This paper proposes a method that resembles a natural pen and paper interface to create curve based 3D sketches. The system is particularly useful for representing initial 3D design ideas without much effort. Users interact with the system by the help of a pressure sensitive pen tablet. The input strokes of the users are projected onto a drawing plane, which serves as a paper that they can place anywhere in the 3D scene. The resulting 3D sketch is visualized emphasizing depth perception. Our evaluation involving several naive users suggest that the system is suitable for a broad range of users to easily express their ideas in 3D. We further analyze the system with the help of an architect to demonstrate the expressive capabilities. © 2013 Springer-Verlag London.