What is Sketch noting?
Sketch noting is visual note-taking. It helps to learn faster & communicate more effectively using illustrations, text and symbols.
With sketch noting,
- You can learn things faster than ever
- You can remember more of what you read
- You're more focused when learning
- Making someone else understand what you mean is easy.
This short post is made from Kumar Ahir's meet-up with HelloMeets where he demonstrated the steps to start sketch noting.
Why learn Sketch Noting?
- To learn sketch noting, you don't need to be good at drawing.The only thing you need to know is how to hold a ✏️
- The common belief is sketch noting or drawing is for kids or graphic designers and professionals using design tools. But that’s not the case.
- As the world goes remote sketch noting is becoming an indispensable skill for any professional to pick up. The more we communicate digitally, the more it is important for us to be crisp and concise in our communication. Sketch notes are exactly this!
- We humans have the power to visualise and use our hands to write and draw
- Studies have shown visual thinking makes us more empathetic, better organised and helps us use our 🧠 more efficiently.
How Sketch Notes help with communication?
- Short (long 2-hour presentation in one page)
- Easy to skim (not a 1000 word essay)
- Graphical (you don’t need lot of words)
- Fun (we can have a little)
How to start making Sketch Notes?
Starting with basic diagrams is a good way.
You can draw basic shapes and label them. Each labelled figure is self-explanatory.
That's how easy it is!
Visual Thinking comprises of graphic recording, graphic facilitation, doodling and mind mapping.
Sketch noting is one of its parts.
Tools for sketch noting
Sketch noting does not need any fancy tools.
All you need is a pencil, pen, paper and a highlighter.
For this piece of art, you don’t require an eraser. Why?
The use of an eraser is not encouraged because you can always cover up the mistake with better visuals or words.
How to Sketch Note?
There are 5 key points to keep in mind before starting.
These will help you in making your first Piece of Art! 🎨
- Chunks — Don’t use long paragraphs. Write short lines that explain one thought in 2-4 words
- Keywords — Make the most important keywords as the title
- Visual Hierarchy — Use different text styles for the title, subtitle and body. Add frames, banners, lines, and colour
- Structure — Give a structure using dividers, arrows that show continuation and numbering
- Visual Hooks — Add objects, stick figures or diagrams to catch the eye of your reader
How to make Sketch Noting fun?
- You can make your artwork more fun and appealing by adding elements like frames, stick figures, different fonts of texts and objects
- Give more depth to your elements by adding shadows with a grey highlighter
- Experiment with different pens, fonts and colours
Kumar has figured out a fun interactive game with his daughter to practice sketch noting and spend quality time with her.
How do they do it?
- They sit with their back towards each other
- His daughter thinks of an object and speaks out its shape and details.
For example, if she is thinking of a smartphone, she will give details like a ‘standing’ rectangle, a dot ‘below’ the top line ‘inside’ the rectangle.
- In the end, Kumar has to guess the object.
Sketch noting needs practise to reach perfection. A few minutes per day can help you improve.
To get more information in sketch notes, check out Kumar Ahir’s Instagram and website
Some other artists that you can take inspiration from:
Hope this article helped you. Now start getting creative & share your artwork with us by tagging HelloMeets on Instagram and Twitter.
