Rugby School Thailand Design & Technology Senior School

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Sketching on Paper

What we'll be doing is sketching out multiple 2D design ideas for our resin poured table lamp, using our inspiration photos to help us.

Things we'll be using/need is an A3 marker paper, an A3 template sheet (optional), a blue pencil/ mechanical pencil with a blue lead (0.7mm, if thinner than this then it would snap really easily), a black fine line pen, paper clips (if needed), some colored pencils (to represent the timber in our designs).

(note to self, delete later) # check if we really need color pencils we'll be using it? come change later.

Why do we use blue pencil to sketch out our designs?

We sketch our designs out using blue pencil/lead as the blue color contrasts well against white or light-colored paper, making it easy to see the pencil marks during the sketching process. Furthermore, using blue lead will allow us to differentiate between the sketching stage and final lines or fine-lined areas (which we normally use as black fine line pens).

Architects use blue pencils as blue pencil marks may not appear in photocopies or scans, which means that when they copy a document, the blue lines will not show up, keeping the final design clean.

Template sheet

The template sheet is optional: but if you do use it then make sure you don't directly draw on the paper.

You'll be given a marker paper to place on top of the template sheet. Use paperclips to clip the template sheet and your marker paper together so that they won't shift when you move them around to draw at better angles (don't move your body whilst drawing. Instead, move the paper so that you're more comfortable, it'll be easier for you to draw when you are in a comfortable position). Sketch out the guidelines using blue pencil on marker paper. Your guidelines should be really light.

*Later on the teacher will be scanning our work. If the guidelines are drawn lightly, it won't appear on the scan.*

Steps of sketching

Sketching out your design lightly/ using ghost lines

Ghost lines is when you're drawing without the pencil led actually touching the paper or when you're drawing your lines really lightly.

Use your inspiration photos to think of ideas for your designs and sketch them out lightly over the guidelines you have drawn. Do not do scratchy lines when drawing out your design; draw the line in one go, if it doesn't looks the way you want it to then go over it again. Don't worry if you made a mistake or drew something you don't think looks good, because after you've finished sketching you'll need to go over them in darker lines. By that time you won't be able to see the mistake anymore as it won't stand out.

Going over your design with lines with more depth and weight

By doing this it'll allow your design to have more depth and it also makes your sketches look better. To do this you just need to squeeze the end part of your pencil (to get a darker line) and then release it (to get a lighter line), you don't need to press hard onto the paper at all (another reason not to do that is that the led is pretty easy to snap).

Any mistakes you made while sketching in ghost lines won't be visible anymore as it doesn't stands out/isn't really visible beside the darker lines.

(Don't forget to draw the wire too)

Details

For the details all you need to do is shade in the parts that is wood or just to give the design more volume and dimension. Also to show where if something is overlapping. There are many was to shade your design. I used a mix of cross hatching and just lightly coloring in.

In this design, I thought that the lamp's head looked quite plain so I decided to add something extra to the head.

Finished (Scanned)

Fine lining

I used goodnotes to write a poster on how to choose fine line pen combinations.

Adjusting the pen size (Line).

0.3 Pen (Thinner)

I choose to use 0.8 and 0.3 fine lines.

I started fine lining by using the smaller pen (0.3 in my case) to go over the whole design. I have to be really careful when fine lining inside of the design as I cannot fix that, although if I made a mistake on the outline (like in the photo) it wouldn't be a problem as I can go over it with the thicker fine line pen (0.8). But as you can see I made a really bad mistake where the wire connects to the base of the lamp as it's not the outline (Can't fix).

0.8 Pen (Thicker)

Once you've fine lined your whole design, you will now have to start outlining them. All you have to do is go over your thinner line (0.3) with the thicker line (0.8), but you have to only have to do the outline (like in the photo).

The good thing is that if you made a mistake with your 0.3 fine lining you can fix it (as said in the box above).

Finished

Coloring using markers

Made using Procreate

First I started by taking photos of the markers I used and then adding them as stickers/little cut outs into procreate. To do this, go to your gallery, tap hold on the object in the image and select copy.

Once you've copied the cut-out, go to Procreate, drag three fingers down on the screen, and select paste. After that you can adjust the size and move it around.

Swipe left on the layer with your cut-out and choose duplicate. On the duplicated layer, long hold the layer and select Alpha Lock (Coloring and drawing only appears on the cut-out). Color the whole thing white.

Select the tool on top of your screen (highlighted button in the photo), select 'freehand' below, draw a line around the part you want, color the half in white background black. Results will look like in the image above.

I didn't like the color black because it did not match with the colors I was using (brown tones) so I changed it, using color drop. After you've finished with that, you could also then add notes/text, detail, title and decorations.

Wood/Timber + Resin, Neck and Head of The Lamp

First Layer

I used the marker Yellow Ochre and went over the wood part of my design twice. The darker parts on the right as they cast shadows from the light source coming from the left (top left, bottom right), and also left a small part for highlight.

Second Layer

For the second layer I used the same marker but went over it again to make it darker (gradient) and also used Soft Peach inside so that there's not too much highlight, and tried to blend it with the other color (Yellow Ochre) by going over on top of it.

Third Layer

For the last layer I used Mahogany which is the darkest color out of the three to show bits of shadow and used Yellow Ochre again to blend it together (on top), though it did not work as well as I thought it would but I think it still looks good.

For the resin (and other parts) just repeat the same process, medium color as base, lightest color to outline the highlight, darkest color for shadows.

Forgot to scan Finished (colored)

Some of the colors used

Process of making the poster

To add a 'sticker'/ cutout of your markers to your poster, all you have to do is press hold on the object (in the photo) until it looks like this (white outline). Then select copy.

To paste your copied 'sticker' onto procreate, you need to use three fingers and drag down on the screen. A small menu will pop up (like the one in the picture), then select paste (small highlight icon in blue).

Once you've pasted your cutout go to the icon with a zigzag line on the top (left) of your screen. Another menu will pop up along the bottom of your screen. Select Automatic and turn off Color Fill or else it will be really messy like mines as I forgot to turn it off.

Select the parts you don't want and then erase them. Or you could do it the other way like in the image above, I selected the parts I wanted to keep, inverted it (A small black and white square icon) but because I forgot to turn off Color fill it looked like this and finally erased the unwanted parts.

To resize (anything) your cutout find the cursor icon (also highlighted in blue at the top of your screen) and choose uniform, this will allow you to resize your image without distorting it. Then repeat these 5 steps.

Next, all you have to do is merge your layers together so that it's not messy and it'll be easier to work with. To merge layers use two fingers and pinch the top and bottom layers of your markers together.

To add another layer for decorations, tap on the plus sign (circled in red above). Press hold on the new layer and then drag it down (below your marker cutout's layer) so that the markers are overlapping the frame decoration.

On your new layer draw a rectangle, if it's not perfect it's ok because all you have to do is hold the rectangle once you've drawn it and it'll snap into shape. You can also adjust the rectangle by clicking Edit. Repeat this process for different colors and using the resizing tool.

Make another layer but this time it'll be the top layer. (still decorations)

Choose whichever color you like or think suits the poster best.

Draw lines from the markers to your design in which you used those colors on. You can also draw dashed lines likes mine to represent the ones that only used those four colors (no other colors used).

When you're sure that you've finished everything you can export your work as a photo by going to the wrench icon, then share, and then select JPEG. After that you can choose to save it to your gallery or share it to an app.

Shadows (and Highlights)

For shadows we'll be using the black pencil to color lightly along inside of the edges of your design. The shadows should be lighter depending on the position in which your light source is coming from. For example, if your light source is coming from the top left hand corner (either top left or right) then your shadow should be darker on the right side of your design and also add shadows to parts that are overlaying each other for more details as shown in the example >>

If you've already left space on your design as highlight like mines (below) then you don't have to do highlight. Though for people who did not do that then this is when a white color pencil comes in handy. To create a highlight effect, use your white color pencil to draw a line on the side your light source is coming from (for instance in my work it's coming from the top left so you draw your highlight line in that direction). An example is on the left (though you can't really see it clearly).

Finished

Inspos to each of my designs

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Designs in Procreate (digital version from paper design)

Creating a A3 canvas

To make your own A3 canvas (we were working on A3 papers), find the"+" icon on the top right of your screen as shown in the photo on the right (thin banner) and tap on it. A small menu (looks like the image below) will pop up, select the icon the red arrow is indicating to.

After, it will take you to this page (shown on the left).(1)Firstly, if your measurements are on pixels, change it into millimeters.

(2)Secondly, change the width and height into 420mm x 297mm, and for the DPI make it 150.

(3)Finally, (if you want) you could also rename/ name your canvas. E.g. "A3 Canvas" or just create your canvas using the orange button as your final step.

Fine line

size

fine-

opacity

lining

Once you've created a canvas of the A3 paper. Add in your scanned A3 blue pencil sketch photo into procreate (it should fit perfectly into the canvas as it has the same measurements). On a new layer select the brush tool, use 'Technical Pen 1' (blue box in the photo on the left), adjust your pen's size and opacity to match with the middle photo's (follow blue arrows), and then draw the middle line in the center of each of your designs. For fine lining, your going to be using the same brush but with different adjustments shown in the (two) vertical photo on the right. Trace over the blue pencil sketches. To draw really smooth shapes such as arcs or straight lines, draw it out with a singular line and hold it for a few seconds then your line (arc, polygon, circle, etc) will snap into shape by its self.

Outline

For outlining we do the same thing as fine lining but only trace the outside of your fine lined line. Here are the adjustment I used for outlining (vertical photo on the left of the text box).

So that it's easier for you to see where your tracing/ the fine line (line), select your new layer and lower its opacity to 50% (or less/more if you prefer). This way you will be able to see your fine line (line) clearer; you know where to trace over. Or you could do the opposite, depending on which is easier for you, it works the same.

Marker render

For marker rendering, in the brush pack there is a brush named 'Real Marker' which is supposed to mimic how the real life marker works.

Create a new layer and drag it down below the fine line and outline layer.

Brush opacity settings

(Brush size changes depen-ds on the space.)

Select your fine line layer and press on the squiggly line icon on the top of your screen (highlighted in blue in the photo)

Select Automatic (area will be selected automatically inside line) and turn off color fill. Choose the area you want to work in and click on it then it should be highlighted in blue.

A small menu will pop up at the bottom. Normally it will be set to freehand (mark areas yourself) & color fill (fill area with that color automatically).

Go to the layers icon and because you DO NOT want to work in the fine line layer, move to the new layer you've recently made below the fine line's layer.

Gif file was too big

But anyways basically just go over the line again and again (works like a read marker!)

Select the other ones

Repeat the same for the colored parts.

Lamp base + neck >> Lamp head >> Lamp (acrylic cover)

Tips

Select the wrench icon on the top left hand corner, then 'canvas' and turn on reference. Something that looks like a floating screen will appear (like in the gif). You can choose to do different types of reference. I used the one where you can insert your photo (middle), you could also extract the color from the reference photo by holding it down (the gif will do the visual explaining).

Making your own palette

(1) Open your color menu and on the bottom right is a picture of 6 boxes with the word palette underneath.

2) Find the add sign at the top.

(3) Select 'Create new palette'. After that rename it (tap on the palette's name) to 'DT Work' or just anything.

Next, add the colors you've used in your designs into your palette. To do that you must have the right color, e.g. in the photo we want to store dark brown so we need to currently have the dark brown in your color picker.

Tap on one of the grey boxes in your palette then it will instantly store the color you're selecting right now. To delete the 'swatch', long hold it and then delete.

Rename

Renaming layers amkes it easier to identify which layer is which and what we drew on it. Hold on the layer you want to rename and this menu will pop up on the side. Pick rename (red arrows) and name them what you want the layers to be known as.

Shadows and Highlights

Shadows

For the shadows I used the 'Air Brush Shadows'. Make a new layer above your marker render layer then mask your fine line layer. Though, do each part one by one; for the lamps' neck, do the shadows on one layer and for the lamps' base do the shadows on another layer, etc.

There are two types of the highlight brush. You can choose which to use, depending on which you like. For me I used the second one highlighted in blue in the photo. Here is a short gif on how I added highlights to my design on the right. Repeat for all the other designs.

Stabilization

Stabilization smooths out strokes as you draw them. This makes hand drawn lines straighter than they would naturally be. For people with shaky hands, turning these settings up will give you smoother and nicer lines.

Here in the first photo you can see that I haven't adjusted the stabilization or anything because the line is really wobbly.

In the second photo (only right side), the line is a bit smoother than the first one which makes it look better.

In the third one the line is really smooth. As you can see in the Stabilization's settings the line should be really smooth, though you'll have to draw really slowly or else its just going to end up with an arc cutting through the middle (white) part.

Final

Adding photos

Create a new layer above your marker render layers (but below your shadows and highlight layers). Insert a photo of your colored resin, resize and move the image to the place you want it to be in.

Select the fine line layer. Then open the the selections menu, at the bottom (in the smaller menu) choose automatic, select your resin parts in the design and then invert it.

Go back to your photo's layer and use the transform tool to drag out the unwanted part. Repeat this with the rest of your designs

The final outcome is on the left. On the right is how to merge layers together, put your fingers on the layers you want to merge together and then pinch your fingers together.

Final

Poster

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