Design Course
Freehand Sketching
Rediscovering the Act of Sketching
by
Day 3
Introduction to Day 3
Today, under Warm up, we revise all that we did in the Workout on Day 1 and 2.
Under Workout, we will learn to draw parallel vertical lines accurately. Do not forget to play music while doing the workouts!
Under Sense of Perspective Space, we learn how to extend a cube to get cuboids in 2-point perspective accurately.
Preparation:
• Download and Print:
1. D3_45-deg-5cm-Cube
2. D3_30-60-deg-5cm-Cube
3. D3_45-deg-1x2.5x1.5_Solution
4. D3_45-deg-1x2.25x2.25_Solution
5. D3_30-60-deg-1x2.5 x1.5_Solution
6. D3_30-60-deg-1x2.25x2.25_Solution
• Newsprint sheets (for Warm up)
• Tracing sheets (for Workout and Sense of Perspective Space exercises)
• Soft pencils - 2B, 4B, 6B, etc.
• Measuring ruler/scale (for Sense of Perspective Space exercise today)
• Long ruler and set squares preferably, for drawing the Grid.
• Music
Overall Time Plan: 2 hours 20 minutes
• Warm up : 15 mins.
• Workout : 80 mins.
• Sense of Perspective Space : 45 mins.
Warm up
15 minute Exercise:
0-15 mins : Practice drawing Horizontal and Vertical Lines. This is a quick revision of the workouts done on all earlier days WITHOUT the underlay grids.
While drawing these, remember to:
1. Draw them for various lengths.
2. Draw them in either direction
This practice is meant to free up you hand and body movements.
Why warm ups?
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<Warm up Ends>
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Workout
Change of Pace
Observe the following video.
Video 3.3: Parallel Horizontal Lines starting away from Grid with greater control
Attachment Size 
Day-3-V-3-Parallel-Horizontal-Lines-starting-away-from-Grid-with-greater-control.mp41016.52 KB
Did you notice that a change of pace while drawing lines allows superior control on the ends, especially when one wants to end just short of the grid? Thus we adopt Change of Pace as our new strategy to control line quality. We will attempt two variations. Both are essential.
1. Change of pace in drawing the lines - fast, slow
2. Change of pace within a single line - fast to slow, slow to fast
Note: It is important to retain the straightness and quality (thickness and darkness) of the line, even when the speed of drawing the line changes.
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1. Aim: Drawing Parallel Horizontal and Vertical Lines with Control of Pace
• Improve line quality
• Control parallel-ness of line
• Control start and end points
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2. Set up:
• You will need grid G1, G2 and G3 for today's session. Preserve all the grid sheets post Workout, for later use.
• You will be using tracing sheets over these for practicing all the workout exercises here onwards.
• Play music while doing the workouts, they must preferably have good variation of fast and slow tracks.
Image 3.1: Grid 3_15x15 with blue horizontal lines and red vertical lines @150mm
3. Body Posture:
Recall the body posture discussed in earlier videos for horizontal and vertical lines.
Note: Make sure that you move the upper part of the body in the direction in which the line is drawn.
4. Summary of exercises that follow:
Parallel Horizontal and Vertical Lines
(a) Fast
(b) Slow, Very Slow
(c) Fast to Slow
(d) Slow to Fast
(e) Starting Away from grid
(f) Ending Away from grid
Variations explored: Reversing direction, Varying lengths, Equidistant spacing by subdivision
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3.1) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Fast Pace: 2.5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate speed of drawing lines
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G1 below, draw parallel horizontal lines at fast pace, as shown in the video below. Practice for both left to right and right to left directions.
Video 3.4: Parallel Horizontal Lines drawn at Fast Pace
3.2) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Slow Pace: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate speed of drawing lines
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G1 below, draw parallel horizontal lines at slow pace, as shown in the video below. Practice for both directions.
Video 3.5: Parallel Horizontal Lines drawn at Slow Pace
Most people have difficulty in drawing lines slowly and yet maintaining the straightness, but with practice you can really make it slow.
3.3) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Very Slow Pace: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate speed of drawing lines
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G1 below, draw parallel horizontal lines at very slow pace, as shown in the video below. Practice for both directions.
Video 3.6: Parallel Horizontal Lines drawn at Very Slow Pace
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3.4) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Fast to Slow: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate change in speed
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G1 below, draw parallel horizontal lines from fast to slow, as shown in the video below. Practice for both directions.
Video 3.7: Parallel Horizontal Lines drawn from Fast to Slow Pace
3.5) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Slow to Fast: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate change in speed
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G1 below, draw parallel horizontal lines fromslow to fast, as shown in the video below. Practice for both directions.
Video 3.8: Parallel Horizontal Lines drawn from Slow to Fast Pace
Note: You must ensure that the change in speed is not reflected in the quality of the lines. To control the starting point you can start slow and to control end points you must end slow. You can draw lines slowly once you attain control on the movement.
3.6) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Slow to Fast, with greater control:2.5 mins-1/2 sheet
Objective: To regulate change in speed
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G1 below, draw parallel horizontal lines from slow to fast, with greater control, as shown in the video below. Practice for both directions.
Video 3.9: Parallel Horizontal Lines drawn from Fast to Slow Pace with greater control
Attachment Size Day-3-V-9-Parallel-Horizontal-Lines-drawn-from-Fast-to-Slow-Pace-with-greater-control.mp41018.67 KB
Now that you have greater control over the speed of your lines, let us try starting and stopping away from the grid.
3.7) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Starting away from grid: 2.5 mins - 1/2 sheet
Objective: To develop control over horizontal parallel lines
Draw horizontal and vertical lines, such that they start 2 cm away from grid. Use grid G1 as underlay. Make sure that the alignment of start and end points is maintained, as shown in the video below.
Video 3.1: Parallel Horizontal Lines starting away from Grid
3.8) Parallel Horizontal Lines/Ending away from grid: 2.5 mins - 1/2 sheet
Draw horizontal and vertical lines, such that they start and end 2 cm away from grid. Use Templates T1 and T2. Make sure that alignment of start and end points is maintained.
Video 3.2: Parallel Horizontal Lines ending away from Grid
Note: Try to see that the vertical alignment of start and end points is maintained
Design the rest of your Session:
Now, design the rest of your session, which involves repeating the same pace control exercises for vertical lines. Although it is ideal to practice all, you may also pick just any 4 exercises from 3.9-16 but certainly do the last 'Summary workout' to complete today's workout session.
3.9) Parallel Vertical Lines/Fast Pace: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate speed of drawing lines
Now, on a tracing sheet overlay with grid G2 below, draw parallel vertical lines at fast pace. Practice for both top to bottom and bottom to top directions.
3.10) Parallel Vertical Lines/Slow Pace: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate speed of drawing lines
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G2 below, draw parallel vertical lines at slow pace. Practice for both directions.
3.11) Parallel Vertical Lines/Very Slow Pace: 2.5 mins - 1/2 sheet
Objective: To regulate speed of drawing lines
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G2 below, draw parallel vertical lines at very slow pace. Practice for both directions.
3.12) Parallel Vertical Lines/Fast to Slow: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate change in speed
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G2 below, draw parallel vertical lines from fast to slow. Practice for both directions.
3.13) Parallel Vertical Lines/Slow to Fast: 5 mins - 1 sheet
Objective: To regulate change in speed
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G2 below, draw parallel vertical lines from slow to fast. Practice for both directions.
3.14) Parallel Vertical Lines/Slow to Fast, with greater control:2.5 mins - 1/2 sheet
Objective: To regulate change in speed
On a tracing sheet overlay with grid G2 below, draw parallel vertical lines from slow to fast, with greater control. Practice for both directions.
3.15) Parallel Vertical Lines/Starting away from grid: 2.5 mins - 1/2 sheet
Objective: To develop control over vertical parallel lines
Draw vertical lines, such that they start 2 cm away from grid. Use grid G2 as underlay. Make sure that the alignment of start and end points is maintained.
3.16) Parallel Vertical Lines/Ending away from grid: 2.5 mins - 1/2 sheet
Draw vertical lines, such that they start and end 2 cm away from grid. Use grid G2. Make sure that alignment of start and end points is maintained.
3.17) Parallel Horizontal /Vertical Lines/Larger grid: 20 mins - 1/2 sheet
Do this 'summary workout' on a large G3 grid. Remember to practice for parallel lines of both orientations such that they now start as well as end 2 cm, then 3 cm away from grid. Make sure that alignment of start and end points is maintained.
<Workout Ends>
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Sense of Perspective Space
Discussion: Choice of appropriate Perspective angles for representing Objects:
Notice the emphasis on practicing two specific orientations in particular viz. 45 degree and 30-60 degree with respect to picture plane. There is a definite reason for this. While a 45 degree orientation with respect to picture plane is good for objects which have more or less uniform dimensions, the 30-60 degree orientation with respect to picture plane is especially useful for objects with one longer side, such as a bus or a mobile phone. It is wiser to choose the longer face as the one at 30 degree to picture plane.
Image 3.2: Bus in 30-60 Perspective
Image 3.3: A 30-60 Perspective works well while showcasing mobile phones
Knowing that the items away from the frontage change their dimensions, how do we get these lengths right? The following is an easy way to achieve this.
Dimension Control in Perspective:
Recall from Day-2 discussion on Why 2-point perspective? that there is no perspective effect on the divisions on the vertical lines, any vertical can be divided by ruler. (This is exactly the reason why we chose the convention of doing all our drawings in 2-point perspective in the first place!).
Video 3.10: Horizontal and Vertical Dimension Control in Perspective Apply this method for the following assignment:
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1. Aim: Drawing Cuboids in Perspective accurately
(Cuboids are oriented at (i) 45 deg or
(ii) 30-60 deg to Picture Plane)
It is a good idea to start with a correct cube, because if you get the cube wrong, the entire perspective can go wrong. So important is it to start with a correct cube that, we recommend you to henceforth use the cube templates provided as underlays (or as base cube, as the case may be) and build from that for each exercise.
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2. Set up: Do the following exercise on tracing sheets. Have a measuring ruler handy for measuring vertical distances. Starting from these as base UNIT cubes for respective orientations, draw cuboids for the following lxbxh values:
(1) 1 x 2.5 x 1.5
(2) 1 x2.25 x 2.25
Refer to the downloaded comarison sheets ONLY after you are done with the exercise. You will need tracing sheets for this exercise, so keep them handy.
3. Exercise: Print the following A4 sheets [Download...D3_45-deg-5cm-Cube][D3_30-60-deg-5cm-Cube] provided.
Note: Observe the difference in presentation with the change in orientation angle. There is no perspective effect on the divisions on the vertical lines. So, any vertical can be divided by scale. Also note that there are atleast two ways of arriving at the same point while plotting in perspective. Hence, it is wiser to cross check the accuracy of your point locations at every step by this. For example, in the case below, E' can be arrived at by either deducing it on the vertical AEE'A' plane or on the horizontal A'B'C'D' Plane.
4. Review:
Click here to see the correct perspectives and compare: [D3_45-deg-1x2.5x1.5_Solution][D3_45-deg-1x2.25x2.25_Solution][D3_30-60-deg-1x2.5 x1.5_Solution][D3_30-60-deg-1x2.25x2.25_Solution]
<Sense of Perspective Space and Day 3 End>
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Day 4 Preview
Tomorrow we begin with Warm ups, brushing up what we did in this entire session, very quickly, followed by self-assessed Workout and Sense of Perspective Space: Tests.
Downloads for Day 2: Remember this important PRINTING INSTRUCTION while printing!
1. D4_D4_Estimation-of-Length_Test
2. D4_Cubic-Object_Exercise
3. D4_45-deg-10cm-Cube
4. D4_30-60-deg-10cm-Cube
5. D4_Cubic-Object-at-45-deg_Solution
6. D4_Cubic-Object-at-30-60-deg_Solution
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