DaVinci’s Secret To Drawing

Leonardo DaVinci is famous for his expertise on drawing everything… from birds midflight to human anatomy and even architecture.

We admire DaVinci for many things, but one of the things that really stands out is the way he combined knowledge from many different areas of life and managed to organize it in very detailed analysises and designs.

You think it’s a coincidence his study journal was packed with drawings and sketches? I think not.

So this article will introduce you to the idea of having a study journal, similar to the one DaVinci had in his artistic exploits.

If you want expert level results with your drawings and designs you need to organize your work and be able to note down quick ideas that appear sometimes on the fly.

I even know cases of people noting down pictures of dreams they had only to be used as design ideas later on.

Bottom line, you need to get a study journal.

Advantages Of A Study Journal

– You can brain storm ideas on the fly, even if they come in the most unexpected moments.

– You can note down cool ideas you see when you’re busy doing something else.

– You can register and measure your progress.

– You can steadily build up an arsenal of ideas to use as reference for future work.

– In case you got a design submission and your journal is packed with sketches, you’ll have enough material there to whip out a killer final presentation sheet with design development sketches and everything.

Now let’s have a look at how you can choose a study journal…

1. Go For Quality

Although I’ve heard of several designers who did their first sketches on restaurant napkins and you see famous rappers noting down lyrics on crumbled pieces of paper… you need a dependable, reliable study journal.

I recommend going for a leather bound study journal.

2. Go For Proper Page Size Rather Than Mobility

I know you’re thinking about not carrying around too much extra weigh and would love to get an A6 square sketchpad that would double as a paperweight… but I wouldn’t recommend going for something smaller than A4.

One of the reasons you should only use large journals is that you need to tell a story with your journal…

And for that you need large images and loads of design diagrams with bullet points and notes.

Let’s make a comparison to the world of 3d rendering.

I don’t know any successful 3d artist that does their work on a laptop – all of them have workstation-type computers with a lot of computing power.

Oh, and by the way I have absolutely no clue how Da Vinci became Da Vinci – was it talent? The gene pool acting up or what else.

You will use all sorts of media in your journal. It’s not just pen on paper – you can make collages of different textured materials and printouts. Take advantage of this collages technique as it will help you constantly generate new design ideas.