April 2026: Sketchnote Lab Dispatch
Five Cool Things, March's Creating Icons for Sketchnoters Video Replay: Problem-Solving Sketchnotes w/ Mauro Toselli on April 18, Sketch First post, and the 2026 schedule.
Welcome to the Sketchnote Lab Dispatch for April 2026!
Spring is here, and I’m happy to have it arrive, finally. We had a late snowstorm in Wisconsin in mid-March, so warmer weather is much appreciated.
I hope you’re doing well wherever you are in these chaotic times.
What’s in this issue?
5 Cool Things to share with you.
March’s Creating Icons for Sketchnoters Video Replay.
April’s Problem-Solving with Mauro Toselli - sign up for free!
Sketch First! - My post on the importance of sketching in iterative projects.
Sketchnote Lab 2026 Schedule - see what’s happening each month of 2026.
Five Cool Things
Here are five cool things I thought you would enjoy:
❥ 1. Drawing Visual Metaphors with Eva-Lotta Lamm - Draw along with Eva-Lotta Lamm as she shows you how to explore metaphors and analogies for greater creativity, exploring abstract concepts, and coming up with new solutions.
❥ 2. How to add writing to your sketchbook - Andrew James of Coffee In Drawings Out offers tips for adding writing to sketches in your sketchbook.
❥ 3. Why you stopped drawing and how to start again - an inspiring video from Danny Gregory, encouraging you to start drawing again if you’ve stopped.
❥ 4. How the iconic LIFE Noble Notebook is made - A 7-minute JetPens video documenting how the unique LIFE Noble notebooks are manufactured. ASMR!
❥ 5. Why boredom is good for you - A short BBC animated video on the benefits of allowing yourself to become bored to increase your capacity for creativity.
Ellington Pens offers beautiful, feel-great-in-the-hand metal fountain pens at reasonable prices. Get 20% off their pens with my special affiliate code: INKED
March Live Lab Replay: Creating Sketchnote Icons
Icons are among the most useful tools in your sketchnoting practice. In this live session, I’ll teach you how to build icons from the five basic shapes, making marks into icons that communicate your ideas simply and quickly.
What We Covered
The 5 Basic Shapes - how squares, circles, triangles, lines, and dots are the building blocks of every icon.
Recognizable, not realistic - simplicity is the goal; nearby words in sketchnotes carry some of the weight.
Live icon demos - I created houses, books, coffee cups, mountains, and pizza slices, drawing each with as few lines as possible with the first template sheet.
Icon Generator Sheet - I shared how to use my template for generating icons quickly; quantity over quality.
Icon Iterator Sheet - I also shared the template sheet for refining your best ideas into clean, repeatable icons.
Final Icon Library Sheet - The template sheet where your finished icons end up, ready to reference and practice against.
Visual metaphors - We took a quick look at moving from drawing objects to capturing abstract ideas and shared Dario Paniagua’s metaphors community.
See the 8-minute teaser video of me creating icons.
April Live Problem-Solving w/ Mauro Toselli
Special guest Mauro Toselli will bring a challenge on Saturday, April 18, and I’ll use sketchnoting to visualize the problem and brainstorm potential solutions.
The session is free to all subscribers, with the recorded replay video available exclusively to Supporting and Founding Lab Partners (which includes all video replays since December 2024).
Sketch first! Designing the bag for Baking Steel 72-Hour Pizza Dough Mix
In this detailed post, I share my sketch process for creating packaging for pizza dough mix and explain why sketching first is vitally important in iterative projects.
This past weekend, I tested out the dough mix, and it was awesome!
Sketchnote Lab Schedule for 2026
I have two focus areas for 2026:
Teaching foundations for people new to sketchnoting
Live problem-solving sessions to show how you can use sketchnotes as a thinking and problem-solving tool at work and in your everyday life.
You can see January-March replays already as a Supporting or Founding Lab Partner!
Check out the full 2026 schedule.
Last Month’s Sketchnote Lab Posts
Here’s what happened at Sketchnote Lab last month:
Become a Supporting or Founding Lab Partner to support my work and access all Live Lab recorded replays since December 2024.
Buy my Sketchnoting Workshops
Check out my sketchnoting workshop videos to build your lettering, layout, and icon creation skills in your sketchnotes, or to learn my travel sketchnote method.
Custom Sketchnote Workshops
I love teaching teams like yours how to think visually and sketch simply with Custom Sketchnote Workshops.
I've presented workshops at schools: Drexel University, Marquette University, and The University of Michigan; Anne Arundel, New York City, and Fresno school districts.
I’ve also presented workshops for teams at SmugMug/Flickr, Hubspot, Northwestern Mutual, Johnson Controls, Dentsu Creative, and Sibley Memorial Hospital.
I’d love to teach your team as well. Let’s talk!
Thanks again for the chance to share something useful in your inbox!
— Mike
Sketchnote Lab is Mike Rohde’s space designed to bridge the gap between sketchnote theory and practice. You don’t need to be an artist to think visually. Join Mike and learn to use sketchnotes to clarify your thinking, solve problems, and move forward. Learn more about Sketchnote Lab.
Mike is the author of The Sketchnote Handbook and The Sketchnote Workbook, bestselling books that teach regular people how to start sketchnoting and build a regular sketchnoting practice.
He founded the Sketchnote Army and hosts the Sketchnote Podcast, where he interviews visual thinkers to understand what makes them tick.
Mike teaches recorded, live, and in-person workshops to help accelerate your sketchnoting practice and provides personalized coaching for your specific visual thinking challenges.
He is the illustrator of bestselling books like REWORK, REMOTE, The $100 Startup, Honest SEO, The Culture Playbook, and The Future Begins with Z.
Become a Supporting or Founding Lab Partner to support Mike’s work.
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