Drawing quickly is an important skill for a creative thinker!
Learn sketching tips and techniques from designers to help you draw quickly and creatively anywhere you go!

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Hello from Japan!

I am in Tokyo, it is one of my favorite cities in the world!
My friends and I are at a shopping mall where together we’ll do an exercise of “Observation drawing”.

The theme today is to show you “The Art of Drawing Fast & Ugly to create anywhere!”.
Because creativity does not stop wherever you go.
Yes, sketching ugly is a Professional Designer technique to come up with ideas and drawings quickly!

One of my students from Sketch Like The Pros, Parker Liang
became a “Super Star” in his Design school for his newly acquired quick sketching abilities. 🙂

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Fast and “Ugly Drawing” – The Art of Creating Anywhere!

Are you a beginner and you draw ugly doodles?
Good news!
You are on the right track!
Yes, yes!

Today, I show you the behind-the-scenes of a daily designer routine.

I show you how a designer NEEDS to draw without looking for perfection!

Do you often see super neat sketches on the Internet?
They are awesome and many require hours of work.

However,
beautiful artworks are the tip of the iceberg only.
And represent 10% of a designer’s timeline.

90% of the time,
a designer job scope needs to make “Ugly doodles”
drawn very fast and spontaneously!

A designer needs to master a multi-level of sketching quality: 

From the ugly to the neat versions.

Why?

Because a low-quality sketch (also called low-fidelity) will respond to the research of ideas, and creativity.

While a neat sketch will respond to a Client Presentation format.

If you want to learn more about the creative process,
I show you the 5 Phases to present your project to a Design company.

As a professional designer,
you constantly think about How to boost your PRODUCTIVITY.

So you can meet your deadlines with the optimum quality.
That is how you realize with experience that often, the research of perfection is an obstacle.

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Perfection is counter-productive.

Your work as an Industrial designer holds a key position.
You need to get things done as other departments depend on you:(Engineering, Marketing, Sampling…).

If you are late, they are late.

You can’t afford to make every single sketch amazing, realistic, or “perfect” to show your ideas.
Professional-oriented, you do not benefit from the “artist’s luxury” of taking months or years to complete a single piece of art.

A good designer is a good time manager.
He multiplies the ideas and he gets things done within the deadline.

While most beginners are obsessed with perfection, most will fail… since they are looking in the wrong direction.

Do you rather show many great idea proposals, or 1 “expected” proposal?

If you want to surprise your client, the number of research matters.

Most of the time, your first ideas are pretty much expected.
They are the common solutions that your classmates, colleagues, or even clients may think about themselves.
Nothing much special or exciting.

You gotta propose surprising solutions,
but also be in phase with your design brief, in other words, the user’s needs.

Keep looking, and digging for ideas to start getting surprising ideas!
Thinking out of the box needs a conscious effort.

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Fall in love with creativity and the design process.

Don’t be scared of generating thousands of ideas drawing ugly.

It is part of the game.

During the Research phase,
your ultimate goal is a creative product.

Not a beautiful sketch. Ok?

In other words,
if you deliver a beautiful sketch to your client but is neither innovative, creative, or exciting, it will be just a beautiful sketch to hang on your wall or take the dust in a cupboard.

Know where are your priorities as an industrial designer

The real value of a designer sketch is to convey great ideas for your client’s brand and users.

Then only when you hold that great idea,
Spend time making a more advanced sketch.

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To do:

Draw every day, anywhere, anytime!

Make sketching your lifestyle!
No matter who you are, good at sketching or not,
or how busy you are, you gotta love drawing as you breathe.

Stop looking for perfection, mother of procrastination.

To stand out from the crowd,
Master the techniques of Fast Sketching.

Cheers,
Chou-Tac

PS: A design studio rather have a candidate who can sketch fast, and be creative than having the greatest illustrator.

Can you feel the difference? 🙂

In the design industry, a great illustrator is replaceable.
While an innovative designer is rare.

If by today you draw ugly, that’s the perfect start.
You should feel proud of getting started, as most beginners will give up early.

The best time to start was yesterday.
Start climbing the ladder step-by-step.

Soon, you’ll take the rocket for success if you decide
to draw with the right method and strategy.

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SPECIAL THANKS to Yves Dalbiez and Mboso for realizing this amazing Vlog video!
Yves Dalbiez portfolio: https://www.dalbiez.com/