{"id":211,"date":"2018-08-17T13:48:00","date_gmt":"2018-08-17T02:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/?p=211"},"modified":"2025-12-20T17:59:17","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T06:59:17","slug":"for-more-creative-sketching-try-snails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/2018\/08\/17\/for-more-creative-sketching-try-snails\/","title":{"rendered":"For more creative sketching, try SNAILS"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><strong>Looking to change up how you draw the same thing all the time? Or to boost the variety and style of what you draw? I got you: try this easy and effective SNAILS method. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>If I got a dollar for every light bulb that I drew in my work, I\u2019d be\u2026 well, I wouldn\u2019t be rich, but let\u2019s just say that the beers would be on me next time!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"931\" height=\"359\" src=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-lightbulb.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-381\" style=\"aspect-ratio:2.5933964442392057;width:480px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-lightbulb.png 931w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-lightbulb-300x116.png 300w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-lightbulb-768x296.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 931px) 100vw, 931px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The point is: if you do any kind of sketching regularly, you might find yourself drawing the same old things in the same old ways, and you might be after some fresh ways to increase the visual variety of what you\u2019re sketching. Whether it\u2019s&nbsp;<strong>sketching for yourself<\/strong>&nbsp;(e.g. sketchnoting, urban sketching) or&nbsp;<strong>sketching for others<\/strong>&nbsp;(e.g. scribing, storyboarding, graphic recording, graphic facilitation), it can be easy to feel in a bit of a rut when it comes to what you draw and how you draw.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I got to this point fairly often a while back, so I started working on various ways I could spice up what I was drawing, to keep it more interesting and more meaningful. I\u2019ve refined these various ways into an easy-to-remember method:&nbsp;<strong>SNAILS<\/strong>! I had the joy and honour of sharing this SNAILS technique as part of a workshop on&nbsp;<strong>using visual metaphor to explore and solve problems<\/strong>&nbsp;at the&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/euviz.com\/\">EuViz conference<\/a>&nbsp;in Denmark, 2018.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">SNAILS &#8211; An easy-to-remember set of sketching prompts<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>No, I\u2019m not saying you draw snails on everything (although, hey, that might be your style). SNAILS stands for 6 creative prompts, or aspects you can think about changing whenever you draw something, to add more creativity and meaning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>SNAILS<\/strong>&nbsp;stands for:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>S<\/strong>hape<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>N<\/strong>umber<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>A<\/strong>ngle<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>I<\/strong>dentity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>L<\/strong>ine<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>S<\/strong>ize<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The SNAILS approach is a great way to take something you\u2019ve already drawn and try a little bit of \u2018visual first aid\u2019 to make it more interesting, or to help it visually work a bit better. It\u2019s also a good way to <strong>think more creatively<\/strong> about the topic, object, or concept you&#8217;re sketching. Let\u2019s take a look at each of the 6 ways&#8230;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Shape<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Changing the <strong>shape<\/strong> of an object can change its meaning, especially if it\u2019s a visual metaphor for something. In the light bulb examples below, the shape of the glass changes to mimic other objects (e.g. a deflated balloon), to show what type of idea it represents.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"158\" src=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-shape-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-389\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-shape-1.png 800w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-shape-1-300x59.png 300w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-shape-1-768x152.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Number<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Sometimes adding more of the same object can add some nuance to what you\u2019re showing, like one fish amongst a whole school of fish that looks different, or one bright idea amongst lots of \u2018dim\u2019 ones. A dozen fresh free-range ideas, anyone? \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"156\" src=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-number.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-387\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-number.png 800w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-number-300x59.png 300w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-number-768x150.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Angle<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Changing the <strong>angle<\/strong> \u2013 or your point of view \u2013 can enrich the meaning of the thing you&#8217;re drawing. It can give it more character (e.g. showing it viewed from slightly below looking up), or indicate that something is not quite right (showing an object upside down or backward), or movement (slanted to look like it&#8217;s moving fast).<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"126\" src=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-angle-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-391\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-angle-1.png 800w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-angle-1-300x47.png 300w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-angle-1-768x121.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Identity<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>If you&#8217;ve been following Presto Sketching for a while, you&#8217;ll probably know by now that I like&nbsp;putting faces on anything and everything. By putting a face on an inanimate object, you give that object an <strong>identity<\/strong> and an opinion. What type of face you give it obviously shows what personality or point of view it has, no matter how subtle or obvious the face is.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"157\" src=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-identity-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-392\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-identity-1.png 800w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-identity-1-300x59.png 300w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-identity-1-768x151.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Line<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>This prompt is straight from art school. The&nbsp;<em>nature of the <strong>line<\/strong><\/em>&nbsp;we draw says so much about what it is we\u2019re drawing. Thin trembly lines indicate fragility or brittleness. Thick flowy lines indicate confidence. But you can take this further in so many different creative ways. Here are a few examples:<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"151\" src=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-line-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-393\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-line-1.png 800w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-line-1-300x57.png 300w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-line-1-768x145.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Size<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>Lastly, by playing with the <strong>size<\/strong> of what we draw, we can show how important it is in relation to what\u2019s around it. For this to work, you usually need something else in the picture to give the particular object&nbsp;<em>scale<\/em>, for comparison.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"166\" src=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-size-1.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-394\" srcset=\"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-size-1.png 800w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-size-1-300x62.png 300w, https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/snails-size-1-768x159.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<h3 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Share your sketches!<\/h3>\n\n\n\n<p>I hope this SNAILS method has given you some ideas about adding some more variety to what you draw. Try it today, whether it\u2019s on a whiteboard in a meeting, or in your sketchbook, or as part of live scribing. And as always, I\u2019m keen to see how you use these methods in your own sketching, so feel free to\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/prestosketching\">share it on the socials<\/a> and tag it with #prestosketching.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Looking to change up how you draw the same thing all the time? Or to boost the variety and style of what you draw? I got you: try this easy and effective SNAILS method. If I got a dollar for every light bulb that I drew in my work, I\u2019d be\u2026 well, I wouldn\u2019t be [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":380,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,10,11],"tags":[23,44,105,106,76],"class_list":{"0":"post-211","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fun-and-creativity","8":"category-getting-started","9":"category-sketchnoting-graphic-recording","10":"tag-creativity","11":"tag-inspiration","12":"tag-snails","13":"tag-style","14":"tag-visual-metaphor","15":"entry"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails.jpg",880,358,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails-300x122.jpg",300,122,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails-768x312.jpg",768,312,true],"large":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails.jpg",880,358,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails.jpg",880,358,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails.jpg",880,358,false],"sidebar-featured":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails-75x75.jpg",75,75,true],"genesis-singular-images":["https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/blog-masthead-snails-702x358.jpg",702,358,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Ben Crothers","author_link":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/author\/prestosketching_uao6s0\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Looking to change up how you draw the same thing all the time? Or to boost the variety and style of what you draw? I got you: try this easy and effective SNAILS method. If I got a dollar for every light bulb that I drew in my work, I\u2019d be\u2026 well, I wouldn\u2019t be&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=211"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":395,"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/211\/revisions\/395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/380"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=211"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=211"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prestosketching.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=211"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}