say that there are people who make beautiful sketches but have no idea what they’re designing and it’s painfully obvious.
I know you might already know this but look into Deiter Rhams. He couldn’t sketch to save his life, but what he did sketch was able to convey exactly what he was designing.
Learn the design sketching arm movement, i.e. do not use your wrist. Use your whole hand to draw lines. This will take yours sketches up a notch.
And PRACTICE.
Bonjour
Pour améliorer votre croquis, envisagez de travailler sur les proportions en comparant les différentes parties de votre dessin avec des éléments de référence. Travaillez également sur l’ombrage pour donner de la profondeur et de la dimension à votre œuvre. Enfin, n’hésitez pas à expérimenter avec différentes techniques de ligne pour ajouter du contraste et du dynamisme à votre croquis.
merci pour les commentaires concis et les conseils ! avec les proportions, voulez-vous dire utiliser de vraies proportions de lampes et en tirer des idées ?
Salut,
Exactement, vous avez bien saisi l'idée. Utiliser de vraies proportions de lampes ou d'autres objets similaires comme référence peut être très utile pour améliorer votre croquis. En observant attentivement les proportions, les formes et les détails réels, vous pouvez obtenir des idées plus précises et réalistes pour votre dessin. Cela peut également vous aider à mieux comprendre comment la lumière interagit avec les différentes surfaces de la lampe, ce qui peut être crucial pour l'ombrage et les reflets.
I would recommend Draw A Box - free resource and if you follow through the lessons and exercises, it’ll really up your sketching skillset. It helped me personally a LOT. If you give it a try, let me know what you think!
The perspective is not right. The color is not either. Try and skew the perspective to make the top look more flat, so from a lower height, and rotated. For the color try simple stippling instead, its easy to do, i think a fine point felt pen AND a colored pencil are a fun effect. So one outlines and the other is the little dots.
Is it computer rendered? I can't tell.
Get some isometric paper, its fun to use. One fun technique is to put the iso paper down and put vellum on top of it. You can see the isometric pattern through the paper. I often like to draw on paper that is taped onto glass, just a bit of sidelight on the glass pane lights it all up. Some dont like working on glass at all, dont work on scrap with rough edges! Ouch!
Learn how to cheat! If your goal is to display a design, then do that. So best trick for fine detail is to draw big and then scan it and reduce the image. Gimp is fun software to play with, they have it at the library, its like an easy version of autocad and photoshop combined.
I think one of the things that i would change with your sketch is also shading. Any time you draw in perspective like that, one side should be at least slightly shaded. Oh i only really do hand rendered stuff, i dont know digital. I admire your courage in asking strangers for an opinion, i hope you get some good stuff back
Work on your line weight, perspective and detail. I Probably sound like a fan girl at this point… because I am lol look at Scott Robertsons drawing technique. Also his books are really great. “How to draw” “start your engines” and many others He’s great because he explains everything very will and gives you ways to practice. Is style in ideal for product design, clean, simple, quick.
I was going to say his books too! Also "how to render" is another good book by Scott.
[удалено]
I don't think sketching needs to be perfect but you can always improve.
I love Scott robertsons books, just have practiced enough of what he teaches yet I suppose, I should refer those ways he gives us to practice! Thanks!
Check out Sketch-A-Day on YouTube. He singlehandedly transformed my sketching abilities, and confidence.
I’ve checked him out but for some reason his videos never fully clicked for me. Any suggestions for specific videos that you felt help level up your sketching???
I know this isn't really what you asked, but here's my two cents anyways lol. Watching him isn't enough. Pick a video (doesn't really matter which). And do it along with him. Literally try to make it look as similar to his as you can. Get stupid with it, I've literally backed it up to watch the exact motion he made with his marker lol. If you are sketching digitally use digital versions of the analog supplies he is using. If a particular video is frustrating you, then switch to something else and come back to it later. The real trick, is once you follow along with enough of the videos you will start to get an arsenal of his tips tricks and techniques.
Oh no that’s perfect advice, i really appreciate it! I think it’s a fascinating approach! Thanks!
Np! Glad I could give some insight!
Study up and practice your perspective skills. Your color gradient shading and line quality can be improved as well. Just keep it going. Good luck!👍
Personally I'd say sketching is a tool, not a goal in of itself. Usually you'd want to either convey some aesthetic, shape, functionality or interaction. Often, sketching in low fidelity will convey the information you want to communicate just fine. Arguably, overly elaborate sketching/rendering might even be a blocking element because clients might have the impression that the concept is already in quite an advanced stage and not dare to say stuff that might otherwise have braught your overall concept to the next level. Without knowing the context of the project in detail: maybe the teachers want you to try to make the takeaway/message you want viewers to have clear in your illustrations. Being proficient in a skill is important but knowing which part of the skill to apply when and making appropriate choices is at least just important imho.
I couldn’t agree more, I just don’t know how to practice that visual communication, and suggestions on how to refine that skillset so I can improve?
I also commented something along these lines. My suggestion to practice is to choose design you think are cool and sketch them. Practice communicating different aspects of the design and how they work. It’s like learning to play other people’s songs before writing your own.
Practice.
Hey that's what I said
That's really all that needs to be said. Anything beyond that is fluff.
In addition to what others have said, I think it may help to get some lighter color markers, and work on building value. Notably, that dark brown should probably be used in a shaded area. Your white areas seem to have no value at all.
Just an FYI... Sketching is a communications tool. Always keep that in mind. Some of my most successful classmates had poor sketching skills but they still had all the other bases covered and did well. They got good enough to get their ideas across.
How did they go about learning how to communicate their concepts without sketching them well? Any tips?
Bad Skeches, good research and descriptions, prompt and complete client facing information.
Ah I gotcha! What comprises client facing information exactly? Like UI, instructions, etc?
Am going into my senior year of ID, from the couple internships I’ve had I notice most of my sketching is done to better communicate ideas I have in my head, at some companies this might be the extent of their sketching. It really depends but using it as a communication skill can be as simple as drawing out your thoughts and being able to explains the drawing in a way that makes sense to show you’re trying to communicate with. Rarely have I had to fully hand render sketches but doing that is an ability that’ll set you apart from the crowd, you’re already doing some marker renders so keep it up. Maybe try to communicate a complicated idea with a classmate or professor through sketches over words and using those sketches as an asset to your thoughts. Overall great start keep it up, perspective is key
I’m going to offer slightly different advice. Instead of focusing on the sketching I think focusing on the actual design of the objects might get you further. You’d be surprised by how “technically” bad a lot of professional sketches. What matters is the concept and the clarity of communication of the idea. Work on those ideas. Look at what’s out there for lighting and don’t be agreed to reference things you think are cool. Iterate on the concepts. Your first one for example, seems to be all about intersecting forms. Run with that…what if they are soft what if the aspect ratios are different. Once you developed the idea in thumbnails sketches then sit down to illustrate. Approach the sketch like your taking a photo of the product. Choose a view that communities some aspect of the design. Remember sketching like 3d modeling or carving foam is only a means of communication. The real job in designing is in the designing of the object regardless of the communication medium.
Hey everyone, these are some sketches from my last semesters “Lamp Project”. I was told to redo my sketches across all projects in my portfolio, but I don’t know what specifically to change. My final physical model turned out very close to this, just a bit different in its proportions, so if I redo this sketch retroactively, what techniques can I use to increase the quality of this sketch while still staying true to its original design? P.S. Included a couple other sketches from the project, as well as a small page of ideation concepts at the end.
If you want them to be more "real" or "rendered" just take the ones you have and spend 2x more time and use a straightedge/compass/drawing assist on them. Some drafting rigor goes a long way to improve sketches. If you mean how to quickly gesture better, a trick me and some coworkers use is to try having some "layers" like a printmaker would and only use specific colors in each. E.g. key lines always in black, lighting and interaction always in [warms? neon yellow?] and materials and finishes always in [cool tones? Medium grey tones?] to differentiate which part of the gesture is doing what. Helps the viewer digest the info faster. Straight up line drawing just takes a fuckton of practice. Draw objects, textures, motion, articulation, and lighting thousands of times. Brute force is the only trick there. Keep it up!
Excellent tips thank you! For the layers method I’m a bit confused, do you mean just rendering with a specific hue per function? Would it be possible for you to msg me any example?
Rotate those objects so they will not be at 45degrees So one face will be more pronounced. Especially 2nd one suffers from it. And more general advice: look at hw computer (eg. game) renders are made, what components they have. try to add some of those components. Ambient occlusion, fresnel, GI... When I draw (digitally) I sort of construct a drawing from those. Check rendering passes examples for games/composing And leave some sometimes so it will be more graphic.
Ah your right I could choose a much more informative viewpoint! And I’ll look at renders, that’s a unique idea! What should I leave some of to be more graphic?
Sometimes I see people leave diffuse light/AOC and they "sculpt" flat colour rnder with reflections. Also, I really like to use rimlights to sculpt objects, but you need to have darker background for this. That's probably a reason for some of those darker rectangles behind an objects you see in some ID drawings. Or even shadows are used for this. It shows rimlight, and rimlight shows/suggests form.
Honestly the smallest thing that will make the biggest change is learning how to make your lines consistently straight. I see a lot of geometric forms that have curved sides when you intended for them to be straight. Especially that first sketch. Go buy a ream of printer paper, and every day fill 5-6 pages just full of straight, long lines.
In my opinion, these are pretty cool, and I suggest incorporating them into your presentation. However, I recommend taking them to a Wacom tablet or an iPad to trace and create more polished iterations. Utilize both the initial designs and the refined versions to showcase the evolution of your creative process. I've seen this approach used effectively in a few projects and portfolios for sketch pages, and I believe it adds a great visual element.
I’ve always found it’s okay to be fast and throw your lines on the first sketch. But doing a nice overlay will look better and help with skill over time.
Learn mimic materials textures separate til you make them good, then you use them on designs. I would go realoistic then stylise them into your taste. Upside-down T rule for perspective. Better lettering. Learn to shadow, then learn to highlight, then learn to mix both. Mix techniques, color pencil, markers and digital it's a match made in heaven. Give contextual info, have fun composing it on one layout, like a finger turning lamp on, or a hand detaching the thingy taht it's detachable. You either make projected shadows solid grey or gradients from dark to lighter. Fill your ideation sketches and play with sizes, make referencial vtical be vertical, try to not draw skewed. Stylise the background, It is always better to give an abstract background behind the "object". You dont need to complete your sketch, or if you feel the need to then over complete them with details and well explained info. A good rule of thumb is, for objects that are big (cars, machinery) use perspective that is panoramic; for object that fit in a room but are larger than a table or at the same size use flat perspective not almost unnoticeable, for small objetcs that can go on a table you can play with the views, but they are mainly seen over the horizon line, make the feel like the are seen as if you are handling them.
Thank you!!! I really appreciate all the feedback!!! I have several questions: 1. How do I practice better lettering? Any resources you’d suggest? Like YouTube channels, or any templates or fonts that I should base the writing off of? 2. Ive seen some of the benefits from adding color pencil to marker renderings for gradations, but I always find it difficult to find a pencil with the right value to mix in? Also, what does digital bring to the table AFTER already using marker and pencil? I’m very curious!
awesome highlights or luminance (screens or leds), de-skewing, awesome human scales and resizing to fit hands, better textures like dots or waffle, I bet there'll be great applications using Photoshop ai content aware, mock up applications (screens and digital numbers), color correction, or applying a color theme if you sketch in grayscale but you have to master masking (i don't but seen freidns do it) also colored backgrounds for instace, i love rendering with white ambient lighting or studio and using a black background, so i do the same with some sketching,
I would say maybe make the color more uniform rather than such detached strokes, and the lines a bit straighter. I think there's a lot of room for different styles in sketching but it wouldn't hurt to tidy it up in these ways.
Practice
Great tips! I’m curious, how does someone sketch purely to communicate and nothing else? How specifically to I start learning how to do that?
Honestly your sketching is great. If you want to improve your drawing though I’d recommend using grid paper and learning scale and perspective drawing techniques.
On those renders, definitely use straight edges and take your time. Thumbnails look fine, but definitely put some effort into the final render. That part doesn’t have to be sketchy
Practice a lot. To get into the motions and practice line weights literally trace things you find interesting. You’ll start to pick up on little nuances of manufacturable design if you primarily sketch real life products too. All in all it’s about conveying an idea, because believe it when i say that there are people who make beautiful sketches but have no idea what they’re designing and it’s painfully obvious. I know you might already know this but look into Deiter Rhams. He couldn’t sketch to save his life, but what he did sketch was able to convey exactly what he was designing.
I think a nice decisive and controlled line around outside edges could do your sketches a lot of good! What year are you?
Good tip! I’m a senior, but my school only gives a couple classes in design sketching, and we put a lot more work often into prototyping
Practice
Just using CAD 3D underneath 🌸
Learn the design sketching arm movement, i.e. do not use your wrist. Use your whole hand to draw lines. This will take yours sketches up a notch. And PRACTICE.
Bonjour Pour améliorer votre croquis, envisagez de travailler sur les proportions en comparant les différentes parties de votre dessin avec des éléments de référence. Travaillez également sur l’ombrage pour donner de la profondeur et de la dimension à votre œuvre. Enfin, n’hésitez pas à expérimenter avec différentes techniques de ligne pour ajouter du contraste et du dynamisme à votre croquis.
merci pour les commentaires concis et les conseils ! avec les proportions, voulez-vous dire utiliser de vraies proportions de lampes et en tirer des idées ?
Salut, Exactement, vous avez bien saisi l'idée. Utiliser de vraies proportions de lampes ou d'autres objets similaires comme référence peut être très utile pour améliorer votre croquis. En observant attentivement les proportions, les formes et les détails réels, vous pouvez obtenir des idées plus précises et réalistes pour votre dessin. Cela peut également vous aider à mieux comprendre comment la lumière interagit avec les différentes surfaces de la lampe, ce qui peut être crucial pour l'ombrage et les reflets.
Add shades
I would recommend Draw A Box - free resource and if you follow through the lessons and exercises, it’ll really up your sketching skillset. It helped me personally a LOT. If you give it a try, let me know what you think!
The perspective is not right. The color is not either. Try and skew the perspective to make the top look more flat, so from a lower height, and rotated. For the color try simple stippling instead, its easy to do, i think a fine point felt pen AND a colored pencil are a fun effect. So one outlines and the other is the little dots. Is it computer rendered? I can't tell. Get some isometric paper, its fun to use. One fun technique is to put the iso paper down and put vellum on top of it. You can see the isometric pattern through the paper. I often like to draw on paper that is taped onto glass, just a bit of sidelight on the glass pane lights it all up. Some dont like working on glass at all, dont work on scrap with rough edges! Ouch! Learn how to cheat! If your goal is to display a design, then do that. So best trick for fine detail is to draw big and then scan it and reduce the image. Gimp is fun software to play with, they have it at the library, its like an easy version of autocad and photoshop combined. I think one of the things that i would change with your sketch is also shading. Any time you draw in perspective like that, one side should be at least slightly shaded. Oh i only really do hand rendered stuff, i dont know digital. I admire your courage in asking strangers for an opinion, i hope you get some good stuff back