Sans CAD - Sketching Off-Line

Craig T Martin craig_martin@speakeasy.net

Want to experience designing “old school”? Try these techniques between freehand and CAD.

Consider having several No.2 pencils at hand, rather than commercial drafting pencils, controlling line weight by how sharp they are. An electric sharpener speeds the work.
Orient pads of paper and clipboards with the bound edge at the bottom to reduce curl-up.
When drawing a freehand line, focus on the end point. As in skiing and racecar driving, if you look at the ground or the wall,that’s where you’ll end up.
Guide your little finger along the edge of a paper pad or clipboard to make pencil lines (or Xacto knife cuts) parallel to the edge.
Twist your pencil as you draw it along a straight edge to maintain consistent line weight.
Tilt your pencil against the upper corner of your straight edge to shift alignment toward or away from the straight edge.
Extend lines slightly beyond corners to give the corners a sharp appearance.
Use any handy object to draw curves and circles.
Curved sections and straight sections of a line are easier to line up if the curved sections are drawn first.
Add arrowheads by starting slightly beyond the end of the arrow line
Align arrows toward the center of gravity of the object they point to.
A scrap of stick-on sand paper is handy for shaping the point of your pencil lead.
Hash marks at the ends of dimension lines are quicker to draw than arrowheads.