Issue 43 - Return of the Visual Edit
and a welcome to newbies!
Aaaaand we’re back! After some life changes, Graphic Change business tweaks and many conversations and sketches over coffee/breakfast/cake/more coffee, we’ve decided to relaunch the Visual Edit here on Substack. From Issue 43 it’s a refreshed version, and we’re both avoiding committing to a structure whilst we try things out and find our rhythm. We’re aiming for monthly, with potentially topical or deep dive posts in between. It’s wonderful that you’ve stuck with us/joined us for the first time.
Let’s jump in! The water’s, well, getting a little chilly now… that’s because it’s…
… up here in the northern hemisphere anyway.
Autumn pens
Yes, there’s such a thing. How could you doubt it? Now we’re definitely into leaf-falling, rain-misting Autumn, I like to think there’s a place for these autumnal colours. Not just for Halloween but throughout the season. It’s the best time for oranges, from simple 600-Orange (Neuland) to Pumpkin (Promarker), browns that are really autumnal foods - Ginger, Cinammon (Promarker again), and natural shades evoking woodlands (Copic’s Dark Bark) and muddy walks. So if you’re doing a graphic why not add some subtle seasonality and introduce these colours.
Inktober
We think it’s not too late to join in with this annual online event, even if you do it for your own private practise. There are 2 ways to participate - the Classic drawing 31 images over 31 days or a more ambitious 52-week one drawing a week. There are guidelines and we’ve included the inspiring Official 2024 Prompt List to get you started (so you can compare and contrast with other #Inktober artists). You can check out more about Inktober right here in Substack.
Molecule Art?
Back to drawing leaves. Is it a leaf or is it tiny little molecule names that make up a leaf drawn to… make a leaf!? It’s not officially graphic recording, or maybe it’s the most literal kind, but I very much like the notion of being meta in an icon. You can see more of this brilliant work over at Molecularts on (whisper it so they don’t hear) Insta.
Autumn as Metaphor
Like writers, graphic recorders like a good metaphor. If a picture paints a thousand words, choosing a visual metaphor adds a few extra layers of meaning into those words. Autumn is a powerful theme for visual metaphors, so we put our heads together and came up with a few simple ways you could draw metaphoric icons with an autumnal theme. Why not add these to your Visual Dictionary1:
Autumn - midlife, adulthood, maturing
Harvest - reaping the benefits of earlier hard work, preparing for harder times
Falling leaves - letting things go, transition, change
Warming fires - hunkering down, hibernating, embracing a enriching internal life
Graphic Facilitation tool - leaf as fishbone diagram
We thought the fishbone diagram could do with a seasonal update. Et voila - the leaf! Whether you’re working on a problem with a small group in person or online, why not slightly amend the fishbone to a leaf - you can be creative with how big/how many veins the leaf needs. If you’re not fluent with how to use the fishbone diagram, Miro has a great explainer.
Visual Warmup - pumpkin blobs
If you’ve done an in-person class with me, you’ll know I like a ‘random blob’ warm up exercise. It’s a simple drawing confidence-builder to do before a session if you want (nervous) people to participate with their own drawings.
I normally do this with faces, but was inspired by brandcamp doing a squash version on Insta.
Step 1 - draw some random blobs (you can use a thumbprint if you’re being messy)
Step 2-3 - without too much thought, turn each blob into a pumpkin or squash (scary faces optional)
From the Archives
And finally, let’s not forget Halloween in October. Here’s some meta text from way back in Issue 23 in 2019! (Borrow from writers doing Show don’t Tell.) You’re welcome.
That’s all for our first (43rd) new issue! Thanks for all the kind words about being glad to see the Visual Edit back again. Do always tell us if there are other things you want to see here.
Cara and Natasha
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You can start a Visual Dictionary right now! Get a small notebook that fits in your bag. (I prefer A5 with plain pages or a grid rather than lines, which I find distracting). Use this newsletter as inspiration to come up with Autumn icons as a quick go-to prompt in the future. If you work on an iPad/tablet, you can copy useful icons from your (well labelled) digital Visual Dictionary straight into your next graphic. It’s an invaluable time-saver.