101 Drawing Ideas - Amazon S3

[Pages:23]101 Drawing Ideas

& SKETCHBOOK EXERCISES

Never be stuck for artistic inspiration again

BY PHIL DAVIES

INTRODUCTION

I've created this guide to save you time thinking of things to sketch and to give you some fresh inspiration. I'm also hoping you'll significantly improve your drawing skills along the way too :) When I was looking for similar inspiration a while back, I found lots of lists of `stuff to draw' on the Internet. But they didn't help me much... They were either just a list of very general or stereotypical objects, or they were based around a creative challenge (such as draw your hand made out of robot parts). The creative challenge stuff is great for a more detailed portfolio piece, but you typically need to spend lots of time on research and prep. And, if you're feeling stuck, a themed challenge like `draw your favourite [fill in the blank]' isn't always specific enough to get you excited. What is much more helpful when you're in a pickle over what to draw next, is very specific subject matter chosen from an artist's perspective, with an artist's eye. That's what this cheatsheet gives you. I've listed 101 interesting subjects that will make great sketches and drawings. I've split the ideas up into a few broad categories so it's easier for you to scan. For each suggestion, I've provided links to a reference photo (or several). The photos are in the public domain so you can use them as you wish - no need to ask permission or give credit, even if you want to sell artwork based on them. As an artist myself, I spend a lot of time looking at reference material. I know what kind of photos are great to draw and sketch from... and which ones are difficult and tedious! Wherever possible I've gone for photos with a single or dominant light source. It creates those strong shadows and will make your drawing life much more enjoyable!

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contents

4 Whe r e to g e t f r ee r efe r e n c e ph oto s f o r yo u r d r aw i n g ideas 5 7 t i m e savi n g t ips f o r d r aw i n g & s k e tc hi n g 1 0 i n t e r es t i n g o b j e c t s 1 1 a n i m als 1 2 F OO D 1 3 F I GUR E S & FA C E S 1 5 B U I L D I NG S & UR B A N 16 HANDS & FEET 1 8 TR A N S P ORT 1 9 A ROUN D T H E H OU S E 2 1 7 - D AY D R AW I NG & S K E TC H I NG C H A L L E NG E

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w here to g et f ree re f erence p hotos f or y our dr a w in g ide a s

Th ere are lo t s o f s ites now w here g enero u s pho to grapher s s hare t h e i r wo r k un d e r a CC 0 l i ce n ce ( e f fe c t i ve l y placing it in the public domain). You can spend hours browsing each of these sites but to save time, just use these two... Pixabay scours all the other public domain image sites so you don't have to. Think of it like a mini Google just for public domain photos. If you want to go straight for the very highest quality, most stunning public domain photos, then go to: Their images do show up in Pixabay but as a much smaller collection (and so quicker to browse), it's often my first port of call.

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7 ti m e s a v in g ti p s f or dr a w in g & S ketchin g

Rightly or wrongly, hobby time is scarce for most of us. And certain forms of drawing can be very time consuming.

But sketching doesn't have to be. You can fill your sketch book with great-looking drawings in as little as 15-20 minute sessions.

I've had to learn to speed up my drawings so that they are more consumable as lessons on camera. Here's a random collection of tips that have helped me do that...

1 Use charcoal pencils

Don't become too reliant on graphite. Charcoal pencils have a very similar feel to their graphite cousins except you can block in large areas much faster. They also force you to be less obsessive over small detail because you can't keep them sharp long enough! Oh and you basically work with one grade - as opposed to switching between harder and softer pencils with graphite.

2 Make use of isolated studies

Draw an eye or a mouth study instead of a full portrait, or a tree and rock study instead of a full landscape. You get a sense of completion sooner. Plus, if you mess a small study up, it doesn't matter - mess up part of a full portrait and you're effectively throwing away hours of work.

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3 When drawing portraits, consider zooming in

The most time-consuming part of drawing a portrait is shading and rendering the hair. If you crop your reference so that only part of the hair shows, it saves a lot of time. Alternatively, choose subjects with some kind of headwear or even just do one side of the face.

4 Go for the unfinished look

Some of the most eye-catching drawings you'll see contrast an area of higher detail with very loose sketchy marks around. You make the highest detail around the focal point and as you move away from that point things get looser and sketchier. This works so well because it pulls the viewers's eye to where you want it focused - and that is the most important element of strong composition. I use this technique a lot!

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5 When rendering, block in large areas of shadow first

For a long time, I used to carefully shade my drawings one square inch at a time - looking at all the detail within that area and rendering it to completion. But when I loosened things up, I found that blocking in large shadow shapes (ignoring any details within those shadow shapes) really sped things up. Yes, you may have to use your kneaded eraser to lighten back areas and add detail later on, but it's a much quicker process. Just don't go too heavy when you block the shadow shape in initially.

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6 Posterise your reference photos

Posterise means you reduce the number of pixels in your reference. Sounds complicated and technical to but it's simple! Here's what an image looks before and after it has been posterised: This makes it much easier for you to see the various values. Recreating this `blocky' feel and then gently smoothing out the transitions is great way to speed up the shading process. Here's a quick guide for how to use a free online tool to posterise any image: h t t p s : / / w w w. a r t t u t o r. c o m / b l o g / 2 0 1 6 0 8 / u s i n g - p i x l r - c r e a t e - p o s t e r i s e d - r e f e r e n c e - p h o t o s

Before and after posterising. Notice how the image on the right has very definite edges to each of the values? While you will need to smooth these out for a photorealistic drawing, seeing them like this makes it much easier to create the overall form first.

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