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What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

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Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#71

Post by jdietrich »

mrob wrote: post #36
jdietrich wrote: post #7

Drawing and painting is almost entirely a visual skill. The mechanical skills of wielding a pencil or mixing paint are almost trivial; the hard part is being able to see what's actually there. A bicycle is an incredibly simple visual form. You can doodle one in about five seconds. They're not rare or unusual objects and they're relatively homogenous. Nonetheless, most people have never actually seen a bicycle. They'v…

>The mechanical skills of wielding a pencil or mixing paint are almost trivial I strongly disagree. Try drawing a large shape without using a template. If you move the pencil with your fingers, you quickly run out of range of motion, and have to reposition your hand and join the new line segment without visible discontinuity, which requires extreme accuracy[0]. If you move it mostly with your arm then you have to lea…

Completely untrained people can trace a drawing with a good degree of accuracy, yet fail completely to draw even simple forms with any degree of verisimilitude.

Teachers like Betty Edwards and Bert Dodson have proven that pretty much anyone can learn to draw to a high standard in a remarkably short space of time once they understand the visual principles of effective drawing. Mastering draftsmanship requires a lifetime of practice, but competence can be achieved in a matter of days with the right instruction.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#73

Post by atourgates »

dirtyaura wrote: post #69
atourgates wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As odd at is - this[1] design has a couple elements that have been reproduced in the real world. While the exact 2wd system shown in the rendering would have some real issues, 2wd mountain bike systems do exist. They can rely on impressively strange chain routing[2], a system of gears and internal shafts[3], or just an electric hub[4] (which is admittedly, not really the same thing). As far as the one-sided frame goe…

I didn’t know about 2WD bikes existed! I’d love to try out to experience how it feels to drive 2WD. The Lefty design also looks very interesting, do you have practical experience with it? What an amazing comment full of new eye-opening information for me, thanks

I've ridden a lefty a couple times, and apart from the visuals, it didn't really feel unusual. I more or less didn't notice that I was on a lefty.

Here's an article that looks at it a bit more in depth: https://factoryjackson.com/2016/02/18/cannondale-lefty-the-s...

I haven't tried a 2WD, but everything I've read suggests that the added weight and friction delivers pretty limited utility, at least in non-electric versions.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#74

Post by userbinator »

jschwartzi wrote: post #13
lev99 wrote: post #11

There seems to be two things tested in this exercise. Technical drawing capabilities and knowledge of bicycle mechanics. I assume most people that drew bicycles have ridden one, but there are a few basic common mistakes. The location of the pedals (closer to rear wheel, very near to floor), the way the chain operate, and the triangle frame are some examples. I did not notice anyone drawing details around the gear mec…

Ask people to draw the powertrain or running gear of a car and you'd get much the same result.

That would probably be worse. At least the weird contraptions they drew are (even if only vaguely) recognisable as a bicycle.

This also raises the question of what you'd get if you asked drivers to draw what they see when they're sitting in the driver's seat.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#75

Post by douchescript »

ianbicking wrote: post #45
douchescript wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My electrib bike is AWD. Electric in the front and mechanical in the back. Very good for recovery on a patch of ice, impossible with just back wheel drive.

What does it feel like when you aren't peddling and it's just front-wheel drive?

It doesn’t drive if no peddling, legal stuff here in sweden.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#76

Post by namenotrequired »

lev99 wrote: post #11

There seems to be two things tested in this exercise. Technical drawing capabilities and knowledge of bicycle mechanics. I assume most people that drew bicycles have ridden one, but there are a few basic common mistakes. The location of the pedals (closer to rear wheel, very near to floor), the way the chain operate, and the triangle frame are some examples. I did not notice anyone drawing details around the gear mec…

I had a mandatory subject on traffic in primary school in Holland, and it was largely about cycling.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#77

Post by mrob »

jdietrich wrote: post #66
Someone wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

”The mechanical skills of wielding a pencil or mixing paint are almost trivial” Trivial? Painting a single shape everybody knows got Giotto a job ( http://theorbitbrown.com/site/the-perfect-circle/ ) There are huge differences between humans in drawing ability and training. But yes, in the case of these drawings, it seems the main difference is that many people apparently have never looked at a bicycle frame. I expec…

The Giotto story is almost certainly a myth. It's also largely irrelevant; anyone can draw a perfect circle in two seconds with a pair of compasses or a piece of string. There are huge differences in drawing ability, but going from "I can't draw" to "I can draw quite well" takes days , not years. Becoming a confident and capable draftsman is a skill that anyone can learn to a surprisingly high degree of proficiency i…

>going from "I can't draw" to "I can draw quite well" takes days, not years

Only if you consider a messy "chicken scratch" style good. I can draw things that look acceptable when you blur your eyes enough (which is indeed easy to learn), but I wouldn't claim to "draw quite well" unless I could do it with clean lines, which takes years of practice. When evaluating difficulty of a skill it's more usual to measure by difficulty of mastering it, not difficulty of getting beyond the very basics, and by that measure the mechanical side is much more difficult than the visual side.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#79

Post by Vinnl »

lev99 wrote: post #11

There seems to be two things tested in this exercise. Technical drawing capabilities and knowledge of bicycle mechanics. I assume most people that drew bicycles have ridden one, but there are a few basic common mistakes. The location of the pedals (closer to rear wheel, very near to floor), the way the chain operate, and the triangle frame are some examples. I did not notice anyone drawing details around the gear mec…

I don't think bicycle adoption could be higher than it is in the Netherlands. Nevertheless, I'm quite sure people would have trouble drawing a bicycle over here as well.

Really, the primary reason for the high adoption here is proper, safe infrastructure. (Being flat helps, but there are plenty of flat cities around the world that are not seeing as much adoption.)

I also don't think you'd need a whole semester of bicycle education. Most children here get a few lessons at primary school and do an informal exam, and that's it. The primary reason for that being enough is, again, safe infrastructure.

Re: What happens when you ask people to draw a bike (2016)

#80

Post by bunderbunder »

I like this. Even if they wouldn't work, some of the designs are really beautiful when translated into 3D models.

It also sort of reminds me a bit of a minor collection I've been making of children's book illustrations of kites, which started out of a morbid fascination with how, despite how very simple an object a basic diamond kite is, very few of them get all the details right.

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