We aren’t all the same, we don’t all look the same, we have different abilities, values and ideas, we bring different cultural experiences to the table. When we sketch for and with other people, the question of how we can represent them and their communities in our drawings in an inclusive way regularly comes up.

Keeping diversity in mind even when sketching very quickly and minimally has also been a topic in a couple of my Pragmatic Sketching Masterclasses. I’ve been sharing my thoughts and process for including more diversity in my own visual work. Here are two videos excerpts from my class. In the first video, I talk about widening our point of view when we represent people. In the second video I demonstrate my approach to varying simple stick figures to include people of many shapes, sizes, abilities, ages and cultures. 

If you are interested in joining the next round of my Pragmatic Sketching Masterclass, you can click here to add your name to the waitlist.

Thoughts on sketching with diversity and inclusivity in mind

I recorded the first video as part of a series of mini tutorials on visual thinking collected by Benjamin Felis for one of his Youtube videos. Watch the whole ‘Meet the Masters’ video with all tutorials here.

Representing different types of people (with simple stick figures)

More resources on sketching diversity

For quite a while I’ve been collecting articles on the topic of sketching diversity, learning from different illustrators, graphic recorders and designer how they approach the topic. I am keeping the annotated list in this blogpost.