Last year I decided to devote more time to not only being creative and revisiting old hobbies; but, also to take time to learn new creative outlets.
The summer of 2021 was magical for me! I joined a couple free calligraphy and faux calligraphy and hand lettering sessions on line.
Those classes opened my eyes to so many beautiful things and introduced me to so many insanely talented artists. Really wonderful people.
I joined a 2 week virtual 'summer creative retreat'. I paid the money to get full access...lifetime access!! I mean how in the world could I get to a new class every hour from 10 am to 5 pm , 5 days a week AND still get to my day job!?
I obviously took a couple extra days off those week! The moderator was interjecting between classes! She was there! The camp counselor!
Peggy Dean... of the Pigeon Letters I am sure I was not the only person to fall in love with this woman. If you've heard of her I think you know what I mean.
I'm getting away from my story here...
The whole point here was that YESTERDAY was 'world sketchnote day' and sketchnoting was one of the classes. One I thoroughly enjoyed.
I am just learning to accept myself as 'someone who can draw'. My style is very basic and often doesn't look anything like what it's meant to or at the very least what I'd LIKE it to.
But I'm having fun. And Emily Mills was the woman who helped me with that.
Sketchnoting isn't something I do much...really if I do it, it's more of a personal project to keep me busy. I don't take a lot of notes, but I tell you if I had known about this when I was in school I'd have a lot more doodles in my notebooks!
For me it's just a fun way to get through the mundane. It's a little like Bullet Journaling, which I've also started because of the summer retreat classes! But that's a post for another day. Here I go again getting away from my original point!
Sketchnotes!
What it boils down to is adding visual representations of lectures or things you want to remember. For the exercise in the retreat, I simply did a round up of the classes I'd taken.
I was 5 days in and I had learned a lot. And there were instructors I wanted to learn more from!
You can see what I mean about not being an artist! But the idea isn't to draw a lifelike portrait of the lecturer. It's visual reminders. So I learned some simple doodle techniques and set out to map out the first 5 days of retreat.
I had learned some lettering techniques, journaling, and I had even done a watercolor painting!
Now if you visit the Sketchnote Academy website you'll see amazingly detailed notes! This is just my skill level. My own 'just for fun' interpretation.
I did some 'sketch your day' pieces that were much more interesting and to my liking, but again...another post. My tangent urges are strong today and I need to fight them!! But here's a glimpse:
So it was yesterday...'World Sketchnote Day'...but you can still give it a go. See what it's about. Have a little doodle fun.