45-minute workshop given at Sketchcamp San Diego on October 6, 2012. Video: http://vimeo.com/52665636 // Speaker notes and more information: http://huah.net/jason/blog/sketchcamp-san-diego-2012/
12. 12
drawing in pen, and I made illustrations with little journal entries beside them, and started
peppering my notes with larger sketches.
13. Dave Gray - http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/davegray/3382577656/in/set-72157615766728785
13
It wasnât until I stumbled across some SxSW conference notes by Dave Gray of xplane that I
realized that my conference notes could be much more visual.
http://www.xplane.com/
http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/davegray/3382577656/in/set-72157615766728785
15. 15
Sketchnotes are visual notes taken at live events that ïŹuidly combine lettering and images to
make memorable documentation of something youâve seen.
16. Eva-Lotta Lamm - http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/evalottchen/7575898138/in/set-72157607235674386/
16
They can be really rich and evocative, like these sketchnotes from Eva-Lotta Lamm, whoâs a
designer on the Android Team at Google. (Sheâs got a book full of these: http://
sketchnotesbook.com/ ...go check it out, itâs fantastic!)
http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/evalottchen/7575898138/in/set-72157607235674386/
21. 21
...to help me remember things that Iâve seen or talks that Iâve heard...
22. 22
...to make notes that Iâm more likely to re-read (because theyâre interesting! they tell
stories!), and to help me know where to ïŹnd certain things within my notes...
25. 25
...and as a bonus, the skills and speed you get from practicing sketchnoting will help you
with all sorts of other sketching, too.
26. 26
So... I maaay be putting the cart before the horse here, but Iâm guessing youâre probably
already getting ideas about sketchnotes, and when you might use them. Â Before we continue,
Iâd like you to crack open your sketchbook and take a minute to write down some ways that
you plan to use sketchnoting, so that you keep it in mind during this talk. Â If youâre feeling
brave, snap a picture of it and tweet it: Â #sdsketch #ps0 Â (Weâll do this for each of the
exercises.) Are you ready?
28. 28
Hereâs what Iâm going to talk about today ... [quick rundown]
Weâre going to have a bunch of timeboxed wax-on/wax-off exercises building up to some
actual sketchnoting of a talk, inside this talk, where youâll put it all together. A talk inside a
talk... so very meta! (If I had that Inception sound â âBONGGGG!â â Iâd play it right here.)
30. 30
And as we start with tools, I have to warn you what Iâm not going to talk about: Â digital tools.
31. 31
Although there are many nifty digital tools out there, like...
- LiveScribe pens, which use a special paper printed with patterns of microscopic dots to
digitize your notes AND map what youâre drawing to the audio recorded when youâre drawing
itâbut Iâm not going to talk about that!
- Evernote moleskine notebooks which are printed with dotted lines instead of dashed lines
so that they scan better and OCR all your handwriting to make it indexed and searchable, and
youâve got these colored stickers that you can use to tag your pages of sketchesâbut Iâm not
going to talk about that, either!
- or the Wacom Inkling, which is a box that sits at the top of your sketchbook and uses
infrared signals and magic to digitize your sketches...Iâm not going to talk about that.
32. 32
Nor am I going to talk about iPad apps...and believe me, there are lots of great iPad apps out
there! Iâve tried a slew of them, and if you want to geek out about these, talk to me
afterward. Honestly, working with most of these will just slow you down...because all you
REALLY need is...
34. 34
And I say a pen, not a pencil, because theyâre fasterâyouâre less inclined to go back to ïŹx
mistakesâ, and they donât become a smudged gray mess in your sketchbook after your
sketchbook gets jostled around in your bag.
35. 35
I look for two things in my pens: pens that have a good, fast ïŹow, and pens that donât bleed.
(This example of bleedthrough is brought to you by Sharpieâą.)
36. 36
Here are some of my current favorites. Â Iâm currently a huge fan of gel pens, particularly the
Pilot G-2 05. Sharpie Pensânot Sharpiesâare awesome, too; theyâre like cheaper âmicronsâ
or pigment liners, if youâre used to those, and they donât bleed through paper like Sharpies
do. Â And G-2s and Sharpie Pens both come in colors.
37. 37
For a sketchbook, Iâd suggest a medium weight, medium-to-low-tooth paper in a spiral
bound book. Â Try a few things out to see what kind of paper and pen combination works for
you, and which sketchbook size you like best. Â You want a sketchbook thatâs small enough
that you can take it with you, but not so small that itâs hard to draw and write in when youâre
in the dark of a conference hall. Â For years, I used less-than-$4 Walgreens sketchbooks, so
you donât have to pay a lot of money.
38. 38
But speaking of dark conference halls, letâs talk about approach.
You obviously want to ïŹnd a place to sit thatâs close enough to see the speaker, and near a
light source, if you can. Â
39. 39
Sketchnoting is tricky, because you have to take notes, draw, and actively listen to whatâs
being said, AND try to ïŹgure out how you plan to draw it on the page...
40. Creighton Berman - http://www.core77.com/blog/sketchnotes/sketchnotes_101_the_basics_of_visual_note-taking_19678.asp
40
...so like this sketch from Creighton Berman depicts, you end up keeping a mental buffer of
whatâs being said while youâre drawing something from a minute or three before. Â (Itâs good
practice in multitasking!)
Realize, at least at ïŹrst, that youâre not going to capture EVERYTHING.  If you need to, make a
quick sketch or jot a few words and come back to it later after the talk. Â Listen to whatâs
being said and try to anticipate what will come next-- if the speaker says theyâre going to hit
three main points, plan for that...but donât bank on it, because they may skip a point or add
one: âThereâs 4 things I want to talk about: .....1.....B....5....â Youâll be wondering where the
other thing was, and if you missed any others in the middle!
41. http://www.danroam.com/blah-blah-blah/
41
Think ahead about how to render an idea to put it in context--in Dan Roamâs new book Blah
Blah Blah, he talks about mapping verbal data to visualizations that match it-- so if you hear
a set of dates, think about putting them on a timeline. Â If you hear a percentage, think of a
creative chart to render that.
42. 42
Emphasize what you feel is important with text-treatments, lines, borders and images (weâll
get into all of these). Â
Overall, it feels very much like a big improvisation, where youâre trying to record what the
talk brings to mind as well as the talk itself.
Note that sometimes, speakers will talk WAY TOO FAST, like I did, in the beginning of this
talk. Â
(Check out Scott McCloudâs TED Talk for a great example of , cued up to the 2 minute 41
second mark: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fXYckRgsdjI#t=2m14s ) Â
You can resign yourself to slow down and capture a few key points in detail, or lapse back
into text note-taking if you need to, or âŠâcheatâ and draw a few key images and words, then
go back in to ïŹll in the details from memory right afterward.
46. 46
...consider your audience. Â If youâre taking sketchnotes to share with other people, thatâs one
thing, but when youâre getting the hang of it, do it for yourself and your own note-taking
ïŹrst and foremost. Youâre not going to rock the sketchnotes right out of the gate, so if itâs
something that you REALLY need to record in detail, maybe keep regular notes and save the
sketchnotes for less high-pressure note-taking.
47. 47
We talked about how sketchnotes were words and images, so letâs start with the ïŹrst part,
lettering. Whatâs the most important thing about lettering? Anyone?
49. 49
Sometimes when youâre writing really fast, if youâre not careful, your âaâs can rotate and start
looking like âoâs. Â
50. 50
But if youâre TOO careful, you can take too much time to write. Yes, you want to leave the pen
on the paper as much as possible for speedâs sake (picking up and moving it is âexpensiveâ),
but in my experience, cursive is too slow. Â Too much pendulum motion backwards.
(Does anyone still even know how to write cursive?)
51. To solve the ïŹrst problem, Brandy Agerbeck, who describes herself as a graphic facilitator
âand yes, there are people whose whole job is to go into boardrooms and sketchnote
business problems!â, suggests writing Ê»aÊŒs like this...
[This is from BrandyÊŒs excellent book, The Graphic FacilitatorÊŒs Guide:
http://loosetooth.com/gfg/ ]
51
53. 53
To solve the second problem, try printing crossed with cursive.
54. 54
And another tip from Brandy, practice writing letters using as few strokes and pen pick-ups
as you can. A y is faster when itâs just one continual stroke instead of 2-3 separate lines, or
(for me) a lonnnnng loop of cursive.
55. 55
So, break out your sketchbooks! This is the ïŹrst exercise, also from Brandy Agerbeck: draw
lines to divide a page in your sketchbook into thirds. On the top third, write the alphabet as
slowly and legibly as you can. On the bottom third, write the alphabet as quickly as you can.
In the middle, compromise and write as quickly as you can while still keeping it legible. If
you have time when youâre done and youâve written all in uppercase, write the lowercase
alphabet as well.
And if you still have time after that, and are feeling brave, tweet it: #sdsketch #ps1
56. 56
Donât underestimate your lettering...itâs a key component to visual notes. Â Lettering can be
expressive enough to make amazing sketchnotes itself. Â
57. Mike Rohde - http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/rohdesign/2330499862/in/set-72157607737442397/
57
Mike Rohdeâs SxSW sketchnotes that popularized this whole sketchnotes craze? Largely
lettering. Â
http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/rohdesign/2330499862/in/set-72157607737442397/
58. Carolyn Sewell - http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/pedestriantype/6858932971/
58
Carolyn Sewellâs sketchnotes are dense, black oceans of letters. Â
http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/pedestriantype/6858932971/
59. Paul Goode - http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/paulgoode/7726487184/in/set-72157631050650106
59
Paul Goode makes these colorful and ïŹowing text sketchnotes of Christian rock lyrics and
sermons. Theyâre pretty awesome!
http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/paulgoode/7726487184/in/set-72157631050650106
60. Kent Kanouse - http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/35946983@N00/3201140770/
60
Letters by themselves can be attention getting, as youâll notice if you pass any newsstand.
61. Sketchnoting? Itâs fun! OH MAN, really.
Humanist / Old Style - [ Aa ] Big Caslon
Sketchnoting? Itâs fun! OH MAN, really.
Transitional - [ Aa ] Baskerville Old Face
Sketchnoting? Itâs fun! OH MAN, really.
Modern - [ Aa ] Didot
Sketchnoting? Itâs fun! OH MAN, really.
Egyptian / Slab Serif - [ Aa ] Rockwell Extra Bold
Sketchnoting? Itâs fun! OH MAN, really.
Transitional Sans Serif - [ Aa ] Gill Sans
Sketchnoting? Itâs fun! OH MAN, really.
Geometric Sans Serif - [ Aa ] Futura
Sketchnoting? Itâs fun! OH MAN, really.
Surprisingly Puffy Sans Serif - [ Aa ] Sniglet
http://thinkingwithtype.com/contents/letter/#Type_ClassiïŹcation
61
Different typefaces can add emotion and personality to what youâre writing, ...
(For a great introduction to typography and typefaces, check out Ellen Luptonâs wonderful
book THINKING WITH TYPE: http://thinkingwithtype.com/ )
62. http://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/
62
... which can in turn, help you remember it better, and serve to underline what youâre writing.
[If lettering and type appeal to you AT ALL, you owe it to yourself to subscribe to MyFonts
newsletters. Tons of inspiration, twice a month: http://www.myfonts.com/newsletters/ ]
63. 63
Lettering can capture the emotion (and intonation, and inïŹection) of a speaker in a way that
plain text notes canât. This person could be saying âDebugging! {joyously}â or âDebugging!
{ruefully}â and you can record that in the lettering. (It doesnât need to be THIS theatric, but
itâs an example.)
64. 64
Letâs try this! Pick any three typefaces and letâs take a few minutes for you to try your hand
at writing a few words each in each of the typefaces...
65. high noon!
circus cowboy?
Cute kittens! OMG.
Ancient mariners talked of
âmermaids,â but avast, we
Every Movie Title Ever
THE LIBRARY
IN A WES ANDERSON FILM
GOVERNMENT
SURPLUS
65
...and here are some typefaces for inspiration. Iâll leave these up here.
(Bonus question: Can anyone name the font used in EVERY MOVIE TITLE EVER?)
(Answer, courtesy Kirby Ferguson: http://www.youtube.com/watch?
feature=player_embedded&v=t87QKdOJNv8 )
67. 67
So now weâre on the road to fast but readable handwriting, and weâre getting creative with the
lettering, so letâs (ïŹnally) add images.  IMAGES!
68. 68
Images fall on a spectrum from symbolic (with letters themselves being the most symbolic) to
representational (or likenesses) annnnnnd...
Look, what you really can take away from this is that youâve got three levels of drawings that
you can run with:
icons / shapes / symbols;
cartoons;
and more representational illustrations, things drawn in a way where youâre trying to make
them look like what you see.
[This is heavily inspired primarily by Scott McCloudâs UNDERSTANDING COMICS and its Big
Triangle
http://scottmccloud.com/4-inventions/triangle/index.html
The likeness is supposed to be Morgan Spurlock, from this Flickr photo by Rachel Lovinger:
http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/mirka23/8042441099/ ]
69. 69
Before we go further, Iâve got a bit of a social experiment Iâd like to try. Break out your
sketchbooks and draw...
- an icon for an idea
- an icon for a web search
- an icon for a conversation
- and a stick ïŹgure of a person
(You have about 90 seconds. Be quick, donât be precious...)
70. 70
Oooookay, times up! Show of hands: how many of you had an icon for an idea that looked
like...
74. 74
...this? (Oooh, youâre getting fancy there.)
Youâll notice that most of you had the same iconsâthis a cultural symbolic language that you
can leverage when youâre taking sketchnotes.
75. 75
You donât have to get super-artistic to begin to make your notes more visual. Â Use icons like
we just drew as waypoints and markers in your map of a talk. Â I like to use a search
magnifying glass as a bullet for items that I want to Google later.
This is from a museum exhibit on Native American Skateboarding Culture* (I know! How cool
is that??!) ...and there were obviously too many nifty things for me to draw in the time that I
had, so I used a search icon to mark things that I wanted to look up later when I got home.
*[ http://www.museumofman.org/blog/ramp-it-so-much-more-skateboarding-exhibit ]
76. 76
You can use them as bullets to group ideas together, too, or tags (like the evernote stickers
we talked about).
77. 77
But lets get back to stick ïŹgures. Stick ïŹgures can be especially useful in your sketchnotes to
rapidly model scenarios that a speaker is describing. Â Sketching these scenarios is usually
FAR better if you can evoke emotion in just a few linesâyouâll get empathy for what these
stick ïŹgures are going through. Â
Iâm going to show you a trick that will make your stick ïŹgures a bajillion times better [more
expressive].
78. 78
Just start with a box for a body. Â Add an oval for a head. Â Add jointed limbs. Â Itâs that simple.
79. Dave Gray - http://www.davegrayinfo.com/2008/04/03/how-to-draw-a-stick-ïŹgure/ 79
This isnât a new trick. Dave Gray [remember him?] has been advocating this method for
years...
[I got this trick from cartoonist Jett Atwood â http://tg-studios.com/about.html â who
taught this method in a screencast on a now-defunct site called sketchcast.com.]
80. Coke cans designed by Tom Gauld - http://www.creativereview.co.uk/cr-blog/2010/march/tom-gauld-cans - http://www.tomgauld.com/
80
...and Tom Gauld, whose work youâll probably recognize from these Diet Coke cans, has
made an entire body of work with stick ïŹgures in the same style... boxy body, dot for
head, ....
81. 81
...and youâll notice that having a box for a body can give you a stick ïŹgure thatâs got scads of
expressiveness.
85. 85
But now you try it: break out your sketchbooks again and using the same bending box for a
body, draw a stick ïŹgure whoâs proud, one whoâs sad, and one whoâs fearful.
90. 90
...made up of shapes. And hereâs a dirty, dark secret of drawing...
91. Bennett, I hope you donât mind. - https://twitter.com/skunkwUrX
91
...so are PEOPLE.
(I know, itâs like â{Gasp!} SOYLENT GREEN IS PEOPLE!â â{Gasp!} PEOPLE ARE MADE UP OF
SHAPES!â But itâs true!)
If you look at this picture of Bennet, youâll see {pointing to it} that his head is kind of circular,
with a rectangular chin and a triangle nose, and his hair has a part that kind of arcs on the
top, but the rest is a bit squarish.
92. 92
One of the things that I like to do when sketchnoting is to try to capture a likeness of the
speaker so that when I go back to my notes later, I have a face to put with the words. Â Iâm not
always good with it, but Iâm getting better. Here are some tips:
First, try to ïŹgure out what position the speaker is holding for a while.  While some people
are really animated, speakers tend to return to a common pose or three, and itâs really hard
to draw someone whoâs constantly moving.  If you canât ïŹgure this out, then just bet on one,
and try to ïŹll it in with glances throughout the talk.
94. 94
Start with the silhouette, get the gestures, then work in, ïŹlling in details.
95. 95
Crazy trick that works: Â get the hair right and most people who know the person will be able
to recognize the person. Â
96. 96
Most people will be able to recognize this sketches from just the hair!*
[* This is a Western culture thing, and why bank-robbers wear wigs. In Asia or Africa, hair
can be more similar, people identify each other more by other facial features like eyes and
cheekbones. This information is from an old Exploratorium science museum exhibit on
memory:
http://www.exploratorium.edu/exhibits/wig/index.html ]
97. TeeFury shirt by Daniel Castelló Muñiz - http://www.teefury.com/archive/1804/Science_Without_Limits/
97
And itâs pretty true! Can anyone name this television show?
Yep, itâs FRINGE. And if youâve ever seen the show, youâll ïŹnd that you can recognize the
craggy-browed Walter, or Astrid, or Olivia, all without eyes or noses, and primarily by hair.
99. Very sorry, Mr. Frank. Audience, youâll understand later in this slide deck. - http://zefrank.com/
99
Faces are the easiest to mess up.
100. 100
I generally start with cheats-- dots for eyes, and key lines (as few as possible) for mouth and
nose and ears-- and reïŹne from there.  If I add too many lines, it looks wrong (especially if
youâre sitting farrrrr away from the podium), so donât be precious.
101. 100
I generally start with cheats-- dots for eyes, and key lines (as few as possible) for mouth and
nose and ears-- and reïŹne from there.  If I add too many lines, it looks wrong (especially if
youâre sitting farrrrr away from the podium), so donât be precious.
102. 100
I generally start with cheats-- dots for eyes, and key lines (as few as possible) for mouth and
nose and ears-- and reïŹne from there.  If I add too many lines, it looks wrong (especially if
youâre sitting farrrrr away from the podium), so donât be precious.
103. 101
Add color or shading last...and as a beginner, Iâd be wary of it. Â Also be wary that the marker
your using might smudge your ink, so test it ïŹrst.
104. Why, yes, it is who you think it is.
102
Letâs try this with a random picture of celebrity Rainn Wilson:
Follow the tips we just covered:
- break him into shapes (youâll notice he has a head thatâs a bit squarish)
- break into smaller shapes, eyeballing the proportion of the head to the shoulders and neck
- get the hair rightâyouâll see he has kind of scraggly hair at the top of his forehead and a
high hairline
- start with dots for eyes, and build from there, drawing glasses and brows and eyelids
- and so on...
105. Why, yes, it is who you think it is.
102
Letâs try this with a random picture of celebrity Rainn Wilson:
Follow the tips we just covered:
- break him into shapes (youâll notice he has a head thatâs a bit squarish)
- break into smaller shapes, eyeballing the proportion of the head to the shoulders and neck
- get the hair rightâyouâll see he has kind of scraggly hair at the top of his forehead and a
high hairline
- start with dots for eyes, and build from there, drawing glasses and brows and eyelids
- and so on...
106. 103
Now weâve had a whirlwind tour of drawing, letâs pull it all together with LAYOUT.
107. 104
First of all, start with the title. Â Are you going to put it in the center of the page or at the top? Â
At the bottom? Where?
108. 105
Since you know what it is, take time before the talk starts to write out the title and the
speaker in fancy lettering.
109. 106
Try to have a rough idea of the direction youâre going to ïŹow.  Here are some common
layouts, and Iâm going to walk through each of them...
110. Krystal Higgins - http://www.kryshiggins.com/sketchnotes-from-ïŹrst-person-user-interfaces/
107
First, thereâs rows, left-to-right. These sketchnotes are from Krystal Higgins
http://www.kryshiggins.com/
and youâll notice that she draws the metaphors that the speaker invokes, which is a good
trick...so for example if the speaker mentions something being a âslipper slope,â sheâll draw a
stick-ïŹgure sliding down a literal slippery slope.
111. Krystal Higgins - http://www.kryshiggins.com/sketchnotes-from-ïŹrst-person-user-interfaces/
107
First, thereâs rows, left-to-right. These sketchnotes are from Krystal Higgins
http://www.kryshiggins.com/
and youâll notice that she draws the metaphors that the speaker invokes, which is a good
trick...so for example if the speaker mentions something being a âslipper slope,â sheâll draw a
stick-ïŹgure sliding down a literal slippery slope.
114. 109
You could also arrange your notes radially around a center. (Iâm sure this exists, but I didnât
ïŹnd examples of it before the talk!)
115. 110
One layout thatâs very handy for panels is the âtalking headsâ approach, where you draw
small portraits of each of the speakers and then chain what they say in a series of word
balloons.
116. 110
One layout thatâs very handy for panels is the âtalking headsâ approach, where you draw
small portraits of each of the speakers and then chain what they say in a series of word
balloons.
117. Austin Kleon - http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/deathtogutenberg/3376651151/in/set-72157615774456940
111
This is a trick that I picked up from South by Southwest sketchnotes, like these from Austin
Kleon.
http://www.ïŹickr.com/photos/deathtogutenberg/3376651151/in/set-72157615774456940
http://www.austinkleon.com/
118. 112
And last, thereâs an approach I like to call âthe winding riverâ where you just draw things on
the page wherever you can and connect the thoughts in order with âboxesâ and âarrows.â
119. 112
And last, thereâs an approach I like to call âthe winding riverâ where you just draw things on
the page wherever you can and connect the thoughts in order with âboxesâ and âarrows.â
120. 113
Just make sure that when youâre doing this, to always WRITE THE TEXT before you draw the
âboxâ or container around it, or youâll end up running out of room like this.
121. 114
So! Weâve arrived at the ïŹnal exercise! Are you ready??! You should be! Weâre going to
sketchnote the following talk, so take a moment to write out the title and speakersâ names:
Itâs called âTeen Brain,â by Ze Frank and Rainn Wilson, and itâs from a podcast called A Show
with Ze Frank. (Great show!)
http://ashow.zefrank.com/episodes/38
124. In no particular order...
Aldryn, Ahron, Dmitry, Asa, Joel,
Eva, Mike, Charlene, Boon, Krystal,
Scott, Bennett, Chad, Amaya,
Shahn, Clint, Yelena, Matthias,
everyone else I forgot to mention,
Nathan, Ma & Pa
117
HUGE thanks to everyone who helped, directly and indirectly, on this presentation!
If youâd like to learn more about sketchnoting, there are a few good books Iâve linked to
earlier in the notes, but Iâd like to also mention:
- The Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde
http://rohdesign.com/book
- Sketchnotes Field Guide by Binaebi Akah and Charlene McBride
http://siriomi.com/portfolio/sketchnotes-ïŹeld-guide-book/
...as well as the blog Sketchnote Army
http://sketchnotearmy.com
and the âLetâs Sketchnoteâ workshop at Midwest UX by Binaebi Akah, Veronica Erb, and
Charlene McBride.
http://verbistheword.wordpress.com/2012/05/31/lets-sketchnote-at-midwestux-2012/
125. 118
If you have any further questions, Iâm âjustsomeguyâ on twitter:
https://twitter.com/justsomeguy
Thank you! I look forward to seeing your sketchnotes!