Sketching

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Sketching is a module in visual thinking school, a course designed to help you learn how to think and communicate better using the visual part of your brain.

In this module you'll work on your drawing and sketching skills.

Sketchbook links from Moleskinerie

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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?

Christofer Drew Ingl...

Alex Lipshaw

algunas chicas

una mermaid...

tattoos // chicas //...

2009-12-doodle2

moneywalldoodle

cdoutlinescloudwatch...

openbankdoodle

public restroom-dood...

automatically generated by Flickr

Sketching delicacies

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Visual thinking practice

Letting go: We carry within us a certain need for things to "look right." To some, this extends to perfectionism. For others, it can become a bad case of writer's block (or artist's block). This exercise attempts to prove that you are capable of communicating through images.

Stick figure

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:

Day 349: This Is You...

Math... is an asshol...

Slippery When Wet

311/365 Watch out fo...

Waiter, there's a ma...

Jumping jacks for yo...

Aaagh!

Woohoo!

automatically generated by Flickr

Visual thinking practice

Draw a stick figure: Contrary to popular opinion, all stick figures are not created equal. Learn how to draw a stick figure the way we do it at XPLANE.

Visual thinking practice

Heads and hands: Much of our nonverbal communication happens with facial expressions and hands. They are also among the hardest things to draw. Here's an exercise to help you improve your head- and hand-drawing abilities.
Finding your visual voice: Finding a personal voice is about discovering what is unique to you. It's one of the things that makes you sincere, meaningful and worth listening to.

Your visual voice is that intangible which makes your sketches, doodles, and whiteboard scribbles uniquely yours and no one else's. You could think of it as your visual signature. Here's a way to discover it.
Randomness: Randomness can be inspiring. Leonardo Da Vinci used to find inspiration by looking at stains on the wall. In his exercise you'll learn how to use randomness to inspire creativity.

Links about artists, illustrators and their work

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Which sketchbook is right for you?

The Miquelrius notebook: "A Miquelrius notebook is a Spanish-made flexibly bound, gridded notebook in A5 and pocket sizes. The binding is flexible so it lays flat and can easily be inverted for comfortable sketching or writing. The pages have either light blue lines or grid pattern on them for writing or technical drawings."

Miquelrius pocket sized books average $7 each, larger A5 sized books average $10 each.
The Moleskine notebook: "Moleskines are a notebook produced by the Italian company Modo & Modo, distributed around the world.

Based on the original "mole skin" wrapped notebooks originally created by a Tours, France stationer, and supposedly used by famous people such as Ernest Hemmingway, Vincent van Gogh, Luis Sepulveda and Bruce Chatwin. Modo & Modo resurrected the format in the 1990s.

Available in a pocket and large size for $10 to $20, the Moleskine notebook is characterized by the black oilskin-like cover, cream paper pages, elastic strap closure, integrated fabric bookmark, and side pocket on the back cover of the book.

Moleskines have many dedicated users, who swear by the small and large books, while others consider the Moleskine overpriced."
Miquelrious vs. Moleskine: Pros and cons of each type.
Hipster PDA: The low-budget, street-wise, hipster alternative: Index cards and a binder clip.
What's the best pen?: Discussion of the pros and cons of various pens.

The Moleskine

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.

Moleskine

Moleskine, July 27th

如果越狱失败�...

Pocket Media

micro-crowdsourcing...

要想颠覆用户�...

How would you change...

007-2009.12.14

很养眼 / New year...

automatically generated by Flickr

Which Moleskine?

There are many varieties of Moleskine available but my favorites are below. You'll need to make two choices:

1. Large or pocket-sized notebook?
2. Plain, ruled or gridded paper?

The options are below.

Moleskine delicacies

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Moleskine art

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Learning to draw

Drawing and sketching lessons: Includes:
- learn to draw flowers
- introduction to perspective
- old master drawings
- learn to draw horses
- fun with wacom
- drawing the nose
- just for fun: swarmsketch
- free holiday clipart
- how to draw hair
Drawing basics: Includes:
- modes
- materials
- elements
- the pencil
- seeing lines
- tracing
- shape & space
- measuring
- perspective
- proportion
- light & shadow
- light quality
- shading
Drawing people: Includes:
- introduction
- problems
- materials
- the profile
- drawing eyes
- finish the profile
- symmetry
- straight on face
- measuring
- the eyes
- the nose
- the mouth
- the smile
- hair
- 3 quarters
Drawing caricatures: Includes:
- introduction
- materials
- line drawing
- exaggeration
- the eyes
- the nose
- the mouth
- chin & face
- the forehead
- shading
- hair
- finishing up
- draw celebs
- conclusion

Books to improve your drawing skills

The Natural Way to Draw: A Working Plan for Art Study

by: Kimon Nicolaides

Classic book on drawing and still the best.

Amazon Price: $10.88 (as of 12/30/2009)

How to Draw Comics the Marvel Way

by: Stan Lee, John Buscema

Great introduction to classical shading, perspective, head and figure drawing and more

Amazon Price: $11.87 (as of 12/30/2009)

Drawing Lessons from the Great Masters (Practical Art Books)

by: Robert Hale

Learn drawing from the greatest artists in history

Amazon Price: $15.61 (as of 12/30/2009)

The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain

Drawing delicacies

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Famous peoples' sketchbooks

Jim Henson's Designs and Doodles: A Muppet Sketchbook

Online sketchbooks

Sketches from Tokyo: "This online sketchbook has been growing steadily since the spring of 2001. It includes only a fraction of my sketches since most of my work isn't worth showing to others! It shows my experimentation with various materials and styles, as well as a few observations. All the sketches were done here in Tokyo where I live."
Bearskin rug: The online sketchbook of Kevin Cornell. Contains 102 pages of sketches and drawings, presented in a Flash format.
BLU: You just have to go there.
Woolgathering: Daily drawings and paintings in a small moleskine sketchbook celebrate and record everyday life.
Smurfbite: Doodles from a twisted mind.
Lisa's sketchbook page: Notes, ideas, drawings.
One drawing per day: Exactly what it sounds like.
Moleskine gallery: Explore!

Links about sketching and sketchbooks

How to trick out your sketchbook: Three clever ways to make your sketchbook more functional.

1. Add a pencil/pen holder

2. Add some sticky page-markers

3. Add a home-made pencil sharpener
Just draw a triangle: How drawing a triangle can get you out of a difficult situation.
Pens and pencils: What to do with a pen or pencil.

Drawings from my personal sketchbooks

curated content from Flickr

Next mini-course module

Signs and symbols: Research has demonstrated that pictures and words, when tightly linked, result in more knowledge transfer than traditional page layouts. Signs, symbols and icons are ways to represent a complete thought in a simple way.
Back to main: Return to the visual thinking school home page.

dgray

by dgray

Dave Gray is the founder and CEO of XPLANE, the visual thinking company. The company's vision was formed and continues to be driven by Dave's passion...

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