Sketching

Learning to sketch is primarily about learning to understand your visual system. It's about learning to see. The best way to start is to get in the habit of taking a pen and sketchbook everywhere you go. Use it to take notes, sketch out ideas, and practice your visual thinking skills.

Check out the drawings and doodles below. What inspires you?

The stick figure is one of the most common types of sketches. It's extremely useful to convey many thoughts and ideas. The stick figure is also used in many international symbols, to convey important information to those who can't read the local language.

Here are some stick figures from around the web:

Heads are one of the most difficult things to draw convincingly. That's because we spend so much time looking at people's faces, trying to interpret their emotions. When you are familiar with a subject you will notice any deviation, no matter how small.

But a drawing of a head or face can speak volumes.

You can always get away with drawing a circle for a head. While it may not be convincing at least it gets the point across.

Hands are much more difficult. We pay a lot of attention to hands when interpreting how people feel. We greet each other by shaking hands. We use our hands alnost constantly.

In addition, the hand is a complex instrument. Opposable thumbs are quite useful but much harder to draw than a paw or a hoof!

Nevertheless, if you take the time to practice drawing hands, the expressive power of your sketches will multiply.

My personal preference is the Moleskine. It's beautiful, useful, feels great to hold and to draw in, and there's a whole user community out there figuring out new and interesting uses for it.