10 tips from this year’s CCA Sketch-A-Thon

1. Think in terms of primitive shapes (cylinders, cubes, spheres, etc.)
2. Draw with your whole arm starting at the shoulder — warm up by just drawing lines across the page or simple geometric shapes
3. Rotate your page a lot as you draw
4. Hold the pen a little higher up the barrel — this gives the whole drawing a bit more flow
5. Start with a bunch of little thumbnails for concepts; then do quick, rough 3/4 size sketches
6. ‘Keep it light till you get it right’ — start with soft colors and light pen or pencil, then get stronger as you hone in on the lines you really want
7. Don’t try to trace when you’re inking. Redraw. Tracing sucks the life out of what you drew before. Think about the essence and then redraw over the top.
8. Ghostline before inking each line, then draw with confident, full strokes
9. Don’t be afraid of shading outside the lines — it gives it that loose concept feel
10. Use both sides of the tracing paper to get different saturation levels with your copic markers and to help the black lines pop

Some of the tools we used: new Sharpies with fine tips, Papermate Flair, Gray Copic markers, ballpoint pen, tracing paper, Prismacolor ebony graphite pencil

Special thanks to California College of the Arts Industrial Design program and Spencer Nugent for the workshops and tips.