Tips for drawing mechanical / hardware objects?
2mo
Mohsin Ali
I'm working on a project that involves drawing a bunch of mechanical parts - hinges, sliding tracks, rollers, that kind of thing. Specifically, I'm trying to sketch a wardrobe sliding system and it's kicking my butt. The perspective and proportions are tricky. The tracks and rollers have to look realistic, but I keep messing up the alignment. I've been using reference photos from Anwer Hardware's product catalog - they have really detailed shots of sliding systems, which helps - but translating that into a clean sketch is harder than I thought. Anyone have tips for drawing mechanical objects? Specifically: How do you handle perspective on long, narrow objects like tracks? Any tricks for drawing consistent curves/arcs on hardware parts? What's your approach to shading metal surfaces? I'm using graphite and pen mostly. Not looking for hyper-realism, just something that reads clearly. Appreciate any advice.
Ben Kraske
•
2mo
Some of these may help you out, along with other videos in the Perspective course! Using grids could help you with making sure perspective and proportions are looking alright. Consider just how detailed you need things to be, and if there are things that you can simplify to suggest the different mechanical parts. An illustration may not need to be as detailed as a catalogue, but it depends on what your project is! For shading metal, it also depends on the texture, shine, etc. Look up similar references for what you'll be drawing and use those to study. For a lot of metal, I've found it's a good idea to simplify to a highlight, halftone, and shadow value to block things out first. Good luck with your project! https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/assignment-why-you-need-to-be-drawing-with-grids https://www.proko.com/course-lesson/measure-depth-keep-track-of-imaginary-space
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