What is Sketching?
Engineering Design and Presentation
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Definition
• Noun
• a rough or unfinished drawing or painting,
often made to assist in making a more
finished picture
• Verb
• [with object]make a rough drawing of:
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What does that mean?
• A sketch is a rapidly executed
freehand drawing that is not
intended as a finished work. In
general, a sketch is a quick
way to record an idea for later
use. Sketches primarily serve
as a way to try out different
ideas and establish a
composition before
undertaking a more finished
work, especially when the
finished work is expensive and
time consuming (like designing
a new engine for an
automobile).
• Knowing how to sketch
sharpens your ability to focus
on the most important elements
of a subject or problem that you
must design.
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There are 5 basic uses for
Sketching in the Engineering
Design Process
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#1- Rapid Concept
Development
• Sketching is an excellent way to quickly explore
your thoughts and ideas. You can sketch for one
or two hours and work out multiple possible
solutions to the design problem at hand. This is
an essential step in the design process. It will
save you time to work through concepts on
paper before going to the computer. While it is
possible to build sketches on the computer, it's
not as fast as sketching multiple concepts on
paper.
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#2- Basic Composition or
Layout
• Sketches are a quick way to create the
basic composition of your ideas. You can
make a series of thumbnail sketches, or
they can be larger. As long as your
sketches are good enough that they
capture the essential parts of your idea or
concept, drawing skills are not required
but yes, they help.
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#3- Client Communication and
Approval
• Showing sketched thumbnails to clients, will
potentially save you an enormous amount of
time. The more detailed the project will be, the
earlier you need client approval.
• If you're going to spend hours on an new engine
design, you want to make sure the client is in
agreement with your choice of design before
moving forward. Getting thumbnail sketch
approvals from clients is a common part of any
design process.
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#4- Visual Exploration
• Sketching can be used as a
journaling/reflection activity to record and
explore your ideas.
• It can also be used to explore multiple
options you could take in a particular
design without spending time making them
precise and to scale.
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#5-Refining Visual Solutions
• The process of creating a finished design at later
stages involves refinement via drafting. But
before you move on to the technical drawing
methods, mistakes can be avoided or corrected
by more sketching to work out the idea(s) you
have.
• At some point you will move on to the computer.
The process of sketching then moves into
Computer Aided Design (CAD).
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We are going to practice
Thumbnail Sketching
• Thumbnail sketching isn’t used just for
engineering design.
• Q & A Time = Can you tell me what are
some other uses for thumbnail sketches?
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What is a 'thumbnail‘ sketch?
• Thumbnail sketches are used by
designers to visualize the final product.
Also, to record the essence of the idea or
design.
• Usually they are done quickly with paper
(graph paper is often the preferred type of paper), a
pencil, eraser, sometimes a pen and/or
color. They are no larger than an inch or
two. The artist's shorthand that may not
mean much to anyone else.
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Definition
The word "thumbnail" is a reference to the human
thumbnail and alludes towards the small size of
the image or picture, comparable to the size of the human
thumbnail. While the earliest use of the word in this sense, dates
back to the 17th century, the American Heritage Dictionary of
Idioms is reported to have documented that the expression first
appears in the mid-19th century to refer to 'a drawing the size of
the thumbnail'. The word was then used figuratively, in both
noun and adjective form, to refer to anything small or concise,
such as a biographical essay. The use of the word "thumbnail" in
the specific context of computer images as 'a small graphical
representation, as of a larger graphic, a page layout, etc.'
appears to have been first used in the 1980s.
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What is it NOT?
• A thumbnail is not a fully rendered pencil
drawing. It is not a working drawing the
same size as the final drawing where the
designer has worked out many questions
about value, shape, edges, etc..
• It is not a full color mini-version of the final
drawing such as is done for an important
expensive project to show to the customer.
• Its usually not meant to be seen by
anyone but the designer.
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What do they look like?
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Why not just take a picture?
• The camera records everything without
discrimination. In a thumbnail you must
decide what is most important and
eliminate the rest.
• This is the first step in the creation of a
design...Simplification.
• Going from real world profusion to 2D
design is a major transformation.
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What are they for?
• Memory aid and planning tools
• They can help you remember important
features of a subject, why you found it
interesting or beautiful.
• They can be used to try many ideas
quickly.
• The first one is almost never the best one.
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How are they made?
• Hold in your mind the initial flash of excitement
that caused you to get out your sketch book.
• It might help to jot down a word or two first about
that feeling. Draw a rough rectangle. Depict your
idea in a very simple sketch. Outline the major
shapes. Ignore smaller shapes and details. Try
squinting to see only the big shapes.
• Imagine how it would look as a finished drawing
or product.
• Try likely variations, learning and improving from
sketch to sketch. Establish roughly the location
of major elements.
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What sort of notes are useful?
• Start with the type of materials to use,
what does the customer require be on or
off it.
• Whatever might help you later when you
move onto the final technical drawing
stage
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Why bother? I want to get right
to designing/drawing.
• Do it because it will save time in the long run
and you will end up with a better design!
• Most beginners benefit greatly from thumbnails
to help guide them in the design/drawing
process.
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Why don't mine help?
• It's a skill that has to be learned by doing.
The beginning painter may get very little
benefit at first because having never
painted, he isn't able to imagine how his
idea will look translated to paint. The more
he knows what can be done with paint and
what works, the better he can plan a
painting and the more useful the thumbnail
becomes.
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When it's done, then what?
• Set it so it is easily seen. Use it as a guide
for sketching your subject on the canvas.
Make refinements as you go.
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Practice
• Think of your top 6 favorite toys as a child.
• Now create a thumbnail sketch of each of
them in the space provided. Feel free to
add descriptions like how they made you
feel, colors, textures, etc..
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Today’s Assignment
• On the paper grid, give a thumbnail sketch
of your top six (6) favorite toys you played
with as a child.
• You can add color if needed.
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Lets see if you can guess what mine
are from these thumbnail sketches.
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What about now with color?
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How do they help us when
planning technical drawings?
• Thumbnail sketches as to planning out
how we would draft an object by hand
following drafting/technical drawing
methods and/or in the computer in a CAD
program
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Here is our problem the
Rod Spacer
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The Views
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How I would draw it 2D in CAD
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How I would draw it 3D in CAD
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Some Practice
• Thumbnail sketch out the steps you would
use to draw the following problems.
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The Sling
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The Adjustable Stop
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