Oak & Outline / Wood & design

A small starting guide

A simple session for exploring furniture proportions explored through simple sketches, with room for your own observations.

A modest beginning

Keep a ruler and a sketchbook nearby and begin with a small stool outline. Choose a small question about furniture proportions explored through simple sketches rather than trying to cover the whole subject at once.

Start on paper with the purpose and the objects that need to fit. Mark measured dimensions separately from visual guesses. These pages are design and observation studies, not machine-operation instructions. Keep the first plan simple enough to compare with a cardboard model before choosing a workshop process.

A five-step session

Use this temporary checklist during one session. It clears when the page is reloaded.

0 of 5 steps checked

Make the note your own

Notice grain direction, visible joints and the edges people will touch. An attractive surface is only one part of an object that must be useful. Record the material and the design decisions alongside a scale drawing. Use appropriate trained workshop guidance for any actual construction, tool operation or finish application.

Choose a first page

A stool side view gives you a concrete exercise. You can also browse the whole journal and begin with the subject closest to hand.