Good sketching skills is an important design process, truly needed in the design industry today. In my years of working in the design industry, I have seen many young designers, giving up sketching because they think they cannot do it.
The truth is, sketching is a process that requires constant practice to perfect the skill. Therefore, the determination to practice sketching is essential to help you succeed, to the point where sketching will become second nature to you once you start visualizing a design in your mind.
One good way to practice your drawing is to look through reference of good designs sketches to motivate you. So here are some references that will be good to look at to practice sketching:
1. Design Sketching (Sweden)
An excellent collection of design sketch explorations, this is a book worth buying. It features 24 of the best design works from the Umea Institute of Design, Sweden, one of Europe’s best design schools. Well-known for their good design sketching skills, this book features many powerful designs that have been done in various art mediums (pens, pencils, markers) and computer programs like Photoshop and Illustrator.
The website itself provides sneak previews of the some of the chapters in this book. Their 2D rendering skills are so amazing that you will be tempted to order it from this Swedish website.
2. Carl Liu Design Book (Taiwan)
The best Asian design sketchbook published for industrial designers, Carl Liu’s book is a collection of many of his personal product design sketches. Working in reputable design companies like Astro Studios, his works shows an extensive collection of ideation sketches, presentations, exploded views and storyboards done with quick drawings and renderings.
Looking at the portfolio in his website, will inspire you to design and practice drawing further.
3. Scott Robertson (USA)
Being known for his strong futuristic conceptualization of product, transportation and city designs, Scott Robertson’s website shows many works created far beyond one’s imaginations. On his website, there are design sketching DVDs available, which shows vivid demonstrations of how Scott Robertson himself, would clearly demonstrate sketching skills in the correct perspective and proportion from scratch.
