IFVP Takeaways and Clean Your Chart the Easy Way

Deborah DeLue • September 13, 2024

The Art of Applied Visual Thinking

The official newsletter of Applied Visual Thinking SUPERHEROES. Vol. 5 No. 19

September 13, 2024

A few weeks ago, I had the great privilege of attending the 2024 IFVP Conference in Montclair, NJ, with my fantastic business partner Sheri Kennedy. It was an incredible experience. I returned reinvigorated about the power of visuals to communicate complex ideas and a brain and sketchbooks filled with ideas, tips, and tricks.

Panel 1: person explaining how to fish; Panel 2: person demonstrating how to fish; Panel 3: Two people fishing side by side

My key takeaways were:

Practice, Practice, Practice - As the old saying goes, "How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice!" While we love a good hack and tips and tricks, nothing can replace hands-on repetition. Everyone's life is busy, and fitting in time to practice can be challenging. However, even 5 minutes daily will add up very quickly. Still need convincing? See the Practice on Vacation blog post here.

Less Is More - During our week at the IFVP conference, I repeatedly noticed the most exciting and impactful drawings were often the simplest.

Just like practice, simplification is not always easy, however, if you take it step by step, you can learn to simplify quickly. Not sure where to begin? See the From Fine Art to Icon blog post here.

Use The Tools You Have - While shopping for new pens and markers and trying out new tech are my happy places. You don't need to invest time and money on new tools or tech. To be a great visual thinker, all you really need is something to draw on and something to draw with. If all you have is a pen and the back of a napkin, that will do just fine. In fact, we endorse traveling light. Not sure what to carry? See the Visuals to Go blog post here.

Last but not least, here's the best tip I learned
at IFVP 2024!

In the past, I usually defaulted to creating my visual thinking charts, maps, and diagrams digitally. I was always unhappy with the photos because the background looked dull and gray. Also, I found cleaning up the images in Photoshop daunting and time-consuming, plus Photoshop is very expensive.

At the conference, I learned a fantastic trick that bypasses Photoshop in favor of one of my favorite digital drawing tools, Procreate . If you are or want to be a Procreate user and would like to clean up your hand-drawn visual thinking charts quickly and easily, read on!

You'll need:

A clear, evenly lit photo of your chart, map, or diagram. Cropped to remove as much of the background as possible.
An iPad with the Procreate app installed.

Tip: if you need help making a good photo of your drawing, try this.

For a small drawing: Before taking the photo, place your drawing flat on a table or the floor in front of a window without direct sunlight. The light from the window will cast a soft, even light on your drawing.

For a large drawing: Before taking the photo, tape your drawing on a well-lit wall, then spread a piece of white paper underneath it. The paper on the floor will bounce light onto your drawing, creating more even lighting.

How to clean up your drawing in Procreate

Step 1) Import the photo of your drawing into Procreate.

From the Photo app, tap on the image of your drawing.
Click Share to open the sharing options.
Click on the Procreate icon to send your photo to a new document in Procreate.

Step 2) Open the Procreate app and the new document. Then:

1) Clean up the background

Click on the Color Picker button (Circle icon in the upper right-hand corner) and set the color to pure white.

Drag and drop the Color Picker onto the background of your drawing. This action will clean up the image's background color and make it whiter. Note: you can do this a few times if needed.

2) Clean up the edges.

Touch and hold somewhere on the background of your now cleaner image to set the Color Picker to that color.
Using your favorite solid Procreate brush, such as the Studio Pen, draw over the edges of the image to remove any stray background marks.

3) Share your cleaned image.

Click the Actions button (Wrench icon in the upper left-hand corner) and click Share to export your now clean image in your favorite format.

That's it!

Here's the original photo.

And here's the photo after cleaning it in Procreate.

Using this method, it took me less than 2 minutes to clean up this image, and the difference is astounding.

So, try this the next time you want to share a cleaner, brighter image of your visual thinking. You'll be surprised at how quick and easy it can be when you use Procreate.

Bonus tip #1: While creating charts, maps, or diagrams on white paper is the norm, what about if you've used a different colored paper, like gray or tan? This method works great for those, too. In Step 2a, just choose a color from the Color Picker that closely matches the color of your paper.

Bonus tip #2: Let's say you made the drawing on tan paper, but now the background needs to be green. You may not need to redraw it. Instead, you can try choosing a different color from the Color Picker in step 2a.