A lesson on why to listen to your elders

"Drawing skills", my coach in university once said, "are the most useful tools a designer could ever have". And he added that during his education, he would have drawing practise for at least one-and-a-half day per week, for several years.

Well, than it stands to reason that my drawing skills are not on par with those of traditionally educated designers. My education was more of the "define you own curriculum" kind and I've always considered function to be highly superior over form. Therefore, spending an eternity on practising how to make 'pretty' drawings was not very high on my list of priorities.

Until now.

It started when, after graduating, I started to use more sketches and doodles during brainstorms. After a while, I noticed that the ones with the better-looking sketches were far more pleasurable to go through again and again, and that browsing through those sketches would give me lots of enthusiasm and motivation to continue working on the concept.

Now, I highly prefer working on paper compared to making digital drawings (or worse: only descriptions with no pictures at all). Even though digital drawings or renderings can be much more precise and beautiful (and not to mention, there is an 'undo' function that paper sadly lacks), when it comes to brainstorming and concept development, drawing on a sheet of paper gives so much more freedom. On paper it is so much easier (at least for me) to put down your train of thoughts, ponder, compare, take it with you, make some minor adaptations etcetera.

There is just something about a drawing that cannot be captured in words. Even though words are often needed to emphasize or explain aspects of the design, a drawing communicates so more about the idea or concept. That is, as long as the drawing is accurate.

And there's the challenge: making drawings that are both accurate, aesthetically pleasing and not to mention drawn quickly. That calls for quite some skill... Maybe the extensive drawing practise was not such a bad idea after all!

During my "Sleek & Futuristic" challenge, originally meant to discover the form language of sleek/futuristic looking items, I rediscovered and tried out new drawing techniques. I learned a lot, although I cannot say I already have a good grasp on how to make something look futuristic or sleek, but my understanding definitely improved and that's what I was aiming for. The rest will come over time, I'm sure.

The first days, I was really lost on how to start, but after studying reference pictures it became easier. I used 3D software (1 and 4), pencil sketch on paper (2) and digital drawing software (3).

Two more 3D modeling software renderings (5 and 7), and pencil sketches (6 and 8).

After that, the challenge turned more into a drawing training assignment. I even started to use markers (day 10 to 14), which I hated during my education. And I liked it! I also discovered the awesome effect of drawing on colored pape, using a sharpie (Dutch: fineliner), grey markers and a white chalk pencil (day 10 and 11). Whoa!

As you can see, I still have a LOT to learn and train when it comes to perspective, shading or even just setting straight lines. That's fine. I'll just need to keep on practising and experimenting, and then maybe, maybe after a looong time, I'll even reach the level of a classically educated industrial designer!

For those of you who are interested in using markers for drawing, here is a nice tutorial on how to use them. The website idcreatures.com (I'm a fan) has many more of those, very convenient if you want to learn more about making product drawings.

My next challenge will be drawing people in interaction with objects - talk about challenges!