MAP ANY SUBJECT - How to Sketch Maps for Better Note-Taking

Hello everyone and welcome back to a new episode of Journal de Sylvie. Today's tutorial is about how we can use maps to elevate our learning. The key word in today's method is the word simplified. A simplified map will help you to connect information to a location. By adding a spatial or a geographic dimension to your observations, granted this will enhance your understanding of the topic and will help you to remember the key insights long after you have finished reading or studying the topic. Now let's talk about the process and how I practically include the maps into my notebooks. The first thing you need to know about this method is that it does not require any drawing skills nor advanced technical knowledge about cartography or mapping. The very first step will be to add a general outline and by that I mean a simple yet recognizable silhouette of the region. And the more important here at this point is making the shape easy to identify rather than having the scale very accurate. The way I learned this is because when I first started adding maps to my travel journals, I was very concerned with the accuracy and I got this writing board, I created grid lines and I was keen to add every zigzag in its place. This was not very effective in that context. Of course, accuracy in maps is imperative when they are serving their initial intended purpose. But in that context where you go visit places and you go through life, try to log your observations and the notes you learned, it is absolutely not necessary to go to that level of accuracy. And this is why I recommend a great exercise for beginners is to sketch a small island. And the goal will be to capture the island's true outline rather than having it a perfectly scaled map. Now that we have our general outline moving forward with the process, we will start adding layers. We only include layers that support the story and it's relevant to the topic of interest. I usually have four main layers. The first one is to add, obviously, the locations. The locations, I mean by that to highlight relevant cities, towns, villages. And usually you can add a small pin or a small axe and write the name of the location. And this is what will help you to connect events or ideas to a specific location. The second layer will be add pins to highlight the landmarks. And here by landmarks, we mean the historical monuments, the religious sites, natural wonders, anything that can at this point enrich the narrative of this map. And if you think about it, probably this spot was worth visiting or it's considered a sightseeing spot because it has certain historical significance or natural phenomena. So this is when exactly you need to add this layer. I typically add landmarks with small symbols that like, for example, in this Greek island, small churches or an ionic small column to represent the temples or ancient ruins. And then, of course, I add the name. The third layer will be topography, which is basically the landscaping of the region, hills, mountains, forests, rivers, anything that provides the environmental context and brings the landscape to life. And this is very important and fun to add because as you can see here in this island, I have the mountains, I have the very exotic spot I was snorkeling at close to the caves. And this is a detail worth to add in my map. Now, if you take a moment and think that the landscaping of any given area is usually the main drive behind why certain events took place in this location. If it was very rich agriculturally, maybe it was a historical battle fought and the landscaping gave favor to a party over the other, why that location to build a temple. So informations related to landscape are not just aesthetics, they are actually related somehow to why the events that occurred, occurred the way they did. Moving on to layer number four, which is my favorite, adding the routes. So I mean by that dashed lines that depicts journeys, travel path, battle campaigns, trade routes. It's the lines that reflects the story progression, turning the map into a visual narrative of movement, the places you discovered and creating connections between the places. It's actually the main tool in a map that you can consider as a storytelling feature. It will be also a good way to log your footprint for all the places you visited and the adventures you live. Now we're done with the layers and we will move to what I call small but important details. So the first one will be adding a north sign. And I want to say that's the traditional orientation symbol that makes the map feel complete in terms of direction. So I always add my north, so I make sure that the map is properly oriented to the north. The second feature is to add coordinates. I will consider this an optional feature because I don't do it all the time, but I want to say that whenever I come across a very key location or a unique exotic spot, I like to elevate it by giving it this geographic precision detail and adding the coordinates. You can do this in decimals by making sure that you add the directions northeast or southwest. And also you can put it in degrees, minutes, seconds, wherever you feel more comfortable. Detail or feature number three is to add a small key legend. And I want to say also this is optional, which is the key legend is a simple guide that clarifies the meaning of map symbols and features. I also used it here because I had two different colors for two different type of roads. So it's easier to highlight it at the footnote. And the last optional feature is that you can also highlight the elevations, adding contour lines. Contour lines in a map typically highlight the change in elevation, the rise and fall of the landscape. The other thing, if you're not comfortable with the contour lines, you just can annotate the elevation. For example, here I have at this summit, it's 1849 feet above sea levels and now reaching the last finish detail, which is how to decorate your map. For me, I focused on knowledge first and aesthetics second. A simple sketch like this one, not heavily decorated, is already for me an elaborate work of art. Why? Because what makes the map valuable, it's actually how effectively it communicates information and helps you to deepen your understanding with the region. But if you have the time and you like doing this, I have four small tips that pretty much anyone can do that will help you to decorate your map. You can use colors. If you don't have colors, you can have this pen that includes multiple colors all in one and you can travel with it. When you add some colors, for example, blue waves, or you make the mountains a little bit brown and so on, this right away distinguish the features, the routes, the regions, or any area of interest in your map. The second thing is that you can add small stickers related to the topic. Lighthouse, a boat, an anchor, a compass, and so on. Any nautical detail. Number three, we can all darken the outline. This right away reinforces the boundaries or the coastline of the island. And the final one is that you can add exterior shading and that shading around the borders will create an immediate depth and will give it that three-dimensional appearance. And this is an example of how these four touches that I just shared with you can make the map look really fancier. I used blue color to distinguish where the sea is, and then I darkened the outline of the country or the island. I used some exterior shading to give it that three-dimensional and I add some stickers. So as a conclusion, I use maps whenever I see fit in my commonplace books. I want to say the biggest share is in travel and nature journals, of course, but if I'm studying any topic that I can add its geographic perspective, I certainly do because it summarizes the entire event and helps me to memorize it. So please share any points or suggestions how we can make more optimal maps and more simplified maps and let me know what you think about it. Thank you for watching and see you in the next video.