How Urban Sketching Helps Graphic Recording

Tuesday Tips & Tricks 
by USk Chicago Correspondent Wes Douglas

What is Graphic Recording?*Graphic recording is the skill of listening, synthesizing and transforming the spoken word into a visual language in real-time. They are rich, visual notes created from a blending of handwriting, drawings, hand-rendered display type, shapes, and visual elements to help capture the essence of a speech, presentation or performance. The goal is to take a complex narrative and break it down to its essential elements and create a memorable, easy-to-understand low-tech summary on paper large or small. (That is me at the large board).

Basic requirements of graphic recording:
- It helps if you can listen carefully while sketching 30 seconds behind
- It helps if you can write legibly
- It helps if you focus only on key points that are interesting to you
  (as opposed to trying to write everything that is said-- you are not a stenographer)
- Whenever possible, replace words with pictures
- Utilize icons, metaphors, and visual puns when you can
- Drawing quickly and from memory is a must.
  Practice drawing random, everyday objects will help build up your visual vocabulary

How does Urban Sketching come into play? (plus examples of my graphic recordings)

Urban sketching: careful observation
Graphic recording: careful listening and 
drawing from memory

Urban sketching: loose sketching
Graphic recording: loose writing/drawing

Urban sketching: you don't have to draw everything you see
Graphic recording: you don't have to write down everything you hear

Urban sketching: everyday objects sketched from observation
Graphic recording: everyday objects, shapes and forms from memory

Urban sketching: break down scene to most important element
Graphic recording: break down summary to most important points/visuals

Urban sketching: sketch real time on location
Graphic recording: listening real time and draw with 30 second delay

Shape: triangle, arrows, pentagon, bow tie, Forward or Rewind symbol, wedge

USK equivalents: rooftops, tents, umbrellas, milk carton, caps on building, caps on banisters, yield sign, caution sign, school crossing sign, porch roof, bike frame, navigational/directional signs, FedEx tubes, windows, railroad crossing, safety cones.

Shape: circles, balls, domes, ellipse, ovals, lightbulb, tear drop, clouds

USK equivalents: wheels, coins, manhole cover, tokens, street lights, wrong way sign, donuts, bagels, cupcakes, pizza, plates, porthole window, the sun/moon, coasters, capital building, arches.

Shape: square, rectangle, bars, square dot pattern, grid, banners, charts

USK equivalents: buildings, homes, windows, doors, tile, bricks, flooring, vases, pillars, caution sign (diamond shape), buses, trains, cargo ships, bridges

While this may not be an all-inclusive list, these are the similarities I have found whenever I am graphic recording. I hope that I have impressed upon you the value of urban sketching and how it can manifest itself into other forms of art and design. Urban sketching, I have found, is one of the best ways to keep your sketching skills sharp and ready for all kinds of applications, even if your day job does not entail illustration. Graphic recording is one way I have found to incorporate sketching in a business or classroom environment and empowers better recall of information. If you have any further questions on graphic recording, please ask below in the comments section.

Wes Douglas

*Note: Other labels commonly referred to this art form: visual thinking, visual notes, graphic notes, sketch notes, graphic scribe, and creative meeting notes.

One Spot - Two Different Subjects

A couple weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend an afternoon in the loop, riding my bike, sketching and taking photos.  One of the reasons I love living in the city is the ability to hop on Lake Shore Drive bike path and just ride and see where the day takes me.  After a recent guided kayaking tour I took with my wife on the Chicago River, I was inspired to return to one of the major stops, near Merchandise Mart and the recently finished river walkway.  I found a nice spot on the Franklin Street Bridge.  With a great view east, down the river towards Michigan Avenue, I started off with this loose ink sketch of the skyline.  I normally like to lay out my sketches in pencil, but just decided to go for it in ink with this one.  I tend to be a perfectionist.  I like to spend my time making a sketch work well, often times, too much time.  However, diving right into this ink drawing was a real nice change of pace and really freeing, creative experience.  Instead of making sure each line was completely straight, I allowed the pace of my drawing to dictate the characteristics of the sketch.  All in all, I was really pleased with how it turned out and was able to capture the essence of the skyline with gestural lines, stippling and some hatching.

The beautiful thing about being in the Loop is that there is nearly an endless supply of things to sketch.  Having finished the skyline sketch, I stayed in the same spot and sketched the Franklin Street Bridge House, which was a lot closer to me and allowed for some greater attention to material, proportion and detail.  The lighting and shadows were changing very fast so I penciled in a rough outline and indicated where the shadows were at the time.  By the time I finished the pencil sketch, the shadows had already changed and disappeared.  I then inked the drawing with a fountain pen and Faber Castell Cold Grey IV 233 PITT artist pen.



These two sketches were both done in a Stillman and Birn Epsilon sketchbook, which has become my go to sketchbook for pen and ink sketching.  For a long time, I have had a tendency to go back and forth between one sketchbook and another.  I would bounce between a sketchbook geared toward watercolor, to one with ivory colored paper to another with grey toned paper.  But, I've enjoyed this Epsilon paper so much, I've been diligent in filling it up.  This sketchbook is shaping up to be one of my favorite collections of sketches yet.   I look forward to filling it up and seeing where the rest of the pages take me.

You can see more of my work and sketches on Instagram: @abillustrator and my professional website www.AndrewBanksIllustration.com.

I am trying to savor the last precious days of nice outdoor sketching weather before Chicago winter returns.

Until next time!

Andrew

Architecture Guides & the Urban Sketcher

Ever felt overwhelmed with everything around you while you're Urban Sketching? Or maybe despite everything going on around you, you can't seem to see a story in your surroundings?

When I'm stuck at either of these extremes I find that an architecture guide can change what I see. Whether by focusing in my attention like a microscope, or giving me a sense of something larger like a telescope, the context these guides provide revitalize the city to me.

Ooooh, there's a helicopter landing on that building!

Chicago offers several guided architecture tours that walk, ride, kayak or segway around the city. These options can be rich with hidden stories about the city, but as a part of a group, you can't stop and sketch whenever you like.

Thankfully there are other great options!

Books:
There are always standard tourist guide books. These books are full of fun stories about people and places in the city to jog your creative juices, but to those who have been in the city a while or just want something a little off the beaten trail this might not be best. There are also books like Walking Chicago that offer routes in a given neighborhood. Sometimes themes emerge on a given route and you realize you've been walking by 4 first attempts at various architectural elements for months without knowing. Another publisher offers 50 of these routes on individual index cards – perfect to tuck into a sketch kit.  But be warned, these haven't been updated in a few years so restaurants have changed! Though I have not personally tried their tours, I've heard good things about Evisitorguide.com and the free tour maps and information you can download from their website. Of course there are always things that are left out from these books (and website), but they can add a lot of fun to your sketch outings!


Apps:
The problem with books for the Urban Sketcher is that they can be heavy and a pain to carry with you at all times. Thankfully, there are multiple apps for that!

Several of the apps for sale look great, but the only app I've tried is a free one called 312 Go! With locations services turned on on your smart phone, the app will point out interesting things around you. The narrator will say things like "On your left is The Rookery…" then go on to tell you fun tidbits about the place. Using this app with headphones also helps prevent unwanted conversation with by-standers while giving you an inside scoop on the stories around you.

Looking to try one of these out? Itching to keep practicing the techniques you learned this summer? Perfect timing! October 17th-18th is Chicago's Annual Open House Chicago, where great buildings will be open to the public free of charge. Last year USK Chicago made it into several hard-to-visit buildings during the event, I can't wait to see where you all go!




Have you ever used architecture guides to help your sketching in Chicago? How about when you're in other cities? What other tools do you use to help you "see" your surroundings again?

Figures in Motion - Workshop Recap

TUESDAY TIPS AND TRICKS

As I’m flipping through my sketchbook and mourning the end of summer, I’m reflecting on all that I learned about urban sketching this season. I especially wanted to share some tricks I picked up at the annual sketch seminar.  In case you missed it, here’s a recap of the class I taught "Capturing Figures in Motion." 

To warm up we took our sketchbooks to the curb and immediately learned two things...

1.  Figures are frustrating.

2.  Moving figures are super frustrating.

So what’s the trick?  Well, there’s not just one, but a BIG one that might make all the difference is having an open mind.  I’m used to long commutes and having a good 20 minutes to make a decent drawing, but when you’re sketching from the sidewalk, you’d be lucky to get a 20 second glance of a passerby.  You have to change your expectations. It’s a different way of sketching, but no less impressive.

20 minute sketch

20 second sketch

Find a busy street and set yourself a goal like, “Today I’ll draw motion for half an hour.”  I encouraged everyone at the seminar to grab a stick of vine charcoal. It’s really messy and takes some getting used to, but it forces you to stay loose and let go of the details.

Don’t work in your absolute favorite sketchbook.  Instead of trying to get a post perfect picture, just try to fill a quota: ten pages of blobby human shapes. Draw as many people as you can, as fast as you can.  Fill up every inch!  (Don't forget to have a can of fixative and spray each page before turning!)

The results may not be readable to anyone other than yourself, but you’ll start to build some muscle memory of how people move, where their weight shifts, how a pair of pants hangs etc.  When you look back at your book you’ll have all of these wonderfully expressive reference pages to enrich your urban settings.  Were you sketching a crosswalk and only got down half a woman?  Fill in the gaps by looking at some scribbles you have in your gesture library.

Think about it like an athlete; warm up sketching, or gesture drawing, is awkward at first and can be embarrassing.  There's no doubt it's a lot of hard work!  But keep at it and before you know it you'll have trained your brain to rapidly record motion.  When you do get a decent motion sketch, you should be really proud of yourself and post it everywhere!  You recorded all that information in a matter of seconds…  That’s pretty amazing!