I'm happy that I have found multiple perspectives that were more so successful than the initial sketches. Also I like the line quality of these. It has improved dramatically already I think. For each drawing I'm still struggling to use all 15 minutes. I think the closest I've spent is about 12.30. I'm used to drawing extremely fast so this notion of slowing down is difficult. It may be obvious but it allows to to add more detail and ensure that the perspective is more accurate. Proportions are getting there but still need help. The rims and wheels aren't were I'd like them to be so I think I will take about 5 minutes of the 15 to make sure that they are on point. From what I've been working on to me it appears that wheels can make or break the drawing. The expressiveness isn't quite there but its much closer than it was. I don't think I really achieved the goal of creating a schizophrenic looking car though. That was a really difficult first inspiration especially with only 15 minutes to get it on the page. I see some forms that are repeating already which is concerning. I need to make sure I break out of the typical designs that I'm comfortable with. Otherwise, more to come.
These are the 3 selected designs from the second round of ideation. I found it extremely difficult to use all 15 minutes to complete a sketch. These three in particular only took about 7-12 minutes. Slowing down is the most important factor for me right now. Also the wheels are still proving to be a problem. I'm considering getting ellipse templates, but I do want the skill to just draw ellipses and circles on demand and completely accurate. I guess it will come with time.
Now that I have my initial stages of my sketch ability I want to do the best job I can to objectively critique myself. First of all, theres line quality, but not appropriately established. Second, I need to master all different views, I'm stuck with this one perspective at the moment. Third, forms need to be more defined. Whether the use of contour lines or shading, they really need to help describe the form, not just be on the sketch to be there. Wheels, need a lot of help. They look as if they are just stuck on the side, they lack a wide stance that sports cars typically have. In my future sketches I will address each of the issues. I don't know if it will be fixed in every one, but its certainly things I need to pay attention to. And as I have sketched these, I realized that 15 minutes may not even be long enough to consider all the elements that need more attention. A couple things will happen. Either I won't draw 50, I won't give the necessary attention where needed or it will take longer than 12.5 hours everyday. We'll see how this is going to pan out because I really don't know at this point. Just so everyone is aware, I'm doing this on a self taught basis. I earned my degree in industrial design but in no way have I been trained in designing cars. Its a passion I found a little bit later on in life and I truly want to pursue it. I've only watched videos of people drawing cars and seen pictures. I hope it doesn't ruin my credibility as a designer but hopefully shows the prowess and determination that I carry to follow through with something that I'm passionate about.
I will be uploading the initial sketches tonight to show my current skill set in automotive sketching. Before I do that I wanted to inform everyone about the particular inspiration for this first set of 50 drawings. I was cruising around on twitter just looking at what some people have posted. Unfortunately I wasn't following this person, but a post about schizophrenia came up and I am always interested in psychological disorders. So as I began to read I found that it was an excerpt from a dad that wrote a book about his daughter.
It started with the father describing her daughter as brilliant. She was 3 years old and could already multiply and divide numbers in her head, to my knowledge that doesn't occur until at least first grade, when the child is 5 or 6. The father thought that his daughter was going to grace the world with her brillance and go to an amazing university around the age of 15 or 16. But the father knew something was a little off about her daughter. Her social interaction was a bit abnormal, but he encouraged himself that thats pretty normal with some of the most brilliant minds out there. As she got older it became less and less brilliance and more violence. She would throw tantrums, hit her mother and father as hard as she could, in time out she would throw chairs and shelves at the walls. The daughters symptoms became worse and worse. Medications didn't work and ultimately she had to be put into a mental hospital. She had very heavy hallucinations and imaginary friends that she thought existed. It turned out to be pretty sad and very emotional. The husband and wife had another child, a baby boy. The daughter only wanted to hurt the baby. And she told her father, I don't know why but all I want to do is hurt him. So the husband and wife sold their condo, bought to small apartments and lived separately. The husband stayed with the daughter and the wife with the baby boy. They would all come together for dinner for about an hour because thats all the daughter could really handle. And that was the end of the excerpt.
After reading this I thought what if a car could be schizophrenic? How would it look? What forms and attributes could convey that it had two or multiple personalities? Is it a difference between the exterior and interior? Would the exterior have two different colors? Would it be split down the middle with two different forms? I thought these were a little to obvious. So I've done some more research about schizophrenia. Side effects, disorders, certain symptoms. I'm going to write a brief section of my interpretation of the disorder and further explore some of the different aspects that could displayed through automotive design.
Schizophrenia is quite complex compared to what I previously perceived. There are subcategories that are all related to schizophrenia. Paranoid Schizophrenia where the person have delusions of being punished or persecuted by people. Disorganized Schizophrenia is when a persons speech is jumbled and greatly affected. It comes out as confused and disoriented. Typically they can be emotionless or childlike and silly. The third main subtype of schizophrenia is Catatonic Schizophrenia. This deals mainly with physical deficiencies. They are very unresponsive to the world around them. Often they make bizarre faces and bodily positions. They are at a higher risk of malnutrition, exhaustion, and self inflicted injury.
Now these don't really seem to be attributes that should be incorporated into a car. But lets see if we can really dive into the vernacular and find some themes or key words that can be applied.
Possibly we create illusions within the vehicle. Maybe these illusions can help assist the driver with the functionality within the interior. Maybe the illusion is that some of the exterior forms seem impossible to create in three dimensions. Almost MC Escher like. An illusion of an expensive sports car but in reality is extremely affordable.
Disorientation could be one of the last things anyone wants while driving. When someone is lost all it does is create frustration and confusion. What if the car components has the capability, during an accident, to keep you serene. How can the car keep you calm in the worst situations? Whether you get lost on the highway or if you get in an accident and your vehicle flips, what can keep you safe, secure, and serene? What if the car can read pulse levels and brain activity? If the pulse is too low it will have some action to make the driver aware. Same with if the pulse gets to high. If your falling asleep at the wheel what can the car do to refocus the drivers attention?
Childlike and silly could be a very fun theme to explore. Einstein has a quote that says to examine the world with a naive eye. Are cars becoming to confusing and intricate? They have screens, nobs, joysticks, buttons everywhere. On the steering wheel, on the dash, on your seat, on the arm rest. If a child was to try and drive the car, how would it look? Lets strip it to the bare essentials and have less clutter within the interior and exterior.
Alright, we have three pretty solid themes to attack here. I don't want to mindlessly design forms. This is to really bring some thought provoking elements into a vehicle. Hopefully I have a solid foundation to arrive at some interesting aspects. I feel like most of the ideas are for the interior of the car versus the exterior, but I will explore both. Like I said the first car sketches I've done I'll post tonight to get a feel of where I am and where I will go.
This is kind of a long read, but you never know, it may just be worth it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpbzBs8Wtqg
Sangwon Seok: I recently discovered him and found out some information. He is around his 40's and has been drawing cars for 15 years. He teaches at an institute in Korea. I believe he also has a sketching book called, "SkeRen." But I'm not sure.
This impossible goal that I am preparing to set is the ability to articulate design as seen in this video. I'm a person that demands instant results, so I'll be giving my self 2 months to reach the quality that Sangwon Seok produces. It sounds pretty crazy, but the passion I have for cars should fuel this ridiculous standard that I've set for myself.
I will be posting car sketches that I have drawn a couple days ago. It will show the quality that I can currently produce. I don't necessarily think that what I can draw now is bad, but it lacks something. Whether its line quality, style, or design aesthetics it doesn't really matter. I have this tendency, that could be seen as a positive or negative attribute, but I love what I'm drawing as it happens. Then about 5 minutes after I have completed the actual drawing I detest it. I'm absolutely abhorred that I drew something that is lacking the emotion that I had while I was drawing it.
Ah. I have discovered what I addressed previously. What is lacking from my drawings? Passion. I carry so much of it while I'm drawing, but you don't see that through the drawing itself. I don't like making assumptions but it appears to me that Sangwon Seok loves drawing cars. And you can tell from each sketch.
I'm going to layout everything so incase anyone that follows this adventure and wants to try themselves but don't know exactly where to begin, they can use this as a catalyst or even go through the same process.
Lets find a starting point: Before I begin the layout of the next 60 days I want to have an approach.
Feng Zhu: A concept artist you may or may not have heard of. Amazing work. In one of his videos/tutorials he explains that if you draw through repetition you will become good at it. But if asked to draw something else, it would be like starting all over again. And you would have to draw 100 of them inorder to be good at drawing that particular thing. He teaches techniques at his school that allow a designer to draw anything through understanding. When you understand certain aspects it gives you the capability to essentially create anything that ones mind can imagine.
As I go through these next 60 days, I don't want to just be able to sketch cars. I want the techniques, style, and passion to be applicable to every drawing or sketch that I produce after this process has been completed. The cliche, "sounds easier said then done" comes to mind. The easy rebuttal to Feng Zhu's comment is that there is a combination of repetition and understanding. That sounds about right, but yet I'm looking for a different response. If you look at other videos by Sangwon Seok it takes him about 30-40 minutes to complete each sketch. To me the design field demands speed, quality, and quantity. With that said, I will begin the breakdown of how I will approach this unrealistic goal.
A professor once told me that you have to draw 50 cars a day. I don't know why, but I listened. So I plan to draw 50 cars everyday. The quantity has been set. I plan to have the stylistic elements that Sangwon Seok can produce. The quality has been set. Finally, if Sangwon Seok takes 30 minutes for that type of quality, then I can't imagine how long it may take me. But 30 minutes for each sketch will take me 25 hours. In order to reach the quantity, I have to up the speed. I'm going to cut that time in half. So 15 minutes to produce each sketch. The speed has been set. With that timeframe it will take about 12.5 hours to complete all 50 sketches. After the 60 days, I will have drawn 3,000 cars. At the end I want to select one that will ultimately be created in a CAD software.
Now I have some parameters. What's next? Sketching? I think I need more planning. Drawing 50 cars a day will become calculating. To avoid design repetition I will try to post the inspiration I have for each day. I mainly resort to nature for automotive inspiration, but I will go through that very quickly. Inspiration may come from reading or images. It could be an article, a definition from the dictionary, or even a science fiction novel. Inspiration may draw from other car designers, products, or possibly an experience.
I'm not quite sure how this will all pan out. It could end up being a huge waste of time. Would I be disappointed? Half and half. I'm intrigued by the mind. This is certainly a mental test of attention, focus, and being able to extract details from one aspect to apply it to another. This experiment is more than just a drawing exercise. A part of it will be about self awareness. I find that I can focus for approximately 5 hours straight. No interruptions. Then I find a huge decline in my productivity after that. Typically the first 5 hours goes smoothly because of the planning that I established before hand and after that 10-30 minute break the work rate isn't quite the same. Alright, now were getting ready to put this into motion. Oh, just so you guys know that I am drawing all 50 cars, I will layout all of them on the floor and take a picture and post it each day along with the top three that get scanned.
GUIDELINES:
-Post inspiration prior to designing.
-Create 50 different car designs everyday for 60 days.
-Use only 15 minutes per drawing.
-No erasing.
-Decide the 3 best sketches of the day and post each of them on the blog.
-Use 10 minutes to physically and mentally recharge, then the next 10 minutes to mentally prepare for the following challenges.
TOOLS:
-8.5x11 printer paper
-Black prisma colored pencil
GOALS:
-Create unique interior and exterior designs.
-Push the definition of what automotive design is and can be.
-Utilize stylistic elements, insights, and overall appeal of Feng Zhu, Scott Robertson, and Sangwon Seok. ( I didn't mention Scott Robertson but he is a huge inspiration, check him out. Scott Robertson)
-Strive to extend the mental focus from 5 hours to 12.5 hours (I don't expect this to happen until the 2nd or 3rd week.)
-Keep a balanced lifestyle along with the expected work ethic.
-Shave at least 5 minutes off of drawing time without the reduction of quality.
-Submit sketches to different car design blogs, websites, and forums.
-Have a solid, professional transportation portfolio.
-Improve in quality and speed.
If anyone has any type of input, insight, additional goals or parameters. Please feel free to email me or post on here suggests and comments. Let's push the boundaries of the mental, physical, and expectations. Hope you enjoy, follow, and get inspired.
