Write/Speak/Code is the first conference I tried sketchnoting, and people loved it. I was really surprised because I still consider myself someone who cannot draw, but somehow I am good at sketchnoting. How come?
Constraint satisfaction problem
Naturally, I will explain my approach with a sketchnote:
When I took Alexis' sketchnotes class three years ago, I was really hung up on the idea that I needed to draw. The repertoire of shapes and objects that I can draw is really small, so I never actually tried sketchnoting after the class.
What changed? I flipped the problem around. I phrased it as a constraint satisfaction problem. I am using a small toolbox to express ideas I heard. And as an engineer, I am extremely good at that.
In the sketchnote above, I wanted to convey the idea that illustrations do not need to be realistic. At first I wanted to draw two trees, one realistic, one not. But alas, I cannot draw a realistic tree. Instead of giving up, I worked around by drawing a box with a dotted line to represent the realistic tree that I am unable to draw. Problem solved.
I am not kidding when I say my toolbox is small. You can see it in the sketchnote. The plain old notes vs sketchnotes part. That is literally my toolbox.
Use a pen
The other breakthrough came when I saw The Sketchnote Handbook by Mike Rohde in my local library:
The most important thing I picked up from the book is to use pen instead of pencil. This forces me to always make progress instead of erasing and re-drawing and second-guessing myself. It also makes me more forgiving of my mistakes, and come up with creative ways to fix them.
In the toolbox about bullet lists, I made two bullets with stars, because a single bullet doesn't make a list. And then I realized that I have nothing to more to say. What to do? The second star was already drawn. With ink.
I ended up writing "There is no second point" next to the second star. And you know what? It now emphasizes the fact that it doesn't take much to make sketchnotes.
A lot of serendipity came from using a pen and being forced to make things work.
Find your style
I really enjoyed the The Sketchnote Handbook because it includes examples from many sketchnoters. I pick and choose techniques that works for me:
- Some sketchnotes are very free form, popping images left and right seemingly randomly. That terrifies me. But many examples use a grid style. I came up with my own layout algorithm: top to bottom, and if an item took too little horizontal space, put something next to it. This is very similar to traditional note taking, just using a bit more horizontal space. I can do that.
- Some sketchnotes fill the whole page, and the pressure to do so paralyzes me. But many examples have whitespace between the items, and that is totally okay.
- The book recommended using a vertical layout for panels, drawing the face of one panelist on each column. There is no way I can draw portraits. So I skipped that part. But it also showed a few simple ways to draw people. Now Starfish Man is a regular cast member in my sketchnotes.
Share
This is the most potent motivator: Twitter. You know how some people take a screenshot of a block of text to get around the 140 character limit? That looks stupid. But I can totally post a sketchnote to stuff more content into a tweet. And it looks awesome. So awesome that I get lots and lots of retweets, which gave me the confidence to do more sketchnotes, which gets more retweets.
Dealing w/ "I cannot draw" by sketchnoting: You Are Not Your Impostor Syndrome by @nerdneha at #wsc2015conf pic.twitter.com/HTXm5wpYuk
— Chiu-Ki Chan (@chiuki) March 19, 2015From Conference Organizers Panel: What do you look for in a conference proposal? #wsc2015conf pic.twitter.com/ki0VhAXvH0
— Chiu-Ki Chan (@chiuki) March 20, 2015Speaking Effectively by Melissa Collom #wsc2015conf pic.twitter.com/5bxa6Weh9M
— Chiu-Ki Chan (@chiuki) March 20, 2015Owning it: The art of being awesome by @antiheroine at #wsc2015conf pic.twitter.com/46Pea7l82l
— Chiu-Ki Chan (@chiuki) March 21, 2015Gotta love that positive feedback loop!
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Cool.
ReplyDeleteI find that writing on paper (with pen) is much better for me than trying to type notes into a computer or phone. However, my notes are the "first pass" before I have a chance to digest everything. Once I have thought about it (often in the evening, reviewing the notes I made during the day), the notes are no longer the right thing for me, so I write them again (on the computer), with further thoughts, notes, links, etc.
GEESE IN TUXEDOS is fun but it's usually not the thing I want to remember most prominently when I organize my thoughts. :)
As an engineer have you ever used Sketchnotes in your work? I am struggling to take effective meeting notes and I'm looking for a better way but I'm not sure how I would use this at work. All the examples I have seen are from conferences or people who are not working in technical fields. Thoughts?
ReplyDeleteI haven't, mostly because I work from home and manage to avoid most meetings :)
DeleteMy friend and fellow Android engineer Corey Latislaw takes meeting notes this way though, so perhaps you can ask her: https://twitter.com/corey_latislaw/
Thank you Chiuki, because of you I discovered this awesome way to take notes :D
ReplyDelete