Also tiny tip for starting a #sketchnote - I like laying down a loose set of layout guides to build the structure inside.
These are fairly abstract but I try to create a balanced set of big and small areas.
Helps align things into distinct sections.
Conversation
Working more on the web security sketchnotes.
The blue underlay is my lazy rough version - mostly to plan the composition and make sure it’s all going to fit.
Then I do final lines and neater lettering over the top
These are still in progress - now learning about CSRF and XSS 🆘
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I’m guilty of this method (especially when I’m taking digital notes). I love that you are taking the comic-book-like “blue line” approach... and I love your use of the term #illustratednotes! Very nice work. #sketchnotes
GIF
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Blue lines make it all more satisfying somehow 😄
Why “guilty” though?
Only curious as I’ve never been hesitant to plan first and do more coherent drawings over the top.
What’s the argument against sketching down a first pass layer?
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1/ I guess I’m a purist when it comes to the “sketch” part of sketchnotes. As eluded to, I’m in the camp of “one-and-done” sketchnoters. I rarely do a second pass at them. Once I go back to back to them, I find myself spending too much time making them look “nice”...
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2/ ... and they start to lose something for me. The joy disappears and the anxiety of making something perfect takes over. As a graphic designer, I’m plaques with a self-inflicted perfectionism. #Sketchnotes alleviate that for me.
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3/ Also, the proliferation of “perfect #sketchnotes” cause some first-time sketchnoters to think their work is bad or that it will never live up to “so-and-do’s” work... and that makes me sad. Sketchnotes are personal to the person who did them....
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4/ ... so the purpose of #sketchnotes is loosely defined & then stretched to include informational illustration, or graphic recording, or graphic facilitation (each of those are structured & valid methods of communicating with visuals) and cause people to fight and disagree...
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5/ ... and then (as a result) #sketchnotes gets harped on and relegated to pauper status and unwanted in the visual community, when all it wants to be is fun, informational, personal, and focused. Or it’s transformed into something only certain people can do...
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6/ ... and well, anyways, I’ll end with this: At the #ISC18lx, I gave a talk called “Everything is Beautiful: The Search for the Ugly Sketchnote” were I posed the question of what a Sketchnote is supposed to be. Watch it if you’d like to. youtu.be/1JV0YZGBMnY #sketchnotes
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Refreshing to find others who have put a lot of thought and consideration into this question - thanks for explaining your POV. Will give the talk a watch!
... by the way, I really love your style of drawing: the variable line weights are so nice and so interesting (as are the simple colors and shading). I’m a fan. 👍🏼
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I made last year a tentative serie on my discovery of interesting people around #sketchnote
That's one on Mauro, who spent some time exploring the process too, from ideas downto drawings
! I'm working on the site right now, display maybe affected :).
kneaver.com/blog/sketchnot
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