Sketchnoting 101: Drawing as a Communication Tool

Meet Dan Porter and Chris Wilson, founders of Scriberia, and your teachers for this course. They share their creative journey that led them to found their London-based visual thinking agency for creative consulting. Hear about the artists, authors, artwork and books that have inspired their work.

Learn about the importance of visual note-taking, or sketchnoting, and how it helps you engage with the content you create. Dan and Chris share their five commandments for drawing to help you become an effective visual communicator. Explore the hierarchies of information and how to reflect them in your artwork.

Create your own visual toolkit by choosing the materials for your sketchnoting. Discover Dan and Chris’s unique approach to drawing, which keeps their illustrations simple yet effective. Learn how to draw “brick people”, which are simple and versatile figures capable of conveying authentic human behavior.

Find the right balance between words and images to make your illustration engaging, but also easy to follow. Explore different structures and “signpost devices” that help guide the viewer’s eyes around your image. Discover how to use typography to place more emphasis, or less, on certain text. Incorporate simple data visualization elements to add depth to your storytelling illustration.

Time to tell your story! Immerse yourself in your subject matter by gathering and analyzing resources, and identify the most useful elements for your final sketchnote. Design a narrative analysis by composing the key points of your illustration cohesively. Then, create a layout and style guide to map out your final illustration.

Ready to put it all together? Start on the first draft of your illustration by applying everything learned throughout the course. Once you are satisfied with your final artwork, open up Photoshop to polish it and add the final touches. Wrap up the course by exploring different applications of visual thinking to continue on your sketchnoting journey.