Why learning how to draw is like learning a new language

6 min readSep 3, 2020

After publishing my book and being a Sketch Note Artist at multiple conferences, more and more people ask me how I learned Sketching & Drawing. Truth is, I’ve never really learned this, I just started doing it. I guess I have a little bit of talent, but I strongly believe you can learn this skill if you want to learn it: It’s like learning a new language!

Let me share with you how.

We all know how a kid learns how to speak. It kind of starts with “wawawa”, “ouauaua” and other sounds like this. Sometime later, kids start saying first words: “mom”, “dad”. Then, they learn sentences “Where is mom?” and one day… They can speak fluently while learning new words all life long.

Just like learning a new language, learning how to draw consists of four steps:

“wawawa”: Sounds/ Phonemes = Basics Shapes
“mom”: Vocabulary = “Pictionary”
“Where is mom?” Grammar = 4 Rules for Visualization & Best Practices
Practice!

STEP 1: Get the basics right — The “wawawa” of drawing

Think about the last time you learned a new language. You started very basic, you were probably listening to the language to get a feeling of how it sounds. If you want to learn how to draw, it’s the same, you learn the basic shapes. You already know how to draw them because you have learned this in your childhood.

The English language has about 44 different sounds to learn — Good news! In drawing we only have 5!

The basic shapes are a circle, a line, a rectangle, a triangle, and what I call a ‘blurb’. Everything can be drawn with them.

You can draw everything with basic shapes!

STEP 2: Learn the words & Build your “Pictionary”

Alright, now let’s do something with it.

When I started learning English & French I used dictionaries a lot. The same applies to drawing. How would you draw “innovation”?

No idea? Let’s rephrase: What do people think of when they hear “innovation”? There is an easy way to find this out: Google it, find the common themes or something easy to draw. For example a light bulb!

Google Search for Innovation (Blurred for copy right reasons)

Now how do you draw a light bulb?

As discussed in step 1, EVERYTHING consists of shapes. A light bulb is a circle, plus a rectangle, plus a few lines, and some details that you can observe (1). And with practice, you do not draw all the shapes by themselves anymore. The shapes start to melt together (2), (3). It’s like learning to speak a new language. Words start melting into each other, you use short forms, and so on.

One word can also have multiple visualizations: Learning, for example, could be an open book, or a university graduate hat. Over time, you can build your own vocabulary. I call this my “Pictionary”.

One picture can have many meanings, too. A street sign can mean “Strategy” or “Navigation”.

What’s great about it: There is no right or wrong. Just pick what’s easiest to draw.

STEP 3: The Grammar: Just like in languages, there are a few rules for drawings, too.

Let’s go through them step by step.

Rule 1: Keep it simple. Have you ever looked at icons? They use as little lines as possible to still be recognizable. Always consider which strokes you really need to get the point across.

Rule 2: Combine vocabulary. An innovative person is a Person + Innovation (remember the light bulb).

Rule 3: Combine text and pictures. Pictures say a lot, but can be ambiguous. Combine the two and your content will be remembered even more.

Rule 4: Learn the glue: This is like constructing sentences. Learn how to visualize a process, time, headings, and other things you need all the time.

Glue things together with: Headings, arrows, charts, and speech bubbles

STEP 4: Practice & Become fluent:

Now it’s time to put these things together and never stop learning.

Start with basic vocabulary. Whenever you hear a new word or a new statement and you don’t know a good visualization, go back to learning vocabulary. Google it, learn how to draw it, add it to your “Pictionary”.

Build “sentences”: There are a lot of words that glue vocabulary together, for example: “And”, “therefore”, “because”. And there are other things you’ll need over and over again: “So that” is an arrow, a new topic might be separated by a line, a quote is a speech bubble. Learn these basics too!

Master it:

Practice the basic shapes, for example when you are on the phone with a friend. Did you know that we remember 23% more of what was said while “doodling”?
Never stop learning vocabulary and keep building your “Pictionary”: What about adding pictures to the to-dos for your day or your shopping list?
Pay special attention to icons wherever you are — You can learn a lot from them.
And next time, when you listen to a presentation, start drawing your notes! Sketch Notes will help you practice how to draw quickly and at the same time help you remember the content much better!

Example of a real-time Sketch Note from PMF 2019

Everything takes practice, but it will pay off.

How does Drawing help you?

Being visual is extremely powerful. It helps me to remember things better. After my brain has translated a fact into a picture, I have really thought it through ;)
Our brains love pictures.
Your communication will be much clearer and people will remember what you said when you draw a picture for it. According to a study by Edgar Dale, people remember only 10% of what they hear, 20% of what they read, and up to 80% of what they see and do. Not sure if these numbers are really true, but I’m convinced that visual communication is very powerful.

Power of Visuals according to Edgar Dale

What are the key takeaways?

Learning how to draw is like learning a language, and we all have learned one. It can’t be that hard.
Do it! Don’t be afraid. Everybody has to start somewhere. One thing is actually different from learning a language: There is no right or wrong — You can invent new “words” or pictures, and connect them in new ways. And you will develop your own style!
What are you waiting for? (How would you draw waiting?)