When thinking of my projects one and two, I realise
that I very seriously miss brainstorming skills, and in design this means the
ability to produce quick and to scale freehand drawings.
I do have some limited background in art and namely
for as long as I could remember myself – drawings and painting was about fun,
not about accuracy. I had always been a part of an art club and never expected
to perform in art. The first time I had to compete in the field of art, I lost
severely, and thereafter lost all interest in drawing and painting.
So, knowing that beside sample boards, drawing and
sketching are the domains where I need to give a push to myself, I enrolled
into KLC’s very promising Freehand drawing short course.
A very big difference between those two courses is that
sample boards is about delivering well defined product in the industry, while
freehand drawing is about a technique which a client may even not be aware if
one is capable of. It is more of a skill, which is auxiliary to the rest, and
which may remain backstage if we so choose.
The course’s tutor did not quite keep to the
programme, but nevertheless made the course hours mostly interesting and worthwhile.
Here is what I learned:
- · There are simple exercises one can do, just to accustom his hand to drawing. To remind ourselves that it is a very accessible skill it is good to get used to sketch using any medium, like really any – discarded paper, crayons for all purposes, scraps…
- · When drawings objects – ideally go for cubes for a start. This was the exercise most appreciated – draw six cubes and shade them. Infinite source of exploration and training – how do the cubes evolve in the distance? What is the value of the shades on lighter and darker sides, and so on.
- · There were of course exercises less appreciated – like enlarging a picture with the use of a grid.
·
There
were exercises exercise in the leaflet we never properly did, such as drawing
from observation…
It seems that the course was a bit too short for
everything that is in the freehand drawing – on one side the numerous techniques
meant to help us find our drawing “feet”, on the other hand learn the standards
that are expected in the field of interior design.
The course’s most relevant to interior design exercise
should have been the one-point perspective – it sort of got lost between the
many different ways to shade and the enlarging. Nevertheless, I am, like many
others, set to do my one point as soon as possible.
So, I like to look at the bounty of knowledge, as a starting
point, and here is the list of what I want to take with me:
- · To draw a straight line without a ruler – look at the end of the line. Never tried it properly – here is a mine full of exercise already!
- · Cross-hatching, or etching – an exercise of applying subsequent layers of hatching to a field. Every layer leaves a piece unhatched and changes direction! That is how values are learnt – very useful and what I should do more often
- · How to check the result of a sketch – turn it upside down or take a distance!
- · Erasing is not allowed – shapes are corrected through other shapes
- · Erasing is only allowed where the light spills should be done.
And for the way forward, not surprisingly – practice!
- · When shown my mark making from the creativity post – the tutor advised me to try do them with different density – that is how the shades will come!
- · Most of our surroundings are cubes and tubes – one kind of sketching to practice a lot
- · Practice in any free moment – even when TV is on, or while on telephone…
Always the diligent student, I picked a very
customised practice for the weekend. I went through my Kelly Hoppen books and
tried to sketch some of the most common silhouettes:
Finally, now that I am at Kelly and furniture, I am
thinking – how many of those varieties can be found in Ikea? Checked this
weekend – not many. Am not tempted to sketch Ikea, but am thinking already of a
following post and exercise…
So, post may be something about influential designers
and how to use the work – will inevitably lead to a presentation of Kelly’s
books in my possession I’m afraid. Or sourcing? Going beyond Ikea is so tricky!
Or revisit project 1 – through space planning, and
naturally some one point perspectives…. What do you think?
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