Wednesday workshop 22nd Jan 2014

Line drawing & thumbnail sketching

Definition: line drawing; a drawing done using only narrow lines, without blocks of shading The first, and absolutely most important thing to learn about drawing lines is line quality.

The line on the left is when you draw multiple little lines to form a single line. This is a typical and a BAD habit that designers make. This is mainly due to not having enough confidence in drawing lines in a single stroke. Ideally, you want your lines to look like the one on the right. This is accomplished by a single stroke. Its all about confidence. How do you build the confidence? Follow these tips: 1. Practice! Simply draw arcing lines on a rough sheet of paper. Large ones that fill up the page. They dont go anywhere in particular, but it really helps loosen your arm up so that youre able to make those confident strokes. 2. Draw lines slowly. This will improve your technique. Youll get more squiggly lines when you first learn how to do this, but over time, youll get less and less squiggly. 3. Draw lightly first. When drawing illustrations, drawing lightly will build confidence in your strokes (you can have a few line breaks when youre sketching). Then go over the lines with a slower, more refined single stroke. 4. Draw with your whole arm instead of just your wrist. Youll get a much broader range of control and can draw much cleaner lines this way. It takes getting used to, but its the best way to draw.

The next important element to a line is line weight.

Task: Using the template, sketch 3 ideas as thumbnails,considering line weight as above and below.

If an architectural based idea, sketch your thumbnail considering the below, referencing this form of line drawing:

Remember: Thumbnails should be quick and clearly show a process in your thinking and development.