Thanks bonzelite. I love to watch old sci-fi movies because I'm really interested in how they imagined the future.
"2001: Odyssey in Space" is a great example. I first saw the movie in 2003 and wondered whether the these designers now are disappointed how the real 2001 looked like.
To make such things, I guess I need to start a growing and growing library of pictures of the things I want to draw. As I drew the power plant on the sketch from above, I recognized that there are so many more details on a power plant that it would have been impossible to draw a good power plant from my head.
But because I was to lazy to turn on the computer I tried. Just from my memory. power plant seen on TV, power plant seen in the chemistry book...
The second thing is to find the shapes and properties which are typical for object. Like with this one single line you can make somebody think of a porsche.
Or a lot of pipes and tanks an cooling towers and concrete are typical for a power plant.
Probably no human beeing can save every pic he has ever seen to his/her memory. But having a "graphical memory" seems to be helpful.