If you study the work of established sketchnote artists, you’ll notice this isn’t just a beginner tip—it’s a common thread. Many use only two or three colors, not because they’re limited, but because constraint creates style. It’s a deliberate choice that makes their work instantly recognizable and easy to build upon.

Choosing a color palette takes time. Engaging in a little research can make the process more intentional. Explore different combinations and observe how they affect clarity and contrast. Visit Paletton: www.paletton.com to experiment with color harmonies. Browse Coolors’ trending palettes for inspiration: www.coolors.co/palettes/trending Test out y

A powerful example of a meaningful constraint is the Card Forcing Function. You define a small, standardized space, like an index card or a post-it note, and commit to capturing a single idea within its boundaries.

Play isn’t a distraction; it’s how we learn, adapt, and generate insight. It activates neuroplasticity, disrupts fixed patterns, and opens space for new perspectives.

The facilitator handed each of us a small plastic bag. Seven LEGO bricks inside. “Build a duck,” she said. Easy enough. I snapped the pieces together—head, beak, wings. Done. I glanced around. The room was full of ducks—except none of them looked like mine. One was a boxy, abstract form, another stretched up like a flamingo. The guy next to me? His

4D PKM flips the paradigm. Visual-spatial thinking comes first. Text is layered in to clarify and deepen, not dominate, redefining how knowledge is built: visuals as foundation, text as scaffolding.

When you sketch a plan or map out ideas visually, you do the same: reduce mental load, gain clarity, and discover what was missing.

Visual thinking continues this lineage: when we draw, we’re not just representing thought—we’re performing it. A dancer marking choreography, a scientist sketching a concept, a designer roughing out ideas—each is thinking by creating partial, external models of something not yet fully formed.

This is emergence. Sketching helps surface details your mind skips over. You begin to see the idea more clearly, because drawing forces you to make decisions your brain glossed over. Writing surfaces different aspects, like the tiger’s behavior or symbolism. Each mode taps different cognitive pathways, revealing what text alone can’t. Your thinking