Teaching Engineers to Draw

The Drawing Videos

Download the sheets and start drawing. Draw directly on the sheets except where you are told to draw in an A4 sketchbook, which you should always have to exercise your emerging skills.

Use the drawing films to help you; for example if you watch Film 1 you will learn to draw in Oblique projection, which you can practice on the sheets in the Oblique chapter. Make additional doodles and quick sketches on the sheets as you please.

I have never been able to draw!

That’s why the first sketches are just simple doodles. Because the first stage is to overcome the perceptual barriers that inhibit the flow between your mind’s eye and your hand. You will start by making simple “thumbnail” sketches that get progressively more challenging.

Being able to draw is like having a second language

That’s why you will be given a simple drawing tip, or technique, and then you will be encouraged to improvise with it, as you would in a conversation.

At the same time you will find your own ways to extend the scope of what you can express in two and three dimensions.

As you progress through the sheets your drawings will grow in credibility, and as your confidence increases you will find your voice.

Film 1: Getting Started – Oblique Drawing

Learn how to use the Drawing Gym, then get drawing. You will first learn in simple stages how to take a flat shape and project it to form a pictorial view.

Click here to view this lesson on a separate page (includes access to notes & downloadable worksheets)

Film 2: Isometric Drawing

Follow the stages in the film to make Isometric sketches in freehand and over a grid. It is an easy method that produces accurate projections with correct proportions, showing three faces of your space or object.

Click here to view this lesson on a separate page (includes access to notes & downloadable worksheets)

Film 3: Axonometric Drawing

This film shows how to project a plan into 3d, how to draw heights in proportion, and how to apply what you learn to simple tasks.

Click here to view this lesson on a separate page (includes access to notes & downloadable worksheets)

Film 4: Perspective Drawing

Shows the principles of 2 point perspective drawing in simple and enjoyable exercises. Draw believable, receding space and add details as your experience and knowledge grows.

Click here to view this lesson on a separate page (includes access to notes & downloadable worksheets)

Film 5: Section and Scale Drawing

This film features engineers and an architect discussing specific types of section drawings and their importance as visualisation tools for designers.

Click here to view this lesson on a separate page (includes access to notes & downloadable worksheets)

Film 6: Orthographic Drawing

Orthographic projections are among the most commonly used in the engineering industry to represent 3D components, structures and spaces in 2d.

Click here to view this lesson on a separate page (includes access to notes & downloadable worksheets)

Film 7: The Templeman Library Project

This film shows how drawing skills and techniques are applied to enable quick conversations between engineers, architects and others in the design of a building (The Templeman Library, University of Kent).

Click here to view this lesson on a separate page (includes access to notes & downloadable worksheets)

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