Once you’ve covered the basics with The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook, you might find yourself wanting to learn more about art and design. Looking to other disciplines will help your sketchnotes (as well as other aspects of your life you haven’t discovered yet!).

Resources

I have studied several drawing-related arts including calligraphy, cartooning, and design. It’s helped me improve my drawing and sketching, but also helps me get into flow (especially Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain). I’ve collected my favorites here for you.

• Modern Cartooning is a fun introduction to drawing people (above).
• Drawing On the Right Side of the Brain and the workbook are great for breaking the mindset that only people with talent can draw. It opens your mind to your artistic possibilities and gives you strategies for getting into the zone that will allow you to create art instead of giving up due to self-criticism. This is where I began my drawing journey.
• The Non-Designer’s Design Book covers the 4 elements of design: Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity which will improve your sketchnotes and any other thing you design.
• The Calligrapher’s Bible is one of my favorites and I’ve used it for many years. It covers 100 different fonts and there’s even a section on how to embellish your letters.
• Manga for the Beginner Kawaii: How to Draw the Supercute Characters of Japanese Comic is super adorable and a book I really enjoyed working through.
• Learn how to draw icons by hand or use a our copy book to practice icons you can use in your sketchnotes.

What has helped you most in your artistic journey? I’d love to hear about it in the comments!