The Lost Art of Sketching
I've been working with computers, lo these last 20 years. I've always gravitated toward the crowd that liked pencils with their digital tools. I've been an advocate of the low-fidelity prototype since the early days. As an Internet industry worker, I recommend drawing in a journal/sketchbook at least a few times a week. Lately I've forced myself to do it every day. The results are extremely beneficial to me...I work out problems conceptually before I implement them in my professional life. Plus, it's just therapeutic to draw a dragon, skull or robot at least once a day.
Please see some of my recent sketchbook doodles by clicking on the thumbnails above. I've removed most of the text and words, but I wanted to collect these pen & pencil sketches in a digital way. I also posted them to my Flickr page. If you have a Flickr account, you can see the super hi-res versions of these.
It seems sketching is enduring a bit of a resurgence. Sketching comes back into fashion. I love it. Below are some examples of these concepts.
For ages, people in power have used simple pens and pencils to work out complex problems. Check out the great book called Presidential Doodles: Two Centuries of Scribbles, Scratches, Squiggles, and Scrawls from the Oval Office
from the creators of Cabinet Magazine. See a great excerpt and samples in The Atlantic.The Back of the Napkin by Dan Roam is a fun, prescriptive book which helps you "solve any problem with a picture".
Sketching User Experiences: Getting the Design Right and the Right Design
by Bill Buxton is a must-read. Earlier this spring I had the pleasure of seeing Mr. Buxton speak in Las Vegas at the Microsoft MIX conference. Check out my post from that event for more links concerning lo-fi prototyping and design sketching.Learn about mind mapping, graphic facilitation and sketchnoting in the great post, "The Joy of Sketch: explorations in hand-crafted visuals" by Kate Rutter of Adaptive Path.
LISTEN: Hear the NPR story "Bored? Try Doodling To Keep The Brain On Task" by Alix Spiegel. There are also some of President Obama's doodles on the website.
Next year, don't forget National Doodle Day.
See these helpful tips and tutorials: Drawing Tips - Top 10 Mistakes Beginners Make.
Labels: comic, design, doodles, drawing, prototyping, sketch
posted by Todd at
1:52 PM
7 Comments:
The only thing is, Todd, that to doodle one must have some talent or ability to draw at least recognizably, beyond that of a typical 7 year old's ability.
Some of us might as well draw upside down in a dark room left handed... ::sigh::
Love,
The Talent-less
Ah, but this is where you are wrong, sir! You should check out the "Back of the Napkin" book. He addresses this issue a lot.
His view is that, if you can draw 10 basic shapes (circles, arrows, etc) then you can convey ideas via pictures. After all, writing is merely making shapes on paper...
will you doodle on my noodle?
i won't doodle your noodle, but I'll draw on your craw.
regarding the Back of the Napkin book: it seems as though some of the BEST BOOKS for business are the shortest/smallest/easiest ideas. Another example: The 30 minute manager.
... [trying to think of an ambiguously located noun that rhymes with 'sketch']
Data point takeaway: you should get some leveraged traction in monetizing this content, visa-vis multi-channels.
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