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I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

dougmacdowell.com

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Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#51

Post by mauvehaus »

dougdude3339 wrote: post #48
mauvehaus wrote: post #32

I build furniture and while I do my design work digitally for remote clients, I do my shop drawings by hand. One super helpful tip I got from an actual trained draftsman is to use harder pencil lead for your layout and construction lines. Like 6H to 9H. You'll get a much lighter line to erase later. It'll also hold a finer point for longer. I prefer lead holders to wooden pencils. They take 2mm lead, and you sharpen…

Finding tools that clicked was a nice process to discover. I also tried harder leads and like them for the reasons you mention - but for whatever reason, kept coming back to a basic BIC mechanical pencil. An eraser shield is a good addition to the tools list - that came in handy often. Love the tracing paper tip - that’d be helpful to remove the digital aspect of taking a picture a digitally sketching on top.

Yeah, you're working a little finer than I am. Drawing furniture full or half scale, I'm not too bothered by a thicker line as the pencil dulls. Drawing a graph, I'd probably want a more consistently fine line too.

I like the basic Pentel P205/207/209 pencils, but the basically disposable plastic Bics would probably be well suited to the short, brutal life they'd lead in the shop.

Loved the article and the joy of the process. The outcome is spectacular and shows the care that went into it.

Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#52

Post by grayclhn »

bananaflag wrote: post #12

What I'm curious now is how one could use software (even PowerPoint) to make graphs that replicate that handmade aesthetic.

matplotlib has an xkcd style for a different sort of handmade aesthetic. And as reluctant as I am to bring this up as a comment to this post, “plot xyz and make the graph look like it was published in the financial times (but without ripping off their visual brand)” is a remarkably effective prompt after a little tweaking and I imagine something similar would work for other styles.

Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#53

Post by lemonberry »

mauvehaus wrote: post #32

I build furniture and while I do my design work digitally for remote clients, I do my shop drawings by hand. One super helpful tip I got from an actual trained draftsman is to use harder pencil lead for your layout and construction lines. Like 6H to 9H. You'll get a much lighter line to erase later. It'll also hold a finer point for longer. I prefer lead holders to wooden pencils. They take 2mm lead, and you sharpen…

I'm old enough that I took drafting in 7th grade. One tip I remember is to turn the pencil slightly as you use it. I think this was to help maintain the pencil's shape, but there my be other less obvious reasons.

I took woodshop too. The shop teacher seemed to enjoy scaring us with stories of the students that goofed off in shop to horrific consequences. That's also where I learned to be careful with air compressors around open wounds.

Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#54

Post by dougdude3339 »

apwheele wrote: post #16

You should add in Calvin Schmid's Handbook of Graphic Presentation into your list Doug -- https://archive.org/details/HandbookOfGraphicPresentation/pa... Unfortunately I do not see specific discussion of how to make the lines a consistent thickness. It does have notes on how to sharpen your pencil and how to use a carpenters spline to draw smooth curves though.

This will be an excellent addition to the list. Curve lines are a challenge I have yet to tackle in depth.

Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#55

Post by dougdude3339 »

jstummbillig wrote: post #3

> A professional draftsman of the 1920's may cringe at the imperfections in my line graph above. They can suck it. I am willing to suck it but the kerning is still killing me. (I love everything about this btw)

The kerning deserves the criticism - I'm glad someone said it :)

Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#56

Post by dolmen »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #25

I (perhaps mistakenly) saw the article as metaphor. 50 hours to draw a line graph vs. a few minutes trying various styles in PowerPoint. Stop letting machines make graphs, pay a draftsman like we used to do! (I'm fairly dense though, so I probably completely missed that the author was instead simply espousing the joys of learning a new handicraft.)

Powerpoint will soon be a lost craft.

Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#58

Post by thaumaturgy »

dougdude3339 wrote: post #54
apwheele wrote: post #16

You should add in Calvin Schmid's Handbook of Graphic Presentation into your list Doug -- https://archive.org/details/HandbookOfGraphicPresentation/pa... Unfortunately I do not see specific discussion of how to make the lines a consistent thickness. It does have notes on how to sharpen your pencil and how to use a carpenters spline to draw smooth curves though.

This will be an excellent addition to the list. Curve lines are a challenge I have yet to tackle in depth.

You may also like Information Graphics: https://www.taschen.com/en/books/graphic-design/44653/inform...

Re: I spent 50 hours drawing a line graph

#59

Post by dougdude3339 »

otherme123 wrote: post #5
dougdude3339 wrote: post #2

What's been more interesting to me lately than using software to design data visualizations is learning to draw data by hand. It's a time consuming process but incredibly rewarding. The feeling of erasing graphite to reveal clean, crisp lines is something that software cannot recreate.

What do you use to erase pencil? The words "Using an eraser and a light touch" suggest a gum or a vynil eraser. I make a ball with the kneaded eraser and roll it with the palm against the paper.

I found myself using the Prismacolor Artgum eraser the most. It had a nice way of shedding the used parts and staying clean. I like the kneaded erasers too but I tend to dirty them up too much.
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