{"id":3025,"date":"2020-08-04T14:57:02","date_gmt":"2020-08-04T14:57:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/?p=3025"},"modified":"2020-08-04T15:09:46","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T15:09:46","slug":"ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/","title":{"rendered":"OU Design Summer School 2020 &#8211; Week 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/unadjustednonraw_thumb_3\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3035\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-3035 size-medium alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_3-202x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"202\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_3-202x300.jpg 202w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_3-691x1024.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_3.jpg 728w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 202px) 100vw, 202px\" \/><\/a>A few of us are working on an OU Design Summer School this year and we already have a great bunch of students working on this. It\u2019s a bit of an experiment in terms of trying to get a community of learning going with a whole range of individual learning goals.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019ll blog separately about the learning theory and ideas behind this (some good stuff there) but this post is about my own participation and what I and wanting to learn \/ skills to develop (yes, we are taking our own medicine and are active participants in the learning. How else can you teach an experience? \ud83d\ude00 )<\/p>\n<p>I wanted to experiment more with sketching and how I can work between physical and digital processes a bit more easily &#8211; to have a nice \u2018flow\u2019 of thinking would be great to take advantage of what each does really well.<\/p>\n<p>In fact, this whole process also made me really think about why I sketch, what\u2019s good about it, and how that relates to my other design processes.<\/p>\n<p>It turns out that I sketch for a LOT of different reasons:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>To draw a representation of a scene (\u2018urban sketching\u2019)<\/li>\n<li>To sketch an observation of something I\u2019ve seen (e.g. architecture details)<\/li>\n<li>To sketch architectural ideas for:\n<ul>\n<li>projects I\u2019m working on right now<\/li>\n<li>longer term projects I have<\/li>\n<li>random ideas for things that will never go any further (for good reasons!)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Graphic novel ideas, frames and outlines<\/li>\n<li>Game design (character\/object\/scene\/map\/scripts)<\/li>\n<li>To visually outline some academic idea<\/li>\n<li>To make notes (I can use words, too, you know\u2026)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>It&#8217;s actually quite a big list &#8211; a sketchbook is a pretty amazing thing when you think about (in) it!<\/p>\n<p>For each of these uses, I might also use completely different processes and tools for the next step. For example, those design ideas are usually all better done using very different tools. And this may also depend on what stage the idea is at: an architectural idea might be a lot of different things and needing different tools to develop it further.<\/p>\n<p>So&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>My learning started with an open exploration of trying different digital sketching software. In the past, I\u2019ve tried a few and didn\u2019t really like them much. My plan is to:<\/p>\n<p>1. Give it a try without getting grumpy &#8211; really stick with it to try it out properly<br \/>\n2. Give different tools a try &#8211; not just the same old Adobe\/Autodesk stuff I\u2019m used to<br \/>\n3. From this, I hope I\u2019ll get a better idea of what it is I **do** need to learn or work on<br \/>\n4. Give different workflows or processes a try if it looks like I need to change these (I suspect I might\u2026)<\/p>\n<p>I also have a new tablet I was supposed to test and set up for another project at the OU &#8211; so the time seemed good to give both a go.<\/p>\n<p>This is how I got on at the start\u2026<\/p>\n<p>I started by downloading Autodesk Sketchbook Pro and gave it a whirl. I\u2019d tried this before on my MacBook, liked the software\/interface, but didn\u2019t like the feel of it. Previously I\u2019d tried drawing using a mouse and the trackpad with one of those cheap rubber-ended pens (I\u2019m sure there\u2019s a technical name\u2026). I\u2019d also tried it on a phone but neither of these really worked for me.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m not too bad at drawing using a mouse in Photoshop it\u2019s a very specific type of drawing &#8211; it can be quite technical and detailed. I never used to sketch in it or do what I would call \u2018proper drawing\u2019 \u2026.<br \/>\nHere\u2019s the sort of thing I used to do: IMAGE<\/p>\n<p>So I fired up Sketchbook Pro, using a cheap pen thing and loved it! In fact, I was quite surprised by how good it was &#8211; technology has clearly moved on since I was a nipper and Babbage engines were the size of your kitchen.<\/p>\n<p>I think it\u2019s because it\u2019s feels more like sketching now that what I\u2019m looking at and what\u2019s happening is in the same place (I\u2019ve never liked using tablets because I can\u2019t see where my pen is!). I suspect this could be because I was trained to use a pencil to draft in college &#8211; old fashioned architectural drafting using 2mm lead pencils\u2026 \ud83d\ude42\u00a0That sort of learning rubs off on you and it\u2019s hard to replace years of experiential knowledge that comes with and physical \/ mental task like drawing (even the nerves in our fingers are part of our thinking process when we draw!).<\/p>\n<p>So it was quite illuminating that some of that same feeling was there when I tried it &#8211; not all there (I really want a pressure sensitive pen!)<\/p>\n<p>Here\u2019s a few first sketches:<\/p>\n<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-3025 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/unadjustednonraw_thumb_129\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_129-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_129-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_129-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/unadjustednonraw_thumb_a\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_a-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_a-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_a-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/yuxpkvmtysksex5zjhbow_thumb_124\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/YUxpkVmTySksex5ZjhBow_thumb_124-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/YUxpkVmTySksex5ZjhBow_thumb_124-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/YUxpkVmTySksex5ZjhBow_thumb_124-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Still a LONG way to go, though:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It\u2019s still definitely sketching, not drawing. In the comic strip mockup, the detail of lining isn\u2019t there to do inking up or\u00a0 other things &#8211; but the more I did it the better I got at actually sketching and drawing (actually designing and creating &#8211; not just learning the brushes)<\/li>\n<li>Specific tools work the opposite way to how a physical pen or pencil work &#8211; I might need to learn new techniques or look for other tools<\/li>\n<li>I am still mucking about and not using it for anything specific so I need something to try it out on properly<\/li>\n<li>I still have a really dumb workflow between the tablet and computer so need to do something about that (although I came across a couple of really nice software-specific ones)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So I need a plan so I don\u2019t just keep on playing with the new Shiny Toy and end up without any direction\u2026<\/p>\n<p>There were two things that really made me think \u201cThis digital stuff could be really great!\u201d<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>First, sketching using layers. I\u2019ve used layers for decades in \u2018proper\u2019 work but never to sketch. And I am now asking why not??? For blocking out cartoons, it\u2019s just really simple and useful.<br \/>\n<div id='gallery-2' class='gallery galleryid-3025 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/unadjustednonraw_thumb_4\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_4-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_4-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_4-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/unadjustednonraw_thumb_5\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_5-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_5-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_5-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/unadjustednonraw_thumb_6\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_6-150x150.jpg\" class=\"attachment-thumbnail size-thumbnail\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_6-150x150.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/UNADJUSTEDNONRAW_thumb_6-50x50.jpg 50w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li>Secondly, digital brushes. Some of the more advanced digital rushes I came across felt really nice &#8211; not just applying colour but doing something like a physical material where you\u2019re not entirely in perfect control of it. (also virtual rulers, symmetry tools and other &#8216;simple&#8217; manipulations &#8211; this one might make it through to a 3D modelling workflow:)<br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/ou-design-summer-school-2020-week-1\/ej6cx4nkql6bvbqwyxwltw_thumb_12a\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-3043\" ><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-large wp-image-3043\" src=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ej6Cx4nkQl6BVBqwYXWLtw_thumb_12a-960x670.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"670\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ej6Cx4nkQl6BVBqwYXWLtw_thumb_12a-960x670.jpg 960w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ej6Cx4nkQl6BVBqwYXWLtw_thumb_12a-300x209.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ej6Cx4nkQl6BVBqwYXWLtw_thumb_12a-768x536.jpg 768w, https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/Ej6Cx4nkQl6BVBqwYXWLtw_thumb_12a.jpg 1009w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 960px) 100vw, 960px\" \/><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>So my goals for this next week are going to be:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Watch some workflow tutorials on cartooning and creating graphic novels (the 2000AD From the Drawing Board series is amazing and I\u2019m going to give this a try &#8211; I&#8217;m a <a href=\"https:\/\/2000ad.com\/news\/from-the-drawing-board-dave-kendall\/\" >Dave Kendal<\/a> fan).<\/li>\n<li>Watch some PS brush tutorials &#8211; might have to do some more searching for good artists for this.<\/li>\n<li>I might even get in touch with a couple of other people I know who already work in this area&#8230;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I\u2019m going to focus on the top one first and set some limits:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Aim for a (min) 3 frame cartoon by the end of the week<\/li>\n<li>Spend as much time drawing as watching videos!!! (in fact, draw along with the videos)<\/li>\n<li>Start linking what I\u2019m doing to the Summer School theme &#8211; am thinking about information and communication projects just now.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>So that\u2019s where I\u2019m at &#8211; how are you all getting along?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A few of us are working on an OU Design Summer School this year and we already have a great bunch of students working on this. It\u2019s a bit of an experiment in terms of trying to get a community of learning going with a whole range of individual learning goals. I\u2019ll blog separately about [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":3043,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-design-education","category-design-research"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3025"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3045,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3025\/revisions\/3045"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3043"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/design\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}