Here’s another tip for your #Inktober challenge:  

Remove!  What if, instead of showing what you want to depict, you don’t show it?  

This is called 'drawing attention through absence'.  

It may sound strange, but when we omit something people expect to see, we actually draw more attention.  And here is another tip:

You can add an extra layer of meaning by replacing that absence with something else.

In this case, you’re introducing two levels of disruption: the removal of an expected element (like a violin), and its replacement with something unexpected (a tongue).

Try this removal-and-replacement approach in your next #Inktober2024 drawing!  

Thank you,

Dario PaniaguaVisual Thinkers Coach

Here’s a new tip for the #Inktober challenge.

When you have to represent abstract concepts like "uncharted," the first step is to make the abstract tangible. Remember, people tend to remember and understand more easily what they can see and touch rather than purely abstract ideas.

The best way to make a concept tangible is to create a story around it.

Another tip that can help you create stories: explore unusual things. If you need to represent the concept of "uncharted," our first instinct is often to depict an uncharted territory. But what if you explored something else that's not necessarily a territory?

This ties back to one of the tips I’ve mentioned in earlier posts: explore the inside of objects or people, and then create stories around them!

As you can see, no matter how abstract the concept or how absurd the representation might seem, your visual storytelling will give meaning to the image you create.

Thank you,

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Here’s a new tip for the #Inktober challenge:

Explore the inside of things (objects, people, animals).

Anything with volume has an interior.

Imagine how you can explore it!

Can you play with its depth?

Can you alter its shape to increase capacity?

Can you place things inside?

Can you add people interacting in the newly created space?

Questions trigger ideas!

Don’t be afraid of the absurd. The absurd is the secret ingredient for telling a great story or creating a metaphorical message.

Try these tips in your next drawing for the #Inktober2024 challenge!

Thank you,
Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Here’s a new tip for your #Inktober challenge:

Everything can be transformed into a peak, a ridge, or a mountain.

Why?

Because any figure you draw is full of geometric shapes, and triangles, in particular, are one of the most fascinating forms to explore.

Triangles also bring dynamism to an image.

They can be used as arrowheads to direct your audience’s eyes toward the key parts of your drawing that you want to highlight.

Feel free to experiment with this shape in your next #Inktober2024 drawing!

Thank you,

Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Here’s a new tip for your #Inktober challenge:
Use geometric shapes!

Ask yourself this: Can I take part of an image and replace it with another object related to the message I want to communicate?

Geometric shapes can always be associated with another recognizable object that shares the same shape. This makes your images much more engaging for your audience.

Try using this technique in your next #Inktober2024 drawing!

Thank you,
Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Here’s another tip to help you with your #Inktober challenge:

Try exploring contrarian thinking. 

What does it involve? If an object is usually depicted from the same perspective, how would you communicate the complete opposite?

Take this example: passports are government-issued documents that certify a person’s identity and allow them to travel to other countries. 

But what if you communicated the opposite? 

Could a passport symbolize a denial of rights or freedoms for someone?

As you see, you can express the negative side of positive things or the positive side of negative ones. 

Everything can be reversed. And with the results you get, you can always tell a story.

Give these tips a try for your next #Inktober2024 drawing!

Thank you,
Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

If you’re following the #Inktober challenge, I’m sure these two tips will help you!

Did you know that one of the wonderful things about metaphors is that they don’t follow any rules?

What happens if you take an object and draw a person using it in a completely unconventional and absurd way?

Here’s a secret to help you find different uses: change the perspective! Draw that object from another point of view, and then try to find new, unexpected uses for it.

Don’t stop playing with your next idea for #Inktober2024! Any absurdity is a great excuse to create a story.

Thank you,
Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Here’s another tip for your #Inktober challenge:

There are no limits to creating disruptions. Even a simple scene, like watching the horizon and a sunset, can be used to play with and create some kind of disruption.

What’s behind the objects we draw? Can we peek inside them? Can we reveal what’s hidden behind?

Feel free to experiment with anything you draw. 

Anything can be altered, modified, flipped, or inverted to create a story around it.

Keep applying these tips in your #Inktober2024 challenge!

Thank you,
Dario Paniagua
Visual Thinkers Coach

Here’s a new tip that might help you generate ideas for the #Inktober challenge.

When we talk about exotic things, you can use two techniques to create metaphors that allow you to explore unusual concepts. 

Let’s remember that something exotic is extravagant, rare, strange, unusual, or infrequent.

Try one of these two:

1. The first is the "out of context" technique: you place something (an object, person, or animal) in an unusual location where people don’t expect to see it.

2. The second is substitution: you replace an object, person, or animal that you expect to see in a specific situation with something else that takes the place of that predictable element. 
For example, instead of seeing a dog, you replace it with a pigeon.

This technique creates disruption by breaking the predictable, and it's a great way to capture attention.

Give it a try with your next ideas for#inktober2024!

Thank you, 
Dario Paniagua 
Visual Thinkers Coach

Here’s a new tip for your #Inktober ideas.

There’s a technique for creating metaphors that involves humanizing objects.
'Humanizing' doesn’t necessarily mean adding faces, arms, and legs. It can also be just a small detail.

This means you don’t need to humanize the entire object—you can humanize just one part of it.

Now, why should we humanize an object?

There are two main reasons:

When we add a human element to any image, it becomes much more interesting to your audience, because when there’s a person, it means you're telling a story.

The second reason is that by humanizing an object, we can often describe characteristics of a person through that object.

Even if the image seems completely absurd, we can always create a story around that absurdity, which gives meaning to the situation we’re drawing.

I hope these tips are helpful and that you can use them in your upcoming #Inktober2024 drawing ideas.

Thank you,
Dario Paniagua
Visual...