Our task this week was to translate the given orthographic projections into parallel projections, then recreate the cubes with plasticine. This task was relatively simple, as I was quite used to drawing cubes at this point, albeit not by freehand. The plasticine itself took me a bit of time to soften at first, but it was easy to recreate the cubes afterwards, carving rectangles first before putting everything together to form a cube.

Next, we had to create our own version. I decided to first create an orthographic projection on the side before drawing the cube, which helped me understand my cube better. This was interesting as I thought orthographic projections could always convey a shape or a design almost if not perfectly, however this taught me that translating it into a 3D form is just as important to fully understand the composition of an object.

Our task this week was to draw 20 iterations of a cup. I first drew an orthographic and 3D sketch of the chosen cup, allowing me to get a better grasp of the cup’s original composition.

Next, based on the 3D sketch, I created 20 variations of the cup, creating different cup shapes and handles to see which one would look the best. Ultimately, I decided that the 20th variation looked the best. Despite it’s simple changes to the top rim and base of the cup, it gives the cup a slightly more elegant and fancy look.

Next, we had to create 20 iterations of a jug. After drawing the 20 variations, I think the 18th iterations matched the chosen cup the best, as I imagined that they would pair well if both were a set of metal cups and jugs.

Finally, I drew the chosen 20th and 18th cup and jug respectively side by side, and added shading to them to highlight their shape and what they would look like as a final product.

The pringles sketch was definitely one of the more “easier said than done” drawing practices in this course, as I found it hard to make the front part of the pringle look natural where the bottom half shows, and I feel like is something that I could practice on.

Our first drawing task this week was to fill up 4 pages with circles and ellipses. As I was still a bit unfamiliar with drawing circles and ellipses completely freehand, I had to use reference lines and axis to aid me in my sketches. After some practice on the first page, I began to draw different items and prisms that included circles and ellipses. Through this, I began to get used to translating ellipses to 3D.

On the 3rd and 4th pages, I began to add more shading to each circle and ellipse, creating even more of a 3D dynamic to the sketches, creating more spheres instead of just circles. I also tried exploring more complex shapes and items that may combine different sizes of circles and ellipses in the same drawing, such as a planet, an eyeball and lipstick. Overall, I felt like this task helped me further improve my understanding of how to translate circles and ellipses from 2D to 3D.

Our second task this week was to sketch 2 pages of spirals and 2 pages of irregular surfaces. The spirals seemed intimidating at first, but I got the hang of it pretty quick afterwards. I realized that spirals are essentially created by stacking ellipses together, then tracing only one side from each ellipse. This helped me utilize the skills from the first task and apply them to this task, creating different spirals that create different shapes like arches and hemispheres.

The next 2 pages are by far my most unfamiliar, as I was not used to drawing anything irregular intentionally. I tried to look into nature for inspiration, recreating different types of landscapes, such as rock pillars, cliffs, waves, sand dunes, and crystals. I feel like I definitely could use more practice with drawing irregular surfaces, as I feel like my drawings do not look natural enough and look somewhat “off” even for something that is supposedly irregular.

Our focus group decided that we should first attempt to recreate each other’s polymorph objects only by looking at the instruction sheets, then give each other feedback before creating our final objects and instruction sheets.

Next, I tried recreating Joe’s pencil holder. I felt like the pencil holder itself could be longer in length, since pencil holders usually have more holes than just 3 to hold different grades of pencils. Another problem I faced is that the holes are a bit too big to hold pencils or pens, since the circumference of a finger is much larger than that of a pencil.

As for my own polymorph object, Zita and Joe suggested that the arms could be longer and the hook could be located right under and closer to the arm of the table hook. With these improvements in mind, I recreated my instruction sheet and table hook, this time with longer arms and the hook under the arms. This significantly improved my table hook, as it is now able to hold even heavier objects such as a fully filled water bottle, whereas the first table hook would sometimes slip off just by holding a pair of headphones. Overall, I’m quite satisfied with how it turned out.

Our first drawing task this week was to sketch primitive forms with shading. I feel like I’m getting better at understanding how to make objects appear to be 3D on a 2D plane by using shading to simulate the positioning of lighting. However, drawing the cylinder was a bit of a challenge, since I’m not quite used to drawing ellipses just yet, so the top of the cylinder ended up being more of a square with rounded edges than looking like a circle/ellipse.

Our next drawing task was to practice more on sketching ellipses. I first used 1-point perspective to sketch different sizes of ellipses, then tried to create cylinders with these ellipses. At first, I had the same problem where the sides of the ellipses on the major axis ended up looking rather sharp instead of round, and had to erase and redo some of the ellipses for a few times just to get the shape right. Eventually, I got more and more used to it. I’m still nowhere near to fully grasping the technique of drawing ellipses completely free-hand, but I think I’m slowly getting there.

One of our tasks this week was to experiment with polymorph and create 5 small shapes that align with our hand in some way and can be useful. From the photos above, I have made a mouse wrist support (which can also double as a chopstick rest), a thimble, brass (actually polymorph) knuckles, a table hook, and a sauce dish. It was quite challenging to come up with the shapes and make them useful, since I had to come up with the shapes before the polymorph hardens from cooling. The morphing process was really fun, as it alomost felt like I was casting iron.

My favorite shape out of the five would have to be the table hook. I always wanted a table hook for my headphones, so I thought making a table hook would come in handy. The hook could also be used to hook other things such as bags. Though it wasn’t easy to get the desired shape at first, the results were not too bad.

Our drawing task this week was sketching a sphere in a bowl. I have always loved doing shading in the past, so this was a refreshing exercise for me. Though I rarely ever draw spheres in sketching, this was not as hard as I first imagined. I was pretty satisfied with the results, but much like the previous task, I think it could have been further improved if I had darker shades of graphite to further accentuate the darker tones to give the drawing a bit more contrast.

After a good 4 weeks in this course, it has allowed me to practice my sketching skills more, including both drawing methods that I have learnt before in high school such as 2-point perspective, 3-point perspective and orthographic sketches; and new methods such as rotated plan sketches and reference geometry sketch. These perspective drawing tasks all helped me further hone my skills in drawing cuboids, and I hope to be able to draw these free hand with enough practice. Aside from perspective sketching, the practical tasks were also really fun despite being quite challenging at times. The rectilinear volumes introduced me to the concept of dominant forms, and the light basket let me experience with new materials. Though I’ve been able to complete the tasks so far, I wish I can put more personal approach to the tasks in the future and continue to experiment with new things while improving my sketching abilities.