Since I’m now working as a product design engineer, I figured it would be wise to really work on my ability to do concept sketches. I took another Skillshare class, this one taught by Julia Troy from Quirky, and sketched a pair of IKEA Kitchen Scissors. At some point I’ll definitely draw a product of my own as the purpose of this is to draw concepts for products that don’t yet exist, but in order to develop my skills, I wanted to have the actual product in front of me. Julia walks through the process of determining the story for your sketch, laying out the different elements, and tracing over different layers to increase the fidelity of your sketch cleanly.

One of my major mental blocks with sketching is thinking that I have to do it perfectly the first time. This method taught me that by building up layers, you can refine and trace over your past work without having to do it all at once. You can always make changes.

The first drawing is the layout for the product concept sketch. I wanted to feature the bottle opening mechanism, snipping herbs, and cutting open plastic packages, as well as the overall shape of the scissors. The second drawing is a lightweight sketch that defines some more detail. The third is a final ballpoint drawing with heavier outlines and emphasis added with a permanent marker and a felt tip pen. I skipped the coloring phase since I didn’t have access to a photocopier. That will be a challenge for another day.

I know that I have a long way to go before my drawings look like Julia’s, but just going through the process once opened up a huge door for me. I can’t wait to use this to design real products!