Here’s an interesting concept from MIT’s media lab called “Beyond”. The sketches are pretty low fi, but the concept it downright interesting.The system uses a collapsible pen to essentially extrude or punch into the third dimension on the two dimensional surface. It’d be cool to see this with more resolution, refinement, pressure sensitivity, and all the bells and whistles. In any case, it’s worth a gander.

Beyond – Collapsible Input Device for Direct 3D Manipulation beyond the Screen from Jinha Lee on Vimeo.

Designboom via Gizmodo

I’m on vacation and writing from the beach on my iPad but in read about this and just had to post about it! Ten One design, makers of the pogo sketch stylus many people use to sketch on their ipads, has just come up with a way to enable ores sure sensitivity on the iPad. It uses the amount of contact of the soft tip of the sketch pen as an indicator of the amount of pressure being applied.

It may be somewhat if a long shot having it implemented and working on the iPad since it does seem to use private API’s or programming snippets. Apple has policies in place that disallow the use of such APIs so I’d be a little surprised if they do allow this schema into the app store any time soon. But if they do, could this really be the death of the smaller cintiq and intuos? Time will tell, but i’m sold!

Check out the link for more info – http://www.macrumors.com/2010/07/01/pressure-sensitive-sketching-on-ipad-demoed/

If you’re like me and love to sketch with pencil on occasion, it can be very hard to do while in an impromptu setting with traditional prismacolor or other pencils. You’d need a sharpener and a bevy of pencils if you want to keep sketching with a reasonably sharp pencil point.

Here’s the tip: If you’re wanting to sketch with pencil on the road, try using a mechanical pencil like the Pentel Mechanical Pencil. Regular mechanical pencil lead smudges for me, so I swap it out with waxy colored pencil lead refills that don’t smudge and are reminiscient of sketching with red or blue prismacolor pencils.

You’ll need to pick up a mechanical pencil that takes colored refills that are .7mm or .9mm so that the point won’t snap every time you put some pressure to it. Using mechanical pencils, I can get the benefits of sketching with a pencil without having to lug around a sharpener and several pencils! So give it a try some time.

Check out two samples I did below with a .7mm point in blue and .9mm point in red -

I worked on this project SEVERAL years ago as a Sophomore in college, but it still was nice to see the project featured on Core77. Check out more about it in my Coroflot Portfolio if you’re curious.

I’ve recently had quite a few requests for a quick overview of contour line sketching and how it works. In this video, I go over a few tips and tidbits on how to quickly show form using simple contour lines while sketching. As always, feel free to share the video and leave comments below. If you’re having trouble viewing all the videos, check out vimeo.com/idsketching for all our archive of videos. Spencer out.

P.S. my apologies for the shaky camera – I’m using a new camera rig that I am trying to perfect.

If you haven’t yet, check out the Weekly Sketch Challenge here on the IDSKETCHING forums. Again, sorry guys – no “real” prizes yet, but you do get to bask in the light and glory of being featured on the front page with a link to your site or portfolio, so step right up and check out the forum. As was mentioned, the inspiration for this weeks sketch challenge was insects. See if you can see the likeness here – A good example of using analogous relationships when generating form. The winning design is by Brian Voynick.

For some of the last few sketches on sketch-a-day.com, I pulled a few sketches from the old archive  while I was traveling out east for a workshop. Some are from a few years ago when i was just getting started, and others more recent. If you haven’t yet, be sure to head on over to sketch-a-day.com and check out the site every day for a new sketch from yours truly!

I’ve been sketching furiously on the iPad for a week or so, and I love it! It’s a great digital sketchbook that’s not only portable, but stylish. While it has it’s drawbacks like pressure sensitivity, and lack fo a full featured editing program like photoshop for example, It makes for a great doodle pad that I can shove in my bag.

Check out what I’ve been up to below in the gallery:

A long time ago, 7 years ago this fall to be exact, I began my transition from Mathematics major in college to Industrial Design major. At the time, I had little drawing skills to speak of, however I was determined to get better. I cringe at showing this, but this a comparison of one of the FIRST automotive sketches I’ve ever done. I found it while perusing through some old sketchbooks, and I found it pretty hilarious!

Now the lower sketch isn’t perfect, but it is markedly better no? In any case, I’m not an automotive designer, but i do enjoy the occasional pointless car sketch.

My point is, practice makes better – you may not have all the skill and talent now, but keep at it and certainly, there will be results. As my wife always says, consistency over time is the key – so true!

If you haven’t yet, check out the Weekly Sketch Challenge here on the IDSKETCHING forums. Again, sorry guys – no “real” prizes yet, but you do get to bask in the light and glory of being featured on the front page with a link to your site or portfolio, so step right up and check out the forum. Here’s a selection of sketches from the most recent challenge, and the next topic looks to be insects. So give it a go if you’re looking for some extra practice!