Thread: Do you need to know how to draw well in this field?

A quick 5 min google search yielded a ton of info (too much to list here), about certificate courses and diploma courses in cabinetmaking in Canada. They can be done in addition to your trade apprenticeship program. Anything you require in a trade is basically taught by the apprenticeship program usually, anything beyond it is experience.

Do some research thats relevant to your interest. Find a college in your province, get course info, talk to careers advisors / teachers. Lessen your concerns.

Neal.

you don't need to be an artist, but being able to sketch is very handy. As with anything else, the more you do it, the better you get at it and the easier it should be for you.

There are also useful tools for the pc out that can help, eg Sketch up is one.

cheers
Wendy

I'm not a good sketcher, but what I do sketch I then understand when I am looking at it later.

But I only have me to satisfy. If I was a cabinet maker that needed to show a client what the end result might look like, I'd beef up on my Google Sketchup skills.

You will be taught what you need at trade school when I did my trade it was called technical drawing, I can't sketch to save my life although I am and have been a Cabinet Maker for 40+ years, over time you will learn to sketch so it is passable.

Go and do some work experience in a workshop.

I think 'sketching' isn't all that relevant anymore. Like China says, you'll learn what you need to at school. The sort of 'sketch' a client will want to see is better either drawn to scale in a CAD program, or the output of an actual artist.

In your trade I'm sure that technical drawing skills will be far more valuable to you.

Originally Posted by kman-oz

I think 'sketching' isn't all that relevant anymore. .

..sadly you may be right kman..
however, watch a clients eyes light up when you can quickly sketch up a few designs and include them in the process...give them the pencil and let them join in the scribblings..compliment them on their design input (no matter how dodgy)..and "Voila!!" you have the job..

*nods*

This is a good sales skill, no doubt.

As others have said, being able to draw a neat sketch will help you and your clients visualise what's in your mind. It will help you to resolve problems before you have measured once and cut twice.
Underfoot is spot on, it is a great marketing & design tool.

Recently I was chatting to a friend of my nephew who had become a joiner's apprentice,
He showed aptitude and was sent by employer to night school to learn software (Probably Autoocad or a derivative) that generates component dimensions for manufacture.
He now mainly does this CAD work and had no idea about any of that initially and rapt in his job.