Why you should draw the same product design sketch in different ways

Using different methods of construction can yield better results.

It gives you more ways to arrive at a better product design sketch

I find this to be especially helpful when copying a sketch that, despite its simplicity, is deceptively difficult to draw. The rationale behind starting the sketch in different ways is to determine what the most important lines in the sketch are, and starting with those to make sure that the proportions and perspective of the drawing start with a good foundation. I tend to begin with a plane in perspective, but those planes will start in different parts of a sketch. Other times it might be a rectangular prism where I’ll cut away certain parts to reveal the form.

I’ll demonstrate my point by copying this drawing from Pinterest:

Source from Pinterest

The first thing I’m considering with copying is to make sure that I achieve a likeness to the original. That includes both a likeness to proportions and perspectives. For this first attempt, I’m thinking that starting from the seat of the chair is going to make it easier to achieve that likeness. That’s because, if I can get the size and rotation of that rectangular prism right, it’s going to set me up for success with the perspective for the remainder of the drawing.

Now the legs of chairs have given me trouble in the past with this sketch, so I wanted to add a little more construction to ensure that I would draw the legs in perspective. I do that by extending another rectangular prism down to the point where the chair ends, and it acts as a marker where I can place the ends of the legs around it.

Finally, I wanted to determine the point where the welded middle piece connects, and I do that by placing a plane in that rectangular prism to mark that spot.

Now, I was pretty satisfied with the likeness, but I see that the length of the legs underneath the welded part was definitely too long, and the chair is rotated a little bit counterclockwise.

Now I thought I could do better with the middle welded piece, so with the black sketch, I began with a plane and then expanded a rectangular prism from it. I was a lot closer in likeness this way with the legs, but I lost some likeness in the size of the actual seat. I also ended up rotating the chair even further counterclockwise.

But you can see that there were three main methods I was using to construct the chair:

1. A rectangular prism that’s cut to reveal the final form (step 1)
2. A rectangular prism that’s used as a marker where I can place elements around it (step 2)
3. A plane in perspective that’s used to mark locations of the certain elements (step 3)

At the end of the day, there’s no universally correct way to starting a sketch. It’s more nuanced where you can determine what feels most comfortable and makes the most sense to your brain. And in this case, my gut instinct to start the first way just yielded a better result. But in other cases, the inverse can be true. If something doesn’t look good on the first sketch, try mixing up how you construct drawing and suss out what lines in the sketch are essential to get right.