Tag: sketching

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 27

Day 27 – Draw a view from one of your rooms inside your dwelling.

Maybe you are sitting in bed early in the morning. What do you see off in front of you?

Or, maybe you are sitting at the kitchen table. What do you see when you look straight ahead? 

Perhaps you have a comfy chair in your living room. You can probably turn your head a variety of ways to find a view you would like to capture in your sketchbook!

It can be a wide perspective or a small one. Be brave. Try to capture the angle of where you are viewing that particular part of the room. Maybe set up a vanishing point to help guide your lines. No need to get too technical. It can be wonky and scribbly. And, it can be as detailed as you have time and patience for. 

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 20

Can you believe we are at Day 20? Pause for a moment and celebrate the fact that you have been sketching and taking on these challenges since the beginning of the month. Keep going! 

OK. For today’s prompt, we are going to draw a towel. Now, this is going to be a bit of a challenge because you have to use a very rigid tool in order to create something soft. 

Place your towel in different positions until you like a composition you want to draw. You can fold it neatly or lay it out so that it has folds and crevices. It’s up to you!

Here’s a tip: Start light and work in layers. Light pressure. Light layers. Build up from those light layers gradually until you are satisfied. The tonal ranges in a towel will be soft and gradual. Don’t be in a hurry to darken it.

Remember, this is more about the practice and the learning to see than the end result. Don’t get stuck on the latter if it doesn’t match exactly what you envision.

Keep learning to see!

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 18

For today’s prompt, let’s honor a hero – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

He stood for peace, for love, for togetherness. So, for today, in your sketchbook, draw something that inspires just that – love, peace, togetherness.

Today’s prompt is very broad in scope. So if it helps, here are some ideas:

  1. Draw MLK or some snapshot from his life.
  2. Draw something or someone that inspires love, peace, togetherness. 
  3. Draw something that you dream and hope for.
  4. Or, play with typography. Ink or paint a quote from either Dr. King or another quote that encapsulates the ideas mentioned above (love, peace, togetherness).

After sketching it, send it into the world, and let’s fill social media with messages and images of hope, love, and peace. 

What do you say? 

Happy birthday, Dr. King. Thank you for sharing your dream so that we can do better.

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 17

Today’s prompt: Draw a stack of books!

Go to your bookshelves or wherever you keep your books. You decide how tall your book stack will be. 

Maybe you will make it uniform with all the same type of books lined up perfectly. Or, maybe you will choose a variety of sizes and shapes and create a varied stack. 

If you want, could even play with the lighting and create a strong cast shadow. 

Who knows, maybe you will rediscover an old book that must be read again!

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 12

Today’s prompt: Draw your shoes or one shoe!

Find one that is your favorite, or one that rarely gets picked to step out into the world. 

It can be simple or elaborate with long laces and fine stitching.

A helpful tip?

Look at the overall shape. Start with the contour lines.

See the shoe as an object built shape by shape. Are there circles, ovals, rounded rectangles?

In other words, try not to draw the shoe by ‘seeing’ the shoe as a whole. Try drawing the shoe by noticing the shapes of the spaces within– the shapes of the sole, the toe, and the shapes shadows make. Break the whole into those smaller shapes and place them where they fit in relation to the overall outline of the shoe.

Remember, a sketchbook is a place for practice and mistakes. It is not a place for finished pieces that you put up for sale. Well, maybe you get lucky every now and again, but do remember that is not the first purpose of a sketchbook.

Give yourself permission to draw a very wonky shoe today.

Let’s draw!

Autumn

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 11

 

Today’s Prompt: Draw a mysterious doorway or staircase.

One thing of many that I found striking when traveling abroad is how differently doors, doorways, entryways appear. 

When my husband and I traveled to Malta, we were immediately enamored by the narrow, brightly covered front doors of the dwellings that only had about a foot clearance to the main road. 

Each door was incredibly inviting and stood out among the stone walls. They were beautiful and were works of art in and of themselves. 

This care taken with front entries suggested that behind this door there lies more than meets the eye. That you must enter because if you don’t, you will miss out on an adventure, on new insights, on a sprinkle of magic. And, you have a choice! Will it be the red door with the narrow slots at the top? Or, maybe the weathered blue door with raised wooden panels and touches of black filigrees? 

I loved this about Malta, and many other places I visited. It’s welcoming and enchanting. 

So today, draw a mysterious or ornate doorway. You can always use a door in your own dwelling and add to it! Or maybe you will search online for ‘mysterious doorways’ and work from an image. If you want, you can work from the image in this post! 

And, if you feel so inclined, add a little caption or story that hints at what is behind the door or up the staircase.

-Autumn

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge – Day 9

Today’s prompt is Random. 

Look around your dwelling and find some random object you have lying around. Is it a figurine, a random sock without a match? 

Maybe you have forgotten how you acquired it. Maybe you have no idea why you really keep that random thing. But, somehow you just can’t seem to let it go.

If the word random doesn’t spark an object to sketch today, then what does it symbolize for you? Maybe random is an idea or a person. Did anyone randomly send you a letter? Call you?

Whatever the first thing is that comes to mind when you think of the word random, try to capture it on the page. 

Find some rest and treat yourself today,

Autumn

 

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January Sketchbook Challenge

Sketchbook Challenge Eve

It’s December 31st. Not only New Year’s Eve but the eve of our sketchbook challenge. Let’s prepare, shall we?

Step 1: Grab your sketchbook. Open to the first page. Sign it and date it! You can choose to date it for December 31st, 2020, or January 1st, 2021.

Step 2: Set an intention and write it down. What do you want to get out of this challenge? What do you hope for? Make it relevant and meaningful to you. You don’t need to share this intention with anyone. And, you can keep it short. For me, I want to get better at drawing with pencil and ink. More specifically, I want to improve my line drawings.

Some other ideas for intentions:

I want to jumpstart my creativity.

I want to practice how to trust my creative voice.

I want to start a daily sketching habit.

I hope to overcome my negative self-talk about my abilities as an artist by drawing every day despite myself. (Yep!)

Your intention for taking on this sketchbook challenge can be as personal or general as you want. But, do set an intention. Give this practice purpose so that when or if someone were to ask WHY you can answer perfectly. 

Bonus Step 3: After signing, dating, and writing down your intention, doodle around it!

Bonus Step 4: Maybe decorate the cover with stickers.

If you are so inclined to share your why, please comment below or on my Art Journaling with Autumn Facebook Group (You can still join this group). I would love to hear some of your reasons for doing this with me.

Autumn