I wish it hadn’t taken me a year to find this lovely little moleskin notebook. I have sketchnoted in a variety of mediums, and found that experimentation valuable, but I feel that I have come across the medium that I want to focus on. I’ve got to thank master sketchnoter Mike Rohde for suggesting this… Continue Reading
Category Archives: Writing and Drawing
Sketching with Sharpies
A few weeks ago my roommate came across a few large plastic bags on the side of the road, full of pens and markers – discarded office supplies that were up for grabs. He stuffed them all in his backpack and brought them home. When I saw the stash I knew what my focus was… Continue Reading
Three Handwritten Fonts for Sketchnoting: Natural, Bold, and Italic
In order to be an effective visual note taker, you need to make some ideas stand out from others. One way to achieve that goal is to surround those important ideas with some sort of frame – a rectangle, thought bubble, or maybe even a fake explosion around the words. A more subtle way to… Continue Reading
This Is How I Take Notes
While rummaging through some boxes in search of the frustratingly small but surprisingly inspirational book The Elements of Style, I came across a sketchbook from a former phase of my life – a phase when I wanted to be a full-time computer programmer. I have developed a few very simple iPhone and iPad applications, and… Continue Reading
The Value of Varying the Medium: A Progression of Sketchnoting Techniques
I’ve been experimenting with graphic recording for about five months now. I still feel like a complete novice, but I do see some improvement when I compare recent work to some of the first sketches that I posted on this site. That improvement is due in part to the constant variation in the medium in… Continue Reading
Handwriting Quotes to Build Typography Skills
If you are looking for a way to build your handwritten typography skills, I have a project for you. Step 1: Find a Source of Quotes that you Like Where to look: all of those underlined books on your wall; the highlighted sections of text on your Kindle or iPad; that bookmarked link to your… Continue Reading
New Toy: An Old-School Drawing Table
Check out this sweet new drawing table that I just snagged from a friend: I tested it out for the first time last night while listening to a podcast of NPR’s Fresh Air. Check out my sketchnotes of a conversation about Yemen between Terry Gross and Jeremy Scahill. I’m looking forward to playing around with… Continue Reading
From Text to Sketchnotes: A How-To Guide for Novice Visual Note Takers
My recent sketchnotes of Jonah Lehrer’s book Imagine: How Creativity Works were the result of a new process of visual note-taking that I was testing out for the first time. I found that process very useful, so I decided to share it with you here. What follows is not the only way of going from… Continue Reading
Visual Concepts from the Introduction and First Chapter of William Zinsser’s On Writing Well
I have pulled out a few of the ideas from previous sketchnotes I created from William Zinsser’s On Writing Well and sketched those ideas onto 3×5 note cards as part of my One Card One Concept project. First, we have the crux of the book – the essence of writing is rewriting. If you want… Continue Reading
