Everyone is able to draw
Brief description of the topic
The essence of graphic facilitation is in fixing and conveying ideas using simple drawings. Graphic facilitation is not art.
Almost everything you can imagine can be drawn using the five basic elements: circle, square, triangle, point and line. You can modify the basic elements: a circle can turn into an oval, a square into a rectangle, a rhombus, a trapezoid, etc. To do this, it is not necessary to be an artist.
There are 3 types of drawings.
1 type of drawings - drawings of objects
To draw an object, you need to simplify it to simple shapes and lines, find a distinctive feature and draw.
2 type of drawings - drawings of abstract concepts
It is impossible to draw an abstract concept, therefore, you must first pick up a symbol that will have a material form and draw a symbol.
3 type of drawings - drawings-schemes.
When simple drawings are not enough and the task is not just to fix the concept, but to explain what it means, we will use drawings-schemes.
These are 3 main types of drawings, having mastered the drawing technique of which you can use visual communication and graphic facilitation.
Everyone knows how to draw
The essence of graphic facilitation is in fixing and conveying ideas using simple drawings. Graphic facilitation is not art. Even not very beautiful drawings can convey ideas well.
Even if you feel that you are not very good at drawing, you can use the skill of graphic facilitation and visualization of ideas. Exercises in this module will help you begin and gradually improve your skills.
Almost everything you can imagine can be drawn using the five basic elements: circle, square, triangle, point and line. And if you can draw them, then you can draw enough to use graphic facilitation.
This is exactly how we painted in childhood. To make a house, you need to draw a square and add a triangle on top, a square - a window, a rectangle - a pipe, a wavy line - smoke - and now our brain begins to paint a picture and tell a story. The house is warm and cozy, there lives a grandmother who drowns the stove and bakes pies. Similarly, when you draw on a board or flipchart, working with a group or facilitating team work, participants are included in what you draw. To do this, it is not necessary to be an artist. You can modify the basic elements: a circle can turn into an oval, a square into a rectangle, a rhombus, a trapezoid, etc.
Everything that you see around you can now be drawn using 5 basic elements. Let's look at 3 types of drawings.
1 type of drawings - drawings of objects.
To draw an object, you need to look at the object or remember how it looks, simplify it as much as possible to simple shapes and lines, find how this object differs from others (for example, a mug differs from a glass with a pen) and draw.
2 type of drawings - drawings of abstract concepts.
Everything is simple with objects, but how to draw abstract concepts? It is impossible to draw an abstract concept because it has no material form and we do not know how it looks. To draw an abstract concept, you need to encode it using a symbol and draw exactly the symbol that will denote it. So the drawing of a light bulb can symbolize an idea, the brain - thinking, rocket - launch.
The same visual image can be a symbol of various abstract concepts. For example, a light bulb can symbolize not only an idea, but also insight, intuition, light, electricity, etc. If you introduce an abstract concept and are not sure that the symbol is considered true - sign it.
3 type of drawings - drawings-schemes.
If we want not only to fix the abstract concept, but to explain what it is about, then we need a third type of drawings - drawings of the scheme. For example, trade is the process of exchanging money for a product, and a product for money. And a graphic diagram explaining visually what such trading will look something like this:
To understand what exactly to draw, explain in words what this term or concept means and you will understand what you need to draw.