Well, you are not alone with your struggle of trying to draw "on the fly" the ideas in your head without a reference. I totally get it, I am in the same space and it makes me mad at times, and I feel even embarrassed at times that I can't draw a simple something despite knowing exactly what it looks like in my head! I really enjoyed your behind the scenes idea for the icon prompts. I bet your sewn icon book must look amazing! Such a brilliant idea.
It took me a long time to realize that other people really do completely visualize! Thank you for your comment. I'm sorry that you have the same problem. I've learned that a lot of people experience this similarly. I appreciate knowing you read this post!
Thank you for this honest and interesting article Amy.
I’m extremely interested in learning how to sketchnote and I recently purchased Emily Mill’s book to guide me through the process.
Something key for me is to build a library of simple icons that I can learn by heart, almost like learning vocabulary so to do that I’m planning on using a small repertoire book and enter each icon under its first letter.
Thank you for your comment. Sketchnoting is really important to the things I'm working on. Even the illustrated journal has sketchnote elements (sometimes more than others). Building a visual vocabulary, as you note, is super important. (That's what this post - and the icon practice - is all about.) I like your idea of an alphabetical book as you build your icon library. That will be great. Emily's work is super. If you haven't already looked at it, Mike Rohde's book - The Sketchnote Handbook - is outstanding. (Looks like it might be hard to get - https://amzn.to/3KBIn60 -- but your library probably has it. I highly recommend looking at it, too.)
I'm glad I am not alone in not being able to draw the simplest things from memory. I keep meaning to try to practice so this is a good reminder for me. Those are wonderful examples from your journal pages. Love those whales!
Well, you are not alone with your struggle of trying to draw "on the fly" the ideas in your head without a reference. I totally get it, I am in the same space and it makes me mad at times, and I feel even embarrassed at times that I can't draw a simple something despite knowing exactly what it looks like in my head! I really enjoyed your behind the scenes idea for the icon prompts. I bet your sewn icon book must look amazing! Such a brilliant idea.
It took me a long time to realize that other people really do completely visualize! Thank you for your comment. I'm sorry that you have the same problem. I've learned that a lot of people experience this similarly. I appreciate knowing you read this post!
Thank you for this honest and interesting article Amy.
I’m extremely interested in learning how to sketchnote and I recently purchased Emily Mill’s book to guide me through the process.
Something key for me is to build a library of simple icons that I can learn by heart, almost like learning vocabulary so to do that I’m planning on using a small repertoire book and enter each icon under its first letter.
Thank you for your comment. Sketchnoting is really important to the things I'm working on. Even the illustrated journal has sketchnote elements (sometimes more than others). Building a visual vocabulary, as you note, is super important. (That's what this post - and the icon practice - is all about.) I like your idea of an alphabetical book as you build your icon library. That will be great. Emily's work is super. If you haven't already looked at it, Mike Rohde's book - The Sketchnote Handbook - is outstanding. (Looks like it might be hard to get - https://amzn.to/3KBIn60 -- but your library probably has it. I highly recommend looking at it, too.)
Thank you very much for your reply and the book ref 👍🏻
I'm glad I am not alone in not being able to draw the simplest things from memory. I keep meaning to try to practice so this is a good reminder for me. Those are wonderful examples from your journal pages. Love those whales!
Thank you, Catherine! You are definitely not alone in this.