When I look back at my early graphic recordings, it’s almost impossible to hold back the laughter. The shaky lines, the clashing colors, the awkward layouts that made no visual sense whatsoever. But when I think about it, those were the best drawings I could do at the time. And more importantly, I did them.
My graphic recording journey began in July of 2018, when I attended Transparency School in Vilnius, Lithuania. During the 5-day summer camp, magic was unraveling before my eyes in the form of this mysterious art form that I was yet to encounter at thus far. I had to speak to the wizard, of course (I later learnt that his name was Žilvinas), and this sorcery was called graphic recording.
At that moment, I knew that was it. I had to learn this thing. No idea if or where I would ever use it, but I just had to.
So for one year, I watched YouTube videos, found some tutorials, doodled every chance I got, every meeting I attended…..but this was still confined to my notebooks. At this point, I was taking my notes in the form of doodles (sketchnoting), like this doodle about pitching from a workshop I attended. Not because I was planning to do anything big with this new skill, but because I was just so fascinated by it!
That same month, I posted one of my first doodles online (still not sure where I got the confidence 😅), and a few days later, I found myself in front of a room full of people, live-doodling on a flipchart. Terrifying. Exhilarating. Completely worth it.
By July 2019, someone actually paid me to doodle. The result? Cringe-worthy. But it was the first time I saw my visuals begin to tell a story. By August, my style was slowly forming.
By November, I took on my first large-scale graphic recording, my biggest project yet.
Then came 2020, and with lockdowns came time. Time to practice, explore, and refine. My doodles started looking more polished. I even launched a YouTube channel, breaking down important COVID-related updates from the government and analysing current affairs, making the whole thing public (and fun!).
By February 2022, what began as curiosity had grown into a full-fledged creative practice, and Thinkillustrate was officially three years old!
Today, my doodles finally “make sense”, and you can see some examples in my portfolio. But that only happened because I was willing to start before I was ready, and to keep showing up when things looked messy. Or probably because I was just so clueless. I didn’t know how bad my drawings were, I was just so excited to learn a new skill and apply it in my day to day life. Maybe that’s the secret. Finding magic in something and immersing yourself in it.
If you’re sitting on an idea, a skill, a passion, please, start anyway. To paraphrase Daniel Priestley, it doesn’t matter how good an idea you have if you don’t implement it.
The first versions might make you cringe one day… but they’ll also remind you how brave you were to begin.
And that, truly, is the best part of the story.
I hope you’ll find your magic and pursue it. Until the next doodle, stay curious!
