Drawing Moves

What is a move?

Broadly speaking, moves are actionable strategies, steps, or maneuvers that people take to accomplish their goals.

Drawing moves refer specifically to the ways in which visual communicators deploy the elements of drawing -- color, line, shape -- to communicate meaning.

We already use the term “moves” to denote what players do in games and sports. In the same way that a dancer might move his body to express a feeling, or a chess player might move a piece to advance her position on the game board, one can deploy various moves in drawing.

This guide is a compilation of “drawing moves.” It was written to teach you how make choices that align with and support your communication goals.

List of Moves by Element

Color

• Use saturated color to “call out” areas of significance
• Use value contrast to “call out” areas of significance
• Use complementary colors to differentiate elements of your drawing
• Use color palettes to differentiate elements of your drawing
• Use colors to group elements of your drawing
• Use color scales to represent gradual change

Line

• Use gestural line to suggest movement
• Use arrows to show direction
• Use arrows to show cause and effect
• Use line weight and outlines to draw attention
• Use lines as borders to organize and separate parts of your drawing

Shape

• Use shapes as containers of information
• Use similar shapes to express relatedness
• Use contrasting shapes to represent contrast
• Use proximity of shapes to group elements of your drawing
• Use alignment of shapes to organize information
• Use shape size to create a hierarchy of information

List of Moves by Function

How to orient the viewer

• Include a reference object (e.g. a penny) to show physical scale
• Include a timeline to show change over time
• Include a 3-D tripod to show perspective
• Use labels to identify elements of the drawing
• Use a legend or key to identify elements of the drawing
• Avoid “chart junk” that distracts from data
• Include documentation of your data sources
• Use a title to communicate the main idea
• Provide context to orient the viewer
• Use a logical, non-arbitrary organizing principle to arrange data

How to express motion

• Use colored arrows to indicate a specific path and direction
• Use dotted lines to indicate change in position
• Use ghosting, or blurry overlapping images, to indicate change in position
• Draw “before and after” images in parallel, proximal panels to show motion

How to express change over time

• In coordinate planes, use x-axis to represent time
• Draw “before and after” images in parallel, proximal panels to show change
• Utilize reading conventions (move from left to right or top to bottom)

How to make verbs visible

• Use arrows to indicate motion, action, or change in state
• Use comic-book-like panels to show motion, action, or change in state
• Use ghosting to show motion, action, or change in state

How to examine or compare nouns

• Use visual parallelism to “call out” subtle differences between nouns
• Use stylized line drawings or icons to gain control over which details you include
• Use continuum scales to study the gray area that exists between two extremes
• Use crossed continuum diagrams to unpack a complex concepts

How to express cause and effect

• Use chain of events diagrams to show linear, cause-and-effect relationships
• Use convergent diagrams to show multi-cause relationships
• Use divergent diagrams to show multi-effect relationships
• Use fishbone diagrams to show complex multi-cause relationships
• Use cycle of events diagrams to explain any series of events that repeats over time
• Use human interaction outlines to show interactions between two groups

How to guide the viewer’s eye through your drawing

• Use saturated color to “call out” areas of significance
• Use contrast in color value to “call out” areas of significance
• Use line quality to guide the viewer’s eye
• Use arrows to point out areas of significance
• Break alignment of shapes to “call out” areas of significance
• Change size of shapes to “call out” areas of significance

How to create icons that represent ideas

• Combine simple shapes into icons

Key Terms and Concepts

Color

• hue
• saturation
• value
• contrast
• palette
• achromatic
• monochromatic
• complementary
• analogous
• split complementary
• triadic
• temperature

Line

• Weight
• Solid
• Broken or Dotted
• Hairline
• Arrow
• Gestural Line
• Straight Line
• Sketchy Line
• Confidence
• Angular
• Curved
• Parallel
• Hard
• Soft

Shape

• Organic Shape
• Geometric Shape
• Open Shape
• Closed Shape
• Figure/Ground Relationship
• Implied Shapes
• Negative Space
• Positive Space

Principles of Design

• Contrast
• Repetition
• Alignment
• Proximity