12 December 2008

Some basic rules for napkin-sketching


Here is a short (3.5 minutes) video with a few guidelines for making better napkin sketches:

1. Ground line

2. Center(s) of gravity

3. Connect figure to ground

4. Big-to-little

5. Draw through and over

I hope you enjoy it.

7 comments:

  1. Nicely refined rules Dave. It's funny how often we do this stuff but I've never had it explained like this, and thinking back, my most successful napkin sketches definitely follow the process described.

    Most Valuable thing here to me?

    Not to keep your sketches too precious!! It's easy to forget this, and just drawing more often so there is an abundance and you realize sketches are cheap is a good way to get through that tendency.

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  2. Thanks Alan. Yes, paper is still one of the cheapest and easiest prototyping tools that there is. And if you're squeamish about trees there is always the whiteboard :)

    I'd rather see 10 or 20 ideas rapidly sketched than one perfect drawing. Sometimes it's better to do a quick survey of the territory before you start making your detailed map.

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  3. This is lovely. And helpful. It's great when you say 'draw along with me'.

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  4. Thanks Avi! Did you draw along? If so it would be great to see what you did. Here's an example.

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  5. Dave, I always enjoy your videos!

    It helps me train my (poor) drawing, too... I want to bring more sketches to the business model hub, where I am co-writing my business model innovation book... It will have a lot of visuals.

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  6. Anonymous12/23/2008

    so sexy!!

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