The Center for Graphic Facilitation

VectorTuts: 40 Free Tutorials on Advanced Drawing Techniques

The traditional form of drawing and sketching is a highly sought after skill. 

Develop your personal drawing abilities by following this collection of 40 great tutorials on advanced drawing techniques, including general theory, useful tips, comic inspired art and some methods for transforming your creations into digital format.

Learn how to draw, cars, hair, skulls, Manga characters, ninjas, hands, human eyes, figures, dragons, clothing, ears, old people and more, in both sketch and vector formats.

Check it out >>

Evernote Makes Scribing Searchable

OK. This changes the game.

Using Evernote, the new software to integrate collections of images and text across platforms, graphic facilitators now have a tool that allows for their work to be searchable.

It works, too! Once you upload, drag-n-drop or email a photo of a drawing, the software adds it to a "notebook" that is either public or private. Then, the user can do a normal word search and Evernote finds the word--even in handwritten form!

Meeting on the Right Side of the Brain

We've been preaching it for years, but I guess it is now news:

Creative work environments improve creative thinking!

Congrats to Leslie Marquard and Catalyst Ranch on leading the piece. Thanks for bringing "right-brained thinking" to a "left-brained" world. (Actually, working in creative environments and using multiple learning modalities inspires whole-brain thinking.)

clipped from www.nytimes.com Steve Kagan for The New York Times By ELAINE GLUSAC | Published: April 30, 2008 WHEN Leslie Marquard, an executive coach, holds strategy sessions for consulting firms or university administrators, she ushers her buttoned-up clientele into rooms full of Pogo sticks, ethnic art, hammocks, vintage furniture and a pillow “harem.” “They are surprised and also endeared by it,” said Ms. Marquard, a co-founder of Marble Leadership Partners in Chicago. The “it” she referred to is Catalyst Ranch, an independent alternative meeting space in a former sausage factory near the Loop  in Chicago. “They’ll say, ‘That table looks just like one I grew up with.’ It subconsciously releases the mind.”

 

Why Wikis Rock

If you have been confused about the exact utility and function of wikis, take a look at this very fun and accessible video clip by CommonCraft.

I have be a what you might call a "power-user" of the project management sofeware Basecamp for several years now. And, of Blogger. Oh, and TypePad (which powers this site).

Plus I've sunk oodles of time and ca$h into designing the Web2.0 app for graphic facilitators, MissingLink. All of the aforementioned tools are essentially mutant forms of a wiki--as is the ever popular source of all knowledge, Wikipedia. Each one of these browser-based tools allows multiple users (aka. people) to create, edit and participate in on-line communities.

Crafting Great Stories

[ PHOTO: "Storyteller, Tibet Sera Monastery" by jordan1962 ]

In The Power of Myth, when the journalist Bill Moyers described his experience interviewing the great scholar of comparative religion and collector of ancient stories, Joseph Campbell, he said: "Campbell began his answer to my question as he often did.. with a story."

In the modern age, however, we tend to endure presentations more often than we engage in authentic storytelling.

As members of the human tribe, what we are moved by--what we condense our own experience and meaning into--involve stories. Today, we are swimming an tsunami of pent up stories enabled by the kaleidescope of new media storytelling medium and cheap, consumer-created content.

Graphic facilitators belong to a vast and diverse cosmology of visual storytellers. And the most valuable asset we have, as well as the greatest service we can render, is to illustrate the greater truth that hides beneath the words of our audience's stories.

The CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi Worldwide, Kevin Roberts, often quotes Rolf Jensen of the Dream Company that “the highest-paid person in the first half of the next century will be the storyteller.”  Roberts goes on, however, to emphasize the necessary ingredients in all great stories, beginning with the primary element: truth.

Master Your Beliefs, Master Your Emotions

Ever wish that you could reverse the unrelenting hands of time and take back something you said that really hurt someone's feelings?

Perhaps you find yourself yearning to react a bit more professionally and less emotionally in tense situations at work?

Or you may simply want to strangle someone over a stray comment or sideways glance?

Well then, if you are searching to become master of your emotions, start with this insightful article from the Neuland monthly newsletter, written by Steve Davis, master facilitator (and Chuck Norris look-alike!).

What are emotions and what is emotional mastery?
Emotions are often described as energy in motion. They become problems only when we judge them as wrong, bad, or inappropriate. When we let our emotions run us, we miss the message that they carry. When we repress them for fear of what they might cause us to do, they simply lie in wait to emerge with a vengeance later on. Emotional mastery is the ability to process our emotions so that we receive their message and use their energy for appropriate action. Read Full article>>

You can subscribe to Steve Davis' free weekly ezine for group leaders at www.MasterFacilitatorJournal.com and check out his virtual university, packed with information for group leaders and participants at www.FacilitatorU.com.

We're All in This Together

Master Facilitator, Steve Davis, describes what he has learned facilitating inter-cultural groups. To say the least, it requires alternate structures, methods, and processes.

He shares his experience teaching teleconferences to 45 people operating in the Pacific Rim for a large global corporation, focused on virtual meeting facilitation. Most of the participants on these calls were from Asian cultures for whom English was a second language.

Open Learning Tools

[ From new member Andi Roberts in Spain ]

The Open University, part of the OpenLearn story, has also allowed free access to part of their courses on "systems" courses which can be found at the bottom of this page for those who don't know how to map systems its a basic start.

They have many simple tutorials for educators and life-long learners on new web-based learning tools, for example:

FlashMeeting is a one-click video conferencing tool. It allows a dispersed group of people to meet from anywhere in the world with an internet connection, running in a standard web browser window, with the Adobe Flash 'plug in'. If you have a properly installed web cam and microphone you will be able to communicate with friends and colleagues anywhere they are.
See OU QuickGuide

Compendium is a software tool for visual thinking. You can use it to cluster and connect icons linked to ideas, concepts, arguments, websites and documents. Use it just for personal reflection as you study or work on a problem, or share your maps with others... your summary of a topic, or a learning path through the maze of the Web, might really help someone else!
See OU QuickGuide

77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better

There you have it! The best LifeHacks include graphic facilitation.

In the list of 77 Ways to Learn Faster, Deeper, and Better MindMapping (aka Brainmapping) made #19 . It slid in right before Learn symbolism and semiotics (20) and right after Listen to music (15).

From the Online Education Database (http://oedb.org/):

Life-changing knowledge does typically require advanced learning techniques. In fact, it's been said that the average adult only uses 10% of his/her brain. Imagine what we may be capable of with more advanced learning techniques. Here are 77 tips related to knowledge and learning to help you on your quest. A few are specifically for students in traditional learning institutions; the rest for self-starters, or those learning on their own.

See the list of productivity tips at: http://oedb.org/library/college-basics/hacking-knowledge

Periodic Table of Visualization Methods

This is it, kids! The single resource for all the tools and methods out there for making ideas visual. Everything from cartoons to strategy maps. The map allows the user to get a visual image of each method upon rollover with the mouse.

[from Deirdre Crowley, forwarded by Jody Lentz]

This Periodic Table of Visualization Methods was created in Switzerland by the Visual Literacy folks. I thought you would enjoy it too. I was happy to see Graphic Facilitation right there at the top (G)!