[MUSIC] Okay guys, welcome to our first class. What I want to talk about today is sketching. And I'm going to use sketch book as my tool so that's digital drawing. And I'm using the full version of the software on a drawing tablet called a Wacom and it is a full computer. In addition, the sketchbook app is available on in any mobile device. But keep in mind, I'm using a digital drawing tool yet everything I'm talking about right now applies to an analog pen and paper methodology. So, before I get in to the software, let's talk about why we draw. We draw as a communication tool to show our ideas drawing or sketching is a powerful tool that crosses boundaries and language barriers. It takes your ideas, puts it in a clean and concise image and allows other people to see it. Now I am not talking about art or beautiful art that's been done in the world. I'm talking about design sketching which is very different. It's all about getting an idea across and there are some key aspects that you need to understand and the first one I want to talk to you about is lines. So when you see someone draw, or if you don't draw a lot, when you see someone do it you tend to see this type of line. Then the line slowly moves, and maybe it moves over here. So what does this line say to you about the confidence level? To me, this line says maybe, maybe, maybe. So more than likely, when you're putting this line on paper, you're using your finger and thumb or two fingers to move the pen or whatever you're using. But what a lot of people forget is that when you're drawing, you should shoot for drawing from the shoulder or use your whole arm. When you see me draw this line what does it say? It says confidence and it says I am starting here and I am ending here. So if I draw this line and this line, these extra areas here where it bleeds off they don't matter the point is I'm creating a complete line. And I'm moving farther than I need to, to insure that it ends properly. It's all about practice and confidence to make that happen. The is the try and draw from your shoulder and try to make complete line. That's the key to line work, if you draw a little bit every day you will get better. So, once we've got that initial lines on paper or digital like I'm doing. Let's move a step forward. So, what are we showing I'm drawing a side view here. And I'm going to draw some kind of house. And as I communicate these lines You can start to see where I'm going. The way you put your lines on the paper for designs, sketching, and the way you build it out is important. As you notice, as I put more weight Where doggedness to the outside lines. They start to catch your eye and frame what the profile of this thing looks like. Notice that all of my outside lines are similar parallel and my inside lines are all similar. That is the essence of line weight control. So, I've done an elevation view here and elevation views are great way to communicate and show your work. But at the same time Is anything in our world in elevation view? And the answer is no, everything is in perspective. So drawing in perspective is a slightly more natural way to show it. So if you haven't done art classes, drawing in perspective becomes a little bit of a mystery. And if you do draw something in three quarters, I'd hazard a guess that most of you draw in what's called an isometric view. And I'll quickly draw an isometric cube here. Something you'll notice throughout here is that I do rotate my paper, I'm a believer in that skill set. The reason you rotate your page is to take advantage of your arms biomechanical position. Now, as I'm finishing this isometric Cube. I'm starting to make all of my outside lines darker or bolder to create a relationship and all the inside lines are their weight. What makes it isometric is that all the vertical lines are parallel. All these three are parallel and then the last three are also parallel. Isometric is also not a bad way to communicate and can be utilized. But at the same time, perspective represents the world. For example, if you look down a railroad track, even though they're always a set distance apart, they appear to come together and touch in the distance. That's the essence of perspective as they get farther away from you, the distance appears to shrink and even though they are technically parallel they appear to angle together. So what perspective means to us is it if I have point in space and if I have those railway tracks, going to that point, and if I have another point over here, and when I draw my first set of railroad ties, they point at the second point. And as I draw more in They still point back to the second point. And that is the principle of how perspective works. So what I'd like to do now is use a three-point cube as our starting point. So, if I draw a quick horizon line and I say left vanishing point, right vanishing point, and then the third vanishing point which is down at the bottom. You can see as I start to draw lines anything horizontal goes to either the left or the right vanishing point. And anything vertical goes to the third vanishing point. And because the vanishing points are so close here, it's making it a slight bit more dramatic than we might all want. But this is a good place to start. You could see that I've laid it out quickly for my grid, I'll add some darker lines for my bold outside, I'm turning my page. Maybe make sure my inner lines match a similar weight. Now you can see how all three horizontals that are pointing to the left vanishing point. All of the right horizontals are going to the right and all the verticals are going to the third. Left vanishing point, right vanishing point, third vanishing point. Now, I'm running digital here, so I can cheat a little bit and I'll scale this image and now you can see how far apart those statue points might be if I was laying them out for this size. Now, laying out the vanishing points is very technical and that's how you do it. But the more you do it the easier it becomes to do this off the cuff or on the fly. And there's nothing wrong with laying out those vanishing points. But eventually, if you keep practicing, you won't have to. The main idea is that these lines all draw your eye together at a similar point. The same is true for these three over here. All pull your eye together. So hide that layer, new layer. So as you're starting to draw and you're starting to practice, keep in mind that our goal is Communication. It's about getting your idea across. It's about a visual language. Drawing over an image or a picture or tracing over your own work. Is always a good idea. Anything you can do to speed yourself up and proportion your work is always a good thing. Sometimes people have a negative impression of tracing but I am 100% for it. The more you trace over your own work the better you get. So, with that in mind, if I going to draw a quick cube, I'll draw it without laying out the vanishing points. And I've started with the center section of the cube, and I'll slowly make it look like these two lines on the right are coming together like a railroad track. And the same for these two. And then I'll do another one over here. And I'll do the same here, And here, And there. So I'll come in and give these lines just a little more weight. And a little more All right, I've drawn a quick cube. Like we talked about, a great way to get better is to use your work, Or pictures or maybe a CAD file has an underline. The idea is to speed up and make sure that you get your perspective right. And again helps you to ground your idea And because I'm doing digital here. What I'll do is I'll create my own piece of paper by creating a new layer over the drawing I just did. And now that I set this off, I can start to think about my design and not the perspective as. And what I'm going to do is changes ever so slightly then, I'll say well, let's Let’s slice this edge here. And all I'm doing is put in a difference and aiming at the vanishing point. And was I get to there, all I've got to do now is connected dots And now, that triangular section has been sliced off of my cube. And I'll trace over the rest of my work here. Maybe I'll do something similar on the bottom edge. We'll cut right here. A little less steep here. And I'll drag this line back towards vanishing point again, connect the dots. A little bolder line. A little bit more here, even that one and maybe I'll slice out a section on the back. And your Your eye is used to seeing things and in this manner so it believes that, that back side is cut out. And even if I do something as simple as add two lines like this. A little border line. Your eye is used to seeing that and acknowledges that as a stepped in or a foot. Turn off my other layer. Now I've got just this fresh sheet of paper that I traced over my other drawing. Now I'll just darken some edges a little and that little bit of perspective understanding goes a long way and I've built a new form off of my original drawing. And maybe I'll give it a small contour line to help communicate the shape just a little bit more. And never ever be afraid to number your work. Maybe a little cull out line as well. Maybe some notes about what it does. Adding notes and information helps to paint the complete picture. So I hope you enjoyed this first section on drawing, I hope you're inspired to draw a little bit more, and what I'd like you to do is practice drawing. And start by drawing cubes, it's a great way to get the ball moving and then set up an underlay, and draw more. All right, let's draw. [MUSIC]
