Isometric sketching

Use this booklet to show you how to produce a good quality piece of isometric sketching Here are some of the words, which will be used in this booklet.

Isometric Paper clips Rough sketch Construction lines Potato print Proportion Crate Gradient fill Elliptical template

Isometric sketching

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As you work through school and get better and better, you will eventually, not need to use any templates or aids to help you draw freehand sketches. But, when you first start to draw it really helps to use the aids, to help you understand what you are doing.

We are going to use isometric paper and paperclips .

Put the isometric paper behind your blank paper and tap them on the desk so that they are perfectly aligned. Clip them at the corners. By aligning them before you clip them, its real easy to get the pages lined up again.

More details about Isometric paper are given on the

Little Robot
booklet in your sketching notes.

Always draw a crate first to contain the block. Builders ALWAYS mark out the area where they are going to build a house at the very beginning of the job. If they just started building anywhere, they might end up finishing in next doors garden. Make sure at the start you have got the proportions right.

Isometric sketching

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TWO things about drawing the Crate

Its important to look at the block and decide if you should draw it up to the left OR up to the right!

When you start drawing you can start with the ducks foot

Or with the letter Y

ALWAYS DRAW A CRATE FIRST AND DRAW IT IN CONSTRUCTION. That means draw it very lightly, hold the pencil lightly. Always use an 2B sketching pencil for sketching

For the simple blocks we use, the sizes are 9 long, 4 wide and 6 high. Get the proportions right at the start.

Isometric sketching

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There are several ways to draw the isometric blocks. The method shown here is so that you think of drawing the three potato print surfaces first. That means the front three faces So you draw all the lines you see on the front face. Then you draw any lines you see on the end and then you draw the lines on the top. You might want to think of drawing your own construction grid on the front first before you draw in the lines.

This is what your drawing should look like. At this stage its worth half marks.

Then you need to add in the other surfaces, one at a time. This is not a still life drawing you are doing. Its an ISOMETRIC. These drawings dont exist in real life. We use this style to represent life so that we can draw lines parallel and make it easier for designers to understand drawings.

The stars shown on each block are to remind you that these lines are all parallel and exactly the same length.

Isometric sketching

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Now that you have a rough drawing, you should be able to TRACE the drawing and produce a neat rendered sketch showing gradient in the colour and/or line thickness.

Line drawing

Rendered Inside Rendered Outside

Three line thickness

Isometric sketching

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Drilling Holes
1 Use the same methods to draw the block.

Start with the ducks foot. Draw the crate Draw in the potato print faces Watch that you keep everything parallel

2 Drawing the hole

Mark where the centre is FIRST. Draw in the cross hairs Use the cross hairs to line up the elliptical template

Isometric sketching

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3 types of Rendering

Render inside the block 3 line type Render outside the block

Render the inside of the block. Notice how the gradient goes from dark to light and back to dark in the hole. Also notice the line of white runs parallel to the isometric lines.

3 Line type. Where the spider disappears over the edge, then you draw that line thick The outside edge always has a really thick line.

Render outside the block Create a dark area outside the block. This type of dark area is known as a flashbar

Isometric sketching

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