Freehand drawing vs. transformed digital drawing: A preliminary study and comparison

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary study and comparison of digital drawings, which are transformed from freehand sketching by using Photoshop. With the development of new software, digital drawings are used more and more extensively in the design field. However, freehand sketching continues to provide unique and vital capabilities to interior designers and architects in allied fields (Laseau, 2004). In order to balance both freehand sketching and digital drawing to meet the requirements of the current trend, it is necessary to explore a new technique of transformation from freehand sketching to sophisticated digital drawing. The transformed drawings should represent the characters of both freehand sketching and digital drawing; especially it presents certain qualities that hand-drawn drawing can not present. Therefore, a preliminary study on how to transform freehand drawing to digital drawings was undertaken. Most importantly, this preliminary study compares the characteristics of transformed digital drawings with characteristics of freehand sketching in order to make recommendations about conversion from hand-drawn to digital drawings for professional practice and education. This paper presents a procedure of transformation from traditional sketching to digital by Photoshop. It also presents a series of transformed drawings and hand-drawn drawings. A comparison list was created to describe the characteristics of both hand-drawn and digital drawings. This study provides valuable suggestions to the body of knowledge of graphic communications. It will benefit both design education and professional practice. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2010.