Experimenting with Blank Paper
I ended up with a pretty busy sketchnote that I actually really liked. (As you can see, I went over part of it in pen in an effort to preserve it but never finished.) This sketchnote was a bit hard to navigate for someone who isn’t me, but it served its purpose well, and I found it fun to review the story told through it:
Click to view full-sized image
Click to view full-sized image
I recently did a digital sketchnote as another experiment to further find my preferences in sketchnoting. I found that for me, the process could be dragged out in length because of the way nothing is permanent in the digital medium, but the end result was easier to look back on and very similar to an infographic:
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As mentioned previously, I’ve developed a set of icons that I use to represent certain concepts or events and am constantly developing more. I especially love icons because they are such a simple, visual reminder that gives some background to the topic being written about.
For example, I use an icon for people that consists of a circular head and a slightly rounded body, and whenever I see it, I know that there is an important figure associated with the topic (in a historical context). A couple other icons I use are two crossed swords to represent war or conflict, chains to represent slavery, and curled paper to represent famous old documents or official documents/bills (ex. the Declaration of Independence).
Sketchnoting has also helped me find a style of art that I enjoy. It gave me a glance into stylizing text, something I found I really like to do. Since then, I’ve delved into the world of lettering, writing out song lyrics, quotes, and words that I like:
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That concludes my sketchnoting journey thus far, and I’m really excited and grateful to be able to share it here. Sketchnoting has been really fun and useful for me, and I look forward to continuing to create and experiment with it.
Thanks so much to Allison and her teacher and guide Lisa Stone for helping facilitate this fantastic story to share with other sketchnoters.
Article provided courtesy of Mike Rohde and Sketchnote Army.