Presto Sketching

A book to help you think and communicate better with drawing

Fun and creativity

5 easy ways to give your sketches more WOW factor

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Have you been working away on improving your sketching, and looking for ways to up your game a little? If that’s the case, grab a marker and some paper, and try these 5 easy ways to add more life and character to your sketches. Actually, it’s more like 5.5 ways… You’ll see…

1. Add a dash of detail that tells a story

Surprise is always a great trick to help embed your message or idea deeper into your viewers’ brains. Push your powers of imagination a little further, and add something fresh and unexpected to an otherwise regular icon to enhance the meaning, or hint at a story.

2. Make it move

Sketching things that look like they’re moving always adds energy. What would the thing you’re sketching look like if it were stretching, or bouncing? Wiggling, or racing ahead at break-neck pace?

3. Excite the eyes with some EXAGGERATION!

Whatever you’re sketching, think: what could I exaggerate to add more interest? Think about the relative size of some parts, or the pose of a figure, or even the texture of an object.

4. Snazz it up with a splash of colour

Any sketch is going to be more eye-catching with a splash of colour. You don’t have to go overboard; even just one colour can turn a humble hat from “ho-hum” to “HUZZAH!”

It’s worth paying attention to the way you apply the colour: strong decisive areas and lines are much more visually appealing than thin scratchy marks.

And here’s the bonus half a tip: dial up the contrast with areas of black, or dark colour. Our eyes are drawn to areas of high contrast; if you’re sketching in black, don’t be afraid of using strong areas of black. This will really make your sketches more eye-catching.

5. Put a face on it

Ever since I saw that Portlandia episode, I’ve always remembered that phrase “Put a bird on it!”. Just like putting a picture of a bird on any objet de home décor makes it more hipster, putting a face on any inanimate object instantly adds charm and character.

Here’s the magic: we can’t help seeing faces in things, and as soon as we see a face on something, we can’t help but attribute a personality to it, depending on the face’s expression. So, make your sketches and whiteboard drawings instantly more fun, attention-grabbing and memorable with faces!

Try these tricks out today. The more you bring life, story and character to your sketches, the more people will take notice of them, and the more they’ll remember them, and therefore the more they’ll remember your message and your ideas.

Have fun with it, and don’t be shy about letting me know how you went with applying these tips.

10 ideas to get you inspired to sketch

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You want to sketch more…or just start sketching… but it’s hard to know where to start. I hear you. Here’s 10 things to draw, when you don’t know what to draw.

I know what it’s like. You want to sketch (or you want to sketch more often), but you can’t really think of what to sketch, so it’s just really hard to get started. Or you’re looking at other sketches you see, and you can’t help thinking that you have to sketch like that first time, which holds you back as well.

A big part of just getting going is saying to yourself that whatever you sketch is not going to be perfect. It’s just not. But it can be not perfect and still be satisfying! That awesome sketch by someone else you saw on that Instagram post? That’s sketch No. 10 or 11. You’re never going see sketches No. 1 to No. 9, because they were too crappy to show to the world. But sketches No. 1 to No. 9 had to happen first, to get to that awesome sketch No. 10.

So with that in mind, here we go: 10 ideas for what to draw when you don’t know what to draw.

1. Get your Kandinsky on

Start with a fresh sheet of paper, or a fresh page in your sketchbook. Take your marker or pencil of choice, and let your hand draw some flowy curly lines around the page. Draw some straight lines, too. Then, colour in (or make some parallel line marks) in all the little spaces enclosed by the lines. And behold! You’re an Abstract Expressionist!

You too can be an Abstract Expressionist, like Vasily Kandinsky (painting shown: Composition 8, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, © 2017 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris)

If someone gives you funny looks while you do this on the train, just tell them you’re studying the renowned Russian Abstract Expressionist Vasily Kandinsky, who did this sort of thing all the time (that’s his Composition 8 in the image above, painted in 1923).

2. Find meaning in the scribbles 

This is another idea to help you park your own self-judgement, and to just get going drawing something. Start with your marker in the middle of a fresh blank page, and just do loose scribbles for a minute or two, without taking your marker off the page. It’s better if you don’t even look at what you’re drawing. Make sure you fill the page. Then, look at what you’ve drawn, and see if you can find some meaningful shapes among the scribbles. Is that a face there? Or a rabbit? Whatever you find, make them stand out more by outlining them with your marker. Fun, hey?

Here’s my example. What can you see in the scribbles? I saw a weird horse-like thing, a dude with angel wings, and a ribbon of some sort.

3. Sketch 3D crystal patterns

This is another idea to help you replace self-judgement with a sense of creativity and discovery. Fill the middle of the paper with some randomly-placed dots. Connect the dots in a way that makes lots of triangles and other random 4- or 5-sided shapes. Then, shade some of the shapes in a mid tone, and some other shapes in a darker tone. Before long, you might see a weird crystalline shape emerge, like these 3D crystal phone covers.

4. Sketch a wine bottle 5 times

Alright, let’s move on into sketching actual things. This one’s about giving your hand a chance to practice rendering what you ‘see’ in your head. Draw a wine bottle. It can be as sloppy as you want. Then draw another, and another, and so on. Each time, pay more attention to the quality of the line. Your wine bottle number 5 is better than number 1, isn’t it?

5. Sketch different sorts of pot plants

This is a simple and fun one. Sketch different sorts of plants in pots. They can be simple or complex, beautiful or ugly, regular or hipster… it’s just a chance for you to draw a similar thing over and over, and inject a little bit of creativity or a lot!

6. Look at all the trophies you won!

Time for a motivational one. What’s something you want to be famous for? Sketch a trophy for that thing, with your name on it. What’s something you want to achieve at work? Write that down, add your name, and sketch a trophy around it. Don’t worry, no-one else is going to see these trophies; it’s just a really good idea to visualise your goals to help you make them happen.

7. Try a bit of Zentangling

Zentangles are abstract creative drawings that are made by sketching random creative patterns. They can start with a real-life object, or they can be completely abstract… it’s up to you. Draw a simple object (fairly large on the paper), like a fish, a tree, a figure, headphones…it could be something that’s sitting right next to you, or something you’re thinking about. Then, sketch in a few structural lines inside any of the larger shapes of your drawing, as if it’s made out of a wooden frame. Then, fill each shape with random lines, loops, circles… wherever your hand takes you! Loads of fun.

This page on WikiHow is a nice place to help you learn more about this absorbing way of sketching.

8. Visualise your day as a flow sketch

Take a look at your calendar for today. What sort of day are you going to have? Or what sort of day did you have? Using a fresh page, draw each event as a small picture of some sort, moving from one side of the page to another. You could just sketch symbols (like stars and boxes), or you could sketch simple icon-like pictures (like people in a meeting, or a document, and so on), it’s up to you. Then, connect the pictures together in a way that shows the flow of your day.

9. Sketch skylines

Sketches of skylines are really fun. They can be fairly complex and detailed, but even just light simple silhouettes just look crazy cool. Wherever you’re at — on the bus, at home, at work — look outside at the skyline, and draw it. If you want to enhance it a bit with extra buildings (or UFOs and Godzillas), that’s cool too.

10. Sketch something from your social media stream

Do you spend time thumbing through social media streams of images and updates, like on Instagram, Facebook, and so on? Stop at a particular image you like, and sketch it. Remember, your sketch doesn’t have to be good, just sketch it anyway. Do this a few times, and try not to keep thumbing through looking for an ‘easy’ one, or a ‘cool’ one. Just sketch a few.

This is sketch of a photo of my mate Josh Stinton and his buddies, who have just completed a 190k mountain bike race in the Arctic, to raise money for charity. Amazing!

And there you have it! 10 ideas to get you sketching, and sketching more often. As always, drop me a line if this has been useful for you. I’ve got bags and bags of ideas like this, so if you want 10 more ideas, let me know, too.

Get to grips with your Inner Critic

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We’ve all heard it, and you might’ve said it yourself: “I can’t draw!” You can, you just have to kick that inner critic. Here’s a great way how.

I’m afraid there’s an elephant in the room. I’ve been putting up these tips and techniques about using simple sketching to help you think better for quite a few weeks now, but all along I’ve ignored a very important factor in helping you sketch. You know what that is?

It’s your inner critic.

Yeah. That thing inside you that holds you back. That voice that silently says things like:

  • “You’re going to suck at this”
  • “You should be doing more productive things with your time”
  • “People are going to think you’re stupid” 
  • “Just give up”

You get the idea. Not fun to be around, hey? But we have to tame our inner critics if we’re ever to get ahead. Here’s a true story about making mistakes in front of bosses:

A true story about making mistakes in front of bosses

Once I was in a meeting with a couple of very senior executives and my immediate boss. While they were talking, I was trying to capture a summary of what they were saying on a whiteboard. I was really nervous and hesitant in front of these guys.

At one point, I drew a few boxes and arrows that I thought described their view of the technical system they were talking about. One executive looked at what I drew. He immediately blurted out, “No, that’s wrong, that’s not what I meant.” But then he paused, still looking at the boxes.

And then it happened. He asked me why I drew the boxes the way I had (it had to do with what part of the system conceptually ‘contained’ another part), so I explained. It turned out that I (and others in the room) had been carrying an assumption about the system, and once that assumption was called out, it unlocked a whole new – and much better – conversation about how the system should work.

See? Even though the sketch itself was ‘wrong’, it was a catalyst to a better conversation.

Never ever be afraid of other people seeing your sketches. Your sketches will be viewed through a different lens than your lens, and the catalytic potential they have is huge.

But back to that inner critic.

Your inner critic is just trying to keep you safe

There’s lots of advice around about kicking the inner critic, but to me it’s all mind games that don’t really work (at least not for me). But what is important to understand that as fun as it might be to externalise this urge for self-editing and self-criticism, it’s still actually an integral part of you. And what’s more, it’s being critical because it’s the part of you that is just trying to keep you safe from harm.

Safe from physical harm, sure. But also safe from judgement, safer from failure, and safe from disappointment.

Sketch your inner critic

A big part of taming the inner critic is to face up to the negative talk. Not dismiss it, ignore it, or manage it, but acknowledge its value to you, and deal with it as if it was a real conversation with a real person. And this is where sketching your inner critic comes in. When you make it ‘real’, on paper, in front of you, it’s out of your head and in front of you, for you to talk with it, and have true command over it.

It goes like this:

Think about your inner critic. What does he/she/it/they (insert fav pronoun) actually look like? Sound like? What does it say to you? What habits does it have? Think about the times it has held you back from something, anything.

Now sketch that critic in all its safe-seeking glory. No-one else is going to see this sketch, so go nuts. Is it small and dark? Big and pale? Horns? Bad teeth? Droopy eyes? Big mouth? Bad acne? Really pour what you think of it into that sketch.

Write a name there, too.

Take a good look at that inner critic that you have now made real on a piece of paper, and listen to what it’s saying. Try to find the gift in what it is saying; there might actually be an inner strength or a super-power hiding in there. For example:

  • From: “Your drawing looks dumb” – To: “I have great visual taste, and my drawing abilities don’t match my great taste yet“
  • From: “This is useless” – To: “I get to draw, which exercises my imagination and helps get ideas out of my head and into the world“
  • From: “Nobody is going to like this on social media” – To: “I like to share who I am and what I care about on social media, and people will appreciate my authenticity“

You get the idea? Bonus points for turning each critical statement into a power statement.

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got about getting rid of negative self-talk is to talk to yourself like you would your very best friend.

Once you’ve had this heart-to-heart with your (now visualised!) Inner Critic, you can thank it for its contribution, reassure it that you’re in command now, and that you don’t need it anymore.

Now screw up that piece of paper, and put it in the bin.

Go ahead and try it. It takes 5 minutes, and it might be the best 5 minutes you have today. And if you’re brave, why not share a photo of your inner critic sketch on social media? 😉 Let’s normalise being authentic about our drawing abilities!

Capture images of your drawings like a pro

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There’s nothing better than showing your drawings and sketches in the best way possible. Here are some tips and techniques on how to make them look their best.

This post is inspired by one of the questions I had after giving a drawing workshop the other night: what are the best ways of capturing what we sketch, and getting them into formats we can use and share?

Great question. These days, it’s dead easy to capture and share your sketches using your smartphone or tablet, but it’s worth knowing a few finer details if you want to get the best results. Here are some tips and app recommendations to get you capturing your sketches like a pro. All are free, and (unless otherwise stated) all are available for both iOS and Android.

Just so you can see how the results of these recommendations compare, here is a photo of my sketch, taken with my iPhone:

It depends on how you’re going to use the sketches

First things first: you have to know what you want to capture your sketches for. It’s all about where your sketches will end up:

Instant sharing on social media or your intranet – Snap away! That camera phone is fine

Capturing for project work or for a presentation – You’ll want your images nice, white and clean, in a way that fits your workflow

Enhancing, colouring and editing – A smooth vectorised image is best

Instant sharing

If you just want an image of your sketches to share on Instagram, X and so on (or maybe your work intranet or chat room), the camera app on your smartphone is fine. Some pro tips:

  • Always get your sketch in as much light as possible
  • Watch out for shadows of either you or your phone
  • Try dynamic angles for added interest
  • Include the edges of the paper or sketchbook, and the markers you used; people love to know more about the process behind the magic of the final sketch

Capturing for project work or for a presentation

Your camera phone probably won’t give you a sharp clean bright squared-off image, so go for a scanner app like:

CamScanner – for iOs or Android

Office Lens – for iOS or Android

Scanbot

TinyScanner

Both of these are mainly meant for document scanning (as well as receipts and business cards), but their image scanning is great too. Both have great edge detection and perspective fixing… so no more wonky images at odd angles to tidy up! What’s more, both include optical character recognition (OCR), so depending on how neat your writing is, they will automatically capture that in an editable format too.

Office Lens is perfect if you already use OneNote or OneDrive, and you can export your scans as editable Office files. It also has a great feature of being able to toggle between ‘Photo’ view, ‘Document’ view and ‘Whiteboard’ view, depending on what result you’re after. The ‘Whiteboard’ view can give amazing results of your scrawls on a whiteboard, even in a dim room. But beware! As you can see in the demo image below, coloured shapes end up looking pretty janky.

Note that Scanbot and TinyScanner knock out the colour.

Enhancing, colouring and editing

Maybe you need to capture your sketches to tidy up a lot more in an image editing application? Or add colours, or combine sketches together? If that’s the case, any of the scanning apps above are fine, but try Adobe Capture (for iOS or Android), and capture your sketches as vectorised images. It does a tremendous job of cleaning up, clarifying and smoothing out the lines of the sketch.

Try them out

I hope these tips have given you some ideas for how to get better results when capturing and sharing images of your sketches. What works best for you?