Essential insights and tips
Why do designers sketch?
-To get down ideas easy
-To communicate ideas
-Record ideas
What is a good sketch?
Different purposes
To think.
Sketching as a method of thinking.
To capture and communicate details
Way to iterate, test, and evolve ideas
To show
As a communication tool
To help visualize
A way to communicate a feeling
When thinking
The quality of that sketch is judged by the value of the idea captured by the sketch
When showing
Aesthetically pleasing
How well it can convey feeling and vision
Expectations while sketching
Do hundreds of sketches to lead to one main body
Case study: Marc Newton
Madonna chair
Though his sketch wasn't good, the idea he wanted to capture was represented in his sketch
It's about capturing an idea and communicating it through your sketches
Takeaways from Hans
1) Aim to make mistakes.
-Let your next mistakes inform your next sketch
-Get it wrong and do it again
2) Be efficient with your sketching
-Know exactly what you're trying to communicate
3) Develop your own style
4) Sketch constantly
Tips
-No erasers, ever. If you make a mistake, draw another one
-No fuzzy/hairy lines (The back and forth technique thing)
-Use annotations to supplement drawings (Labels, etc)
-Draw in both 2D and 3D
-Use hatching to indicate material/texture/color
In the first exercise, we had to iterate different sketches surrounding a bottle following the instructions given i.e. sizing, add attributes, refine curves/shape, open lid function etc. in 7-8 minutes.
The second exercise was similar and also done in 7-8 minutes but instead focused on sketches around a lamp and then putting the lamp into different contexts i.e. changing its size in relation to the environment.
We were then given another similar exercise but it was to be done independently in a larger time frame i.e. 30 minutes to one hour, where we explore and iterate different sketches based on the chair image given to us by Hans.