Everyone can draw... and everyone who wants to generate creative ideas and solve complex problems SHOULD draw. A 2-hour workshop for international students in the Design Thinking course at the Bauhaus Summer School in Weimar, 2017 (led by Carolin Scheffler and Julius Falk).

1. drawing
for
creativity
bauhaus summer school
25 august 2017
molly clare wilson

2. UX designer
Drawing addict
Design (thinking) educator
American in Berlin
Superfan of Caro & Julius
I’m Molly

3. why do I draw?
Externalize and clarify ideas
Communicate with others
Activate my right brain: creativity + stress relief
Painless social networking for introverts

4. We are going to draw.

5. “I’m bad at drawing”

6. Henry Tonks (John Singer Sargent, 1918)
Source: Wikimedia Commons

7. my notebook

8. we think this is the
only “good drawing”…
… but this also does
an important job

9. – Mike Rohde, author of The Sketchnote Handbook
“Ideas, not art”

10. Simplify to Amplify
Complex
Specific
Realistic
Simple
Universal
Iconic
Learn more: Scott McCloud, Understanding Comics

11. What Will We Draw?
text
objects
people (bodies + faces)
ideas
stories
solutions to problems

12. Pen Yoga
1.5 hours
Many of these exercises were developed
with the inestimable Kate Rutter.

13. Warm-up
5 minutes

14. – Bill Verplank
“Use rubber stamps”

15. Text
3 minutes

16. Text
2 minutes

17. Mood Words
30 seconds each

18. bouncy

19. stinky

20. wild

21. liquid

22. annoying

23. relaxing

24. Objects

25. Objects

26. Objects
1 minute each

27. lightbulb

28. anchor

29. thumbs-up

30. sandwich

31. bicycle

32. university

33. Tooth People

34. Draw 50 tooth people
90 seconds

35. Faces

36. Sketch a partner
90 seconds

37. – my sister Betsy Cowie
“It doesn’t have to be
perfect – it just has to
be awesome”

38. Collaborative Pictionary
1 minute each

39. take a break!
15 minutes

40. why bother with drawing?

41. – Sunni Brown, author of Doodle Revolution
“Doodling is an act of
cognition”

42. Your Brain’s Two Modes
Sequential
Reductive
Analytical
Convergent
All-at-once
Holistic
Intuitive
Divergent
Learn more: Betty Edwards, Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain
Rudolf Arnheim, Visual Thinking

43. 2 Kinds of “Visual Thinking”
Object Thinking Spatial Thinking
– Kozhevnikov et al., 2010

44. Here’s some of my drawing:

45. conference
talks

46. concepts

47. books & articles

48. situations

49. jokes

50. Tell A Story
Setting Drama Resolution
2 minutes each

51. Solve A Challenge
No talking!
Write the challenge across the top of the paper – but
other than that, you can’t write words
Present to the group after 5 minutes
5 minutes working
Design a way to make moving to a new
house/apartment less stressful.

52. what can you do next?
carry a notebook everywhere!
draw 10 things over the weekend
if you don’t like how something looks, draw it at least 3
more times
read some books & follow people whose work you like

53. feedback
“I like…”
“I wish…”
“I wonder…”

54. Keep
Drawing!
here@molly.is
@mollyclare
http://molly.is