When it comes to sketching and communicating your ideas well, nothing beats a good old-fashioned pencil and a keen sense of perspective. That said, adding depth to your form sketches with light and shadow is a natural next step in taking your sketches to the next level. And when it comes time to cranking ideas out fast, our favorite go-to is a fistful of 2-3 Sketching Grays from Copic that give us great contrast. These ultra-blendable, low odor, alcohol-based inks deliver rich and smooth strokes that are ideal for quickly communicating product concepts. And unlike water-based inks, which tend to pill and oversoak paper while blending, Copics mix on the…

You know what’s cool? Having the power of a PC in the palm of your hand. You know what isn’t cool? Not having the ability to use Photoshop when you have downtime on your travels. Well, this is about to change; iPad devices are about to get the FULL Photoshop experience. That’s right — you no longer have to worry about carrying that behemoth workstation with you to the beach: According to a report by Bloomberg, this is the first part of Adobe’s new master plan to make their programs compatible across as many platforms as possible. Unlike most apps with a mobile port, the company is planning on bringing…

Mondays might not be your favorite day of the week, but the good news is that we’re all in this together ladies and gentlemen. As purveyors of prime Grade A web content, the SolidSmack crew has done some of the heavy-lifting to make sure you get your Mondays started on the right track. Welcome to The Monday List. Every Monday, we link you up with some of the most insightful, informative, and socially-relevant stories to keep tabbed, bookmarked, reading listed, pocketed, or what have you to get your week started on the right foot. Be sure to check in each week for a new crop of freshly sprouted words curated straight…

Long considered an indispensable asset for anybody working in CAD, the 3D mouse is a quintessential tool that belongs on the desktop of any industrial designer or engineer. Within a 3D application such as SolidWorks, Rhino, Fusion 360, or Keyshot, the directional, zoom and rotate functions provide an intuitive extension of the users’ design intent. To put it quite simply, a 3D mouse helps get rid of those annoying repetitive keystrokes and allows the designer to come as close to possible to holding their digital 3D design in the physical world. As pioneers of the 3D mouse territory, 3Dconnexion has blazed a trail with their SpaceMouse collection. And when it…

All of us were told off from drawing on the walls as children for a lot of reasons. Maybe it’s because we couldn’t reach high enough for our parents to appreciate our work. Or perhaps they couldn’t see art if it was right in front of their faces. Or it could just be the uncleanable, horrible mess it left afterward. It’s ironic the Scribit does exactly the same thing we did as kids, only on a slightly elevated level and with a more professional eye for art. The wall-clinging robot, designed by MIT professor Carlo Ratti, draws virtually any image found online on any surface it’s attached to. Just hang…

It doesn’t necessarily take a car nut to stop and stare at a cool vintage car. In fact, it can easily become an instant conversation-starter; a timeless way to break the ice. This attraction to the classics is exactly what watchmaker Willer Chronometers is going for. Inspired by old-school sportscars and the Mile Miglia open-road motorsport races, these timepieces look like they were made during a time when exhaust emissions and high gas prices were issues for future generations to worry about. At its core, this watch is a revamped Seiko NH35 with automotive decals. There are design patterns on the dial which look like brake distance traces and a…