List of Sketchbook Ideas

Express motion from left to right.

Express the force of gravity (weight and pulling down).

Choose an object, and make multiple drawing s so that transparency is achieved. Select shapes to emphasize through value.

Develop a drawing of an object sequentially (a ball rolling towards you, stages of paper being crumpled into a ball).

Draw an object using lines that vibrate or suggest disintegration.

Change the environment of an object – juxtapose the unexpected.

Simplify a very complicated object into its essential geometry.

Reverse the light and dark patterns in a photograph (create the negative).

Draw quick organizational studies of a room through a doorway – shift your point of view three times.

Draw a soft object with very delicate lines that suggest feelings of repose and calm.

Create dramatic lighting on an object or figure to create an intense area of contrast.

Create a pattern or design from your imagination with 3 very closely related values.

Copy a Master drawing.

Stretch and distort an object.

Draw objects but make the subject of your drawing the cast shadows, not the object.

Draw imaginary Swiss cheese with forms that traverse the openings.

Draw a frame within a frame within a frame. Change the edges and scale of an object accordingly.

Draw biomorphic shapes that push against the sides of a variety of geometric shapes.

Construct an abstract spatial relationship using only 6 planes.

Create a drawing using an open composition and overlap of objects.

Create a drawing using a closed composition and radiating balance.

Draw yourself in the act of drawing.

Draw within an elongated horizontal or vertical frame.

Draw the bark of a tree.

Search for and draw the movement and contours of pillows and bedclothes.

Suggest a form (imply) but leave something for the imagination.

Draw clouds. Emphasize rhythms and/or soft edges.

Organize a drawing of several objects but emphasize areas where angles change or intersect.

Use calligraphic line to draw your name. Mirror it. Add dimension.

Draw a view of a stairway.

Draw several objects that have been turned upside down (chairs, clocks, cups)

Draw the shapes reflected on the surface of a glass or bottle.

Repeat a simple motif inside 5-7 different sized rectangles. Arrange and balance the rectangles first.

Draw objects that have mass and a sense of solidity and with indistinct outlines.

Use newspaper or collage to emphasize negative or interspaces.

Draw leaves. Emphasize linear growth patterns.

Draw musical instruments.

Express an emotion through an abstract design.

Draw a feather close up. Fill the page.

Draw textured objects such as rocks, pinecones and pods.

Draw kitchen tools such as whisks, spatulas, forks. Arrange your composition to emphasize diagonals.

Draw a man-made or mechanical object using a consistent line quality.

Draw 3 studies of an object that changes over time.

Draw enlarged views of coins. Interpret the surface three different ways using marks.

Arrange a pile of books and draw from a bird’s eye view.

Draw the same landscape 3 times but emphasize in each of the drawings either the foreground, middle ground or background.

Alter the mood of a drawing by emphasizing either all light values or all dark values.

Draw your hands and feet in different positions.

Create geometric doodles in ball point pen.

Create one or more anthropomorphic figures (figures having human attributes).

Fill a page with meandering and or flowing contour lines.

Draw an umbrella, both open and closed.

Draw jars filled with objects such as shells and pickles.

Draw shoes or boots with ideas of composition and creative use of negative space.

Draw an egg carton half filled with eggs.

Draw a view through trees that shows higher contrast of values in the foreground, and softening values as the distance deepens within the picture plane.

Closely examine and draw the inside of a flower.

Draw peanuts, both open and closed forms of the shell.

ADD YOUR OWN IDEAS.