The Task
Our teacher assigned our group a large sketching course between design steps one and two. The point of the course was to teach us basic sketching skills and terms and help us apply the skills. The course was separated into eight parts, each with new topics, sketches, and challenges. It was very time consuming and intense, but I learned many new skills and tactics that I later used for the Capstone Project.
Notes and Sketches
The course was divided into eight parts on the website. The course started with basic shapes and later moved on to more complex forms and curves. Over the course of the course I had to take notes on every video and sketch along. There were also challenges where I had to use critical thinking skills to solve problems. The following pictures consist of notes from my notebook and the sketches I made.
Classification Scheme Design Sketches
After finishing the course, I had to apply the skills I learned to the main Capstone Project. I will go more into this in the Design Step 2 page, but the task was to take our three classification scheme designs and sketch them using the skills we learned. I took our third design (preamp fader, parametric EQ, carrying case, quarter inch adapter) and drew it, while my teammates drew the other two. We created an orthographic sketch and a perspective sketch for each design.
Reflection
This course isn't formally defined as it own design step; it is part of Step 2. However, this course was so big that it required its own website update. Overall, I'm not quite sure if I learned from my mistakes in Step 1, but I am confident that I worked hard for this part. We were able to overcome the challenges of the pandemic once again. One of my strengths was collaboration. In order to get the work done, I worked closely with some of my peers. This included teammates and people outside of my team. We collaborated to reach a common goal of finishing the sketches together. Another one of my strengths was motivation. The course was very demanding, but I was able to keep pushing forward. One video after another, I pursued and stayed determined. Conquering the course was not only satisfying, but beneficial too. I am proud of my work and notes and will retain the information for the rest of the project.
With strengths came issues. My biggest problem was time management. Although I was given a week and a half to due the course, I decided to squeeze all the work in one day. I could have significantly reduced my stress if I separated the videos across a week. Instead, I made the unwise decision of condensing, which took a toll on my quality of work, my second issue. I have never been the best artist, but the whole point of the course was to help understand sketching better. While I feel like I can sketch better now, my sketches during the course weren't great. My lack of quality is directly related to my time management issue. For instance, for the final water bottle sketch challenge, I spent much less time that I should have on it. As a result, the water bottle sketches were subpar.
However, the main fact was I was able to complete the course in record time. Although I had these issues, I learned from them. I learned to be more responsible with time management and to focus on my work if I have time. Being able to create sketches, especially orthographic ones, is useful and will continue to be useful, and I am glad that I was able to do the course.
With strengths came issues. My biggest problem was time management. Although I was given a week and a half to due the course, I decided to squeeze all the work in one day. I could have significantly reduced my stress if I separated the videos across a week. Instead, I made the unwise decision of condensing, which took a toll on my quality of work, my second issue. I have never been the best artist, but the whole point of the course was to help understand sketching better. While I feel like I can sketch better now, my sketches during the course weren't great. My lack of quality is directly related to my time management issue. For instance, for the final water bottle sketch challenge, I spent much less time that I should have on it. As a result, the water bottle sketches were subpar.
However, the main fact was I was able to complete the course in record time. Although I had these issues, I learned from them. I learned to be more responsible with time management and to focus on my work if I have time. Being able to create sketches, especially orthographic ones, is useful and will continue to be useful, and I am glad that I was able to do the course.