It looks like your ‘fundamentals’ courses are for beginners, are they?

Whilst the ‘fundamentals’ courses are the best starting point for beginners, they’re way more valuable than that.  These courses are specifically designed help anyone/everyone (beginner, design student and design professional) who has reached a plateau in their design sketching.

The three ‘fundamentals’ courses address the cause of the plateau and help you to a place of confidence.  They also provide the foundation for all other sketching skills.  With the fundamentals in place, you’ll get much more value out of the other resources you’ll find online (YouTube, Instagram, Pinterest etc).

It’s great to get the fundamentals at the start of the journey, but if you don’t, that’s fine too, so long as they are a part of the journey!  With the ‘fundamentals’ somewhere in your toolkit, the journey will be a long and rewarding one.

I really want to improve my sketching as I want to be an artist, will your courses help with this?

There’s a big crossover, and you’ll certainly learn lots of valuable skills, but my courses, particularly the ‘fundamentals’ courses, are laser guided at developing your design sketching skills.  Useful if you want to be an artist, invaluable if you want to be a product or industrial designer, engineer or architect.

I really want to be able to sketch, but I wasn’t born with the sketching gene, can you help?

Absolutely!!  My 3 decades of teaching design students has taught me that there is no such thing as the ‘sketching gene’ - it’s a myth.

It’s also an excuse for the low success rate achieved by students taught with the traditional methods.  The ‘sketching gene’ myth hides ineffective teaching!

You can learn to sketch; I have all the tools to teach you, and you have all the ability to learn!

How can you be so confident that you can help me learn to design sketch?

When I recognised the huge drawbacks of teaching the traditional method, and the very low success rate it yielded, I made it my priority to reverse the stats.  Where I previously saw a success rate of 10 or 20%, I now see 80 or 90% of my students becoming super confident in their sketching.  The results are real!

I am confident that you’ll see the same results if you follow my system.

How is your system different to the traditional methods of teaching design sketching?

My system focuses upon 3 vital concepts that underpin all other sketching skills and form a foundation that you’ll build upon for years to come.

·        You will learn how to use your biomechanics to sketch straight and curved lines, ellipses and circles with consistency and confidence.  In other words, you’ll become really good at controlling your pen/pencil.

·        You will learn to work with your mindset, rather than against it!  This couldn’t be more valuable!!

·        You will understand how to use perspective to make your design sketching more communicative.

Most importantly, it’s my intention to reduce the pressure that you feel when you put pen to paper.  My process will leave you feeling more confident and relaxed.

Why can’t I learn to sketch from your YouTube channel?

You can, but my YouTube videos explain the ‘layers’ that sit on top of the fundamentals.  The fundamentals are covered in the courses, and they provide the very best, and most secure, foundation for a long future of adding to your design sketching skills.

If you struggle to action the skills taught in my YouTube videos, it’s because you haven’t got the fundamentals dialled in.  It is impossible to dial in the fundamentals by following the YouTube videos.

Why are your courses shorter than everyone else’s?  Am I getting less for my money?

My courses are shorter because I know just how valuable your time is.  Teaching is my real strength, and I am able to explain my processes efficiently, and set exercises that will get the best outcomes in the quickest possible time. 

I am condensing everything I’ve learned as a student, a graduate designer, and a teacher of design students, into short courses that pack a punch.

It is important to me that you start getting results quickly because this is key to building your self-belief and confidence.  Long courses and slow results would leave you questioning the process.

I’ve got lots of books on design sketching, I’ve followed other peoples’ courses, and I still can’t sketch with confidence.  What am I doing wrong?

Books are great, but they can play a major contributing factor in holding students back.  We often compare our sketching with the sketching we see in books and on social media.  We forget that the sketching we see in books and social media posts is mostly the best work (carefully edited and curated), created by the best of designers.  It’s damaging to compare ourselves, where we are in our journey, with the pros.  If anything, we should compare ourselves with where the pros were, when they were at our stage.

Why should I believe you?  You can sketch really well.  You don’t know how tough it is to learn.

Until about 6 or 8 years ago, my design sketching was uncomfortably average.  I had even come to terms with the fact that I had reached my ceiling and that my sketching would never be that great.  One day I realised that my sketching had turned a corner, and I’d become good.  Instantly, I began the journey of analysing what had changed for me, and working out how to use this knowledge to help my students as well.

So, believe me, I know all about the struggle, and that makes me far more qualified to teach than someone, for whom sketching came easily.

How should I maximise my pen control?

This is covered in detail in course 1 - the fundamental mechanics of design sketching

Do I have to be able to sketch to be a designer?

No!  You don’t.  But, those with sketching as part of their toolkit will find life as a designer far more effective and rewarding.  Conversation with the client is that much more communicative when there’s sketching involved.

If you’re at the start of your career, you will really stand out if your portfolio contains design sketching!

Is design sketching still relevant in a world of AI?

It’s never been more relevant!

Apart from speech, sketching must be the best form of communication.  Even though it’s as relevant as always, it’s becoming less and less common, so it’s going to become a skill that will set you apart from your peers/colleagues.

If you’ve got good quality design sketching in your portfolio, you’re so much more likely to be the standout candidate at the interview for your first design position.

AI is a great tool for designers but it isn’t close to replacing design sketching.  AI will make those designers who can sketch, even more sought after!

Do you offer face-to-face in person training?

Yes, I do, contact me here to discuss your requirements.

Do you offer discounts and refunds?

No. And I’ll explain why.

The price point to my courses is set to make them available to the greatest number of people. I want my process to be used because although it is only a few degrees different to the traditional methods of teaching design sketching, the difference is fundamental and a real game-changer.

I’m confident that there is way more value in my courses than the price point suggests, and even if you came out of my courses without having achieved your goals, you will still have benefited way more than the price point of these courses.

Offering discounts, would devalue the hard work and my decades of experience of designing and teaching designers.  With all that said, I can see how much of a course has been opened and watched – if you decided after a couple of lessons, that it wasn’t for you, you should email me.

How do I contact you? If I haven’t managed to answer your questions here, then you can email me at simplydesignsketching@outlook.com.

But, for the quickest response, comment on my YouTube videos or Instagram posts, and I will respond there.

Do you have more digital resources on the way?

Yes, there are some exciting resources in the pipeline. Be sure to keep checking back.

Do you sell any of your sketches?

As you know from the descriptions and commentary in my YouTube videos and Instagram posts, it’s important to me that my sketching is for design communication rather than being artwork. With that being said, I won’t be offended if you see something you like, and send me an offer!

Do you have a mailing list?

Yes, it’s here.

Do you have a Patreon account?

No, but if you’d like to buy me a coffee, that would just be the best start of the day for me! www.buymeacoffee.com/simplydesignsketching For the price of two or three coffees, you could walk away with one of my digital resources, and that would be the best start to your day as well as mine!

What equipment do I need to buy, to get good?

Well, I love this question!  To get good at design sketching you need an old pen and an old envelope, and that’s it!

I’m working on an equipment list, which will be easy to download from my website, soon.