Issue 46 - Strengthen your imagination
Drawing prompts, training, royalties and an example from my job list this month
Drawing practice
Thinking of new icons can sometimes be hard and it can feel so much easier to copy, but there are ways you can strengthen your imagination. Today’s drawing practice is designed to do just that. A quick exercise to help you keep those drawing muscles flexed and fire up your creative imagination. The inspiration for this came from a recent studio tidy up where I came across an old sheet of sketches from a workshop I attended in 2018. This sheet consists of 4 prompts which were set by graphic novelist and comics aficionado Dr. Nicola Streeten.
From memory I think the prompts were: 1. Draw Yourself 2. Draw yourself as an animal 3. Draw yourself as a household object 4. Draw yourself as a monster.
Finding these sketches got me to thinking about how useful it can be to anthropomorphise (give human characteristics to an object or animal) objects when you’re graphic recording or sketchnoting. You’d be surprised at how often you can use tricks like this in your work once you get into the habit; here are few examples:
So, here are some prompts for you to try. Draw quickly, this is about creative thinking and not about perfection. My suggested time limit is 1 minute per prompt but if you’re feeling nervous you can make it 2 or 3 minutes. Grab your pens and your notebook or visual dictionary, set your timer and…..DRAW!
Draw you
Draw you as a plant
Draw you as a kitchen object
Draw you as an animal
If you’re keen to carry on, here are some slightly harder prompts:
Draw you as a building
Draw you as bacteria
Draw you as the weather
Do the training!
It’s that time of year again. A new term at our online Graphic Change Academy starts soon (FEB 17th!!!) and the doors are open for you to book your place on either (or both!) of these deep dive online courses with individual feedback from me:
Be a Graphic Recorder
Are you an illustrator, sketchnoter or creative looking for another income stream? Graphic Recording is a brilliant string to add to your bow. I’ve been a full time Graphic Recorder for almost 20 years and I can tell you there are more opportunities now than ever before to make a living drawing (whether digital or on paper) for organisations and businesses! My 12 week course teaches you everything you need to start live illustrating at events and meetings, and creating hand drawn infographics and reports for paying clients.
Be a Graphic Facilitator
If you are a subject matter expert delivering workshops, meetings or training, then you know how important it is to be effective and memorable. That’s how your business grows right? … if your session is memorable for all the right reasons you’ll get glowing feedback and more recommendations. Graphic Facilitation just might be the missing tool in your facilitator / trainer toolbelt. I’ve been a graphic facilitator for about 25 years, I’ve trained the likes of IBM, Google and PwC, and I know that you’ll benefit from the knowledge and confidence to work more visually in group sessions. This 12 week course will show you how to WOW! at your next session.
All the course content, lessons and demos are online 24/7 so you can work when it suits you best, but here’s the difference… when you share your assignments in the online class you will have me as a real live expert giving you individual feedback. And the exercises you do are tools and templates you can use straight away IRL. Yep, 12 weeks of learning by doing with my support and advice to help you put techniques into action right away.
To get our Early Bird offer until 31st January, you can sign up right now for more information. Just click on the course you’re interested in to find out all the details:
Draw a better business - Royalties
You might have noticed in Issue 44 that I have a little sliver of income called Royalties. Although it makes up a really small element of my income, every time royalties appear they feel like a magical tip for work well done.
There are 2 ways I get royalties. The first is because I had an actual book published back in 2018, and that book still sells roughly 1 book a week somewhere in the world. Each sale earns me a small amount of money and each quarter I get a royalty payment.
The second way is perhaps less conventional, but is the one I want you to pay attention to, because it just might be the start of your own ‘tip jar’. If you’re in the UK and you haven’t heard of DACS Payback then listen up... DACS is a not for profit organisation which collects and distributes royalties to artists, illustrators and creators from work they have published in books, magazines, digital publication or on TV.
What does this mean? Let me use my own example: I have illustrated several published books, had my work published in a magazine and had my illustrations appear on multiple websites. Each published illustration (if you have the copyright) can earn you a royalty payment, and the great thing is that it arrives in your account each year without you having to do very much at all. The amount is small, but it might buy you anything from a coffee to… well, several meals out in a year, which is where I’m up to.
Action:
Head to the DACS website, read the info and, if it feels relevant, register your details. NOTE the deadline for registering for this year is 14th FEB so don’t hang around!
Create a document and name it DACS.
Follow where every illustration ends up. Every time you have a piece of work published on a website, magazine or book, copy the link into the document so you have the details ready to update your DACS account each year when they send you a prompt.
Note: If you’re not in the UK this segment was probably a bit of a snooze fest, but I encourage you to check whether there is a similar scheme in your country, I’m pretty sure there is something similar in the US for example.
Behind the scenes
I’ve been told that it’s helpful to know what different types of work I’m doing, as it may spark an idea for you to pursue in your own work. If this is useful let me know and I’ll pull a different type of job from my calendar next issue.
Person Centred Planning session - This month I’m working with an Educational Psychologist who I work with regularly. We’ll be co-facilitating a session called a MAP for a child with complex needs, their family and supporters. My main role is to draw the MAP framework and then live scribe the meeting outputs onto the MAP, but as we’ve worked closely as a duo for many years, I also chip in on the facilitation where it’s helpful to have another voice.
Person Centred Planning is a way of working that puts people who receive complex services at the heart of the planning process that affects them. Let me know if PCP is something you’d like to know more about in a future issue?
Do you know any other professionals who use visual tools that you can partner with to offer a service?
Bulletin Board
If you have any relevant visual thinking news you’d like us to share, email Natasha at support@graphicchange.com
Pens & Stationery - Leuchtturm1917 has launched a chunky 411-page A5 hardback notebook (dot, lined or plain 80gsm paper), for those of us who want a longer-lasting notebook for the new year. Which means you can get a matching pen loop and Drehgriffel pen to add to your collection. You can find them again on Cult Pens, and here’s a link to give you 10% off. Enjoy 🎁!
A few days ago it was World Sketchnote Day and I shared my thoughts on 4 tiny sketchnotes. If you missed them you can check out the post here.
Are a visual journaler? If you are, then did you keep a visual journal during the pandemic? In particular the Week of March 23rd 2020 (which was the first week of the UK lockdown)? If so I’m looking to gather together some examples of what people were doing / thinking / feeling during that week. Drop me a quick response to this if you are and I’ll be in touch.
Talking of visual journaling, I’ve continued sharing my visual journal habit, and if you’ve missed it you can catch up on my weekly visual notes in The JOTT here.