Sketchplanations
Big Ideas Little Pictures

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Explaining the world one sketch at a time

Sketchplanations makes complex ideas simple with clear, insightful sketches. Explore topics from science, creativity, psychology, and beyond explained in pictures.

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Learn something new in a sketch each Sunday

Recent sketches

One-point perspective illustration: from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining

One-point perspective

Perspective can be tricky to get your head around. In drawing and art, using perspective creates the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface. The simplest form to understand is one-point perspective. You will have experienced one-point perspective when standing in a corridor or looking down the center of a street. If you continue the parallel lines of the walls and ground toward the center, they would appear to converge at a central point in front of you at eye level, known as the vanishing point. When real-life features are parallel like this, you can use a central vanishing point as a guide to help capture the scene accurately. The simplicity of one-point perspective makes it impactful. Leonardo Da Vinci, a personal hero of mine, famously employed one-point perspective in his painting of the Last Supper in the Santa Maria delle Grazie monastery in Milan. The vanishing point, carefully placed behind Jesus' head, draws the viewer's attention to the main subject of the scene. Turns out Kubrick is pretty handy at one-point perspective.
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The Stroop test

The Stroop test is one of my favourite psychological tests. Definitely worth taking 2 mins right now to give it a go. Time yourself to say the colour of the word (not what the word says) for the first set. Then repeat for the second. Observe interference at work.
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Debt's vicious cycle illustration: A flow diagram of a vicious cycle starting with needing cash, to taking a loan and then hitting a cycle of paying interest, lower cashflow, needing cash, increasing loan and so on.

Debt’s vicious cycle

Debt's vicious cyle—a flow chart that illustrates how those in need, who needed to borrow, can be hamstrung by the interest they need to pay back, giving them less money to work with, needing more cash, increasing the loan, paying more interest and on. The reverse scenario is the positive cycle of "the rich get richer" or "money begets money." Hat tip: Avraham Byers.
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The lie factor in data charts and graphics

Watch for the lie factor

Data graphics can lie in many ways, but the most common, I expect, is the error of using area or volume objects to represent one-dimensional data. More data visualisation principles from Edward Tufte. Also, see Maximise data ink
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