Sketchbook Drawing Ideas

Personal:

• Draw everything that you like to eat like you are documenting it.

• Draw your workstation.

• Draw your drawing tools.

• Draw your favorite place in your home.

• Draw a self portrait from memory. Draw a self portrait from a mirror. Compare the two.

• Draw the contents of your room or living space either as individual items like documentation or as a scene.

• Draw a map of your house or just your room. Via Mike Daikubara

• Draw the inside of your car, from the inside of course. Nina Johansson

• Draw as many portraits of your pet or a child as you can in 45 minutes.

Get out and explore:

• Draw a meal. Draw each item either separately like documentation or arranged. Label everything.

• Draw a dinner party. Draw a quick portrait of every person at your table.

• Draw a car.

• Draw a car super close. Like sit so that you are nearly touching one corner. This makes for some dramatic perspectives.

• Go to a place where people do a lot of waiting or are distracted in conversation and draw stealth portraits. Airports, hospitals, restaurants, and waiting rooms are great (at least for drawing).

• Draw a live plant.

• Trees are amazing; draw some trees.

• Draw a machine such as a car engine, a motorcycle, a tractor, etc.

• Do a drawing scavenger hunt.

Use the internet:

• Draw a dinosaur skeleton.

• Draw a human skeleton.

• Use google street view to draw somewhere you have visited and would like to visit again.

• Go to a website like pinterest and draw as many faces or figures as you can in 45 minutes. Bonus if you get past 15.

• Find a sketcher you admire, imitate some of their work by drawing similar things in their style/spirit.

• Draw an experience you had or a trip you took. Draw images like snapshots or create a drawing documentation.

• Choose a public figure and draw as many portraits of them as you can in 45 minutes.

• Draw an arial landscape.

People in action:

• Draw people playing music.

• Draw people cooking.

• Draw people working at something.

Imagination:

• Draw characters from a book but not the ones from the movie.

• Draw you and your friends as characters in a movie/book.

• Fill a page with patterns and words.

• Make imaginary portraits.

Practice

• Draw a bunch of hands on one page (or other item that you need to improve). Really study it. Get serious. Look up a tutorial. Use a model.

• Draw the pattern on a shirt or quilt very detailed.