Illustration sketchbook/homework
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE 6 SKETCHBOOK DRAWINGS PER QUARTER/12 PER SEMESTER This means about 1 sketchbook drawing per rotation.
Each sketchbook illustration should take between 45 and 60 minutes to do. The purpose of a sketchbook is to make you look harder at things, use your imagination, and explore ideas and techniques that interest, challenge, and stimulate you. You will find that your practice does pay off and your confidence in your abilities will increase proportionately to the amount of effort and care you put into your work. Experiment with any art making materials that you would like to explore.
Illustration Sketchbook Prompts:
YOU ARE REQUIRED TO COMPLETE 6 SKETCHBOOK DRAWINGS PER QUARTER/12 PER SEMESTER This means about 1 sketchbook drawing per rotation.
Each sketchbook illustration should take between 45 and 60 minutes to do. The purpose of a sketchbook is to make you look harder at things, use your imagination, and explore ideas and techniques that interest, challenge, and stimulate you. You will find that your practice does pay off and your confidence in your abilities will increase proportionately to the amount of effort and care you put into your work. Experiment with any art making materials that you would like to explore.
Illustration Sketchbook Prompts:
- Illustration Sketchbook Prompts:
- Draw a literal interpretation of an idiom or figure of speech.
- Get inspired by the Japanese yokai based on old and neglected objects coming to life, such as the Kasa-Obake and Chochinobake. Draw your own version, for example an old computer mouse, a pen case, VHS cassette, sofa or a toothbrush acquiring a new life as a demonic entity.
- A massive monster (maybe terrorizing a city like Godzilla or King Kong, or just silently observed in the sky or seas or space by explorers) inspired by a microorganism.
- A miniscule monster (Could be tardigrades, water fleas or dust mites, for example.)
- Research and draw an old fashioned vehicle (at least around a 100 years old, I’d say), be it a ship, a car, aircraft or bicycle or something else.
- Illustrate a scene from a national epic of your choice.
- A place you usually go to, but do not notice often
- Draw a work inspired by your horoscope sign. It only has to be inspired by your sign, so you can take this prompt however you will. You could be a virgo, but decide to draw a stag because your sign reminds you of the story of Actaeon and Artemis.
- Create an illustration based off of the name of the street you live on. (You do not have to reveal the name of the street you live on, of course. You could say something like, “Pine is in my street’s name so I drew this girl with pinecones in her hair.” And you don’t have to give any explanation at all, if you don’t want.)
- Draw an unattainable pet. This pet has to be unattainable for more reasons than just being a wild and/or endangered animal. Examples of unattainable pets would be a sea pig, gulper eel, velociraptor, sentient pineapple, Pomeranian-sized bumblebee, etc.
- Sneans (Sneakers and Jeans). Illustration must include these two objects.
- Illustrate a scene from a book of your choice.
- Create an illustration based on a classical piece of music.
- Create an illustration involving an unusual piece of cooking ware.
- Select a skull and do a turn-around series of proportionate sketches. For example, do a series of horse skull drawings of the same size that show it from the front, side, and back.
- Do a parody of a classic Renaissance painting. (e.g. Replace the figures in Michelangelo’s The Creation of Adam with Mickey Mouse and Walt Disney, put Batman in the Mona Lisa pose, replace the figures in The Last Supper With your favorite characters from Doctor Who, etc.)
- A place you’d rather be
- Create an illustration based on an article or headline. (I remember a headline about the current Mars mission that said something along the lines of “Dust Devils Flirt with Curiosity Rover.”)
- Draw characters from a book or movie in a different time period or culture than their usual one.
- Create an illustration based on a psychological/physical/medical condition (depression, schizophrenia, Addison’s disease, etc.)
- Choose a plant or flower and create an illustration based on its symbolism.
- Create an illustration based on a cryptid or on the theme of cryptozoology.
- Medieval knight in full armor with unusual mount (e.g. no horses)
- Draw an animal adapted to a very different habitat than its natural one, for example a tree-climbing walrus, an aquatic giraffe or something like that, and try keeping it plausible. You can, and should, contort the natural image of the animal, whilst still trying not to render it unrecognizable.
- Illustrate a weather phenomena as a character.
- Create an illustration relating to one of the many holidays/days occurring this week.
- Draw two characters in combat.
- A human or animal with one or more cybernetic (and therefore improved) prosthetic limbs. Or a full on cyborg, if you wish.
- Draw something that includes a centaur. It doesn’t strictly have to be a horse-bodied centaur either, so feel free to approach the prompt however you’d like.
- Skulls, Horns and Claws. Use at least one of these three things in an illustration.
- In reference to the Ides of March, create something related to Ancient Rome.
- Draw something sci-fi related.
- Draw a living animal, or animals, made out of something else— things like an elephant made of stone, a snake made of ice, a bat made of darkness, a dinosaur made of legos, a small dog made of moss.
- Work on foreshortening of the human figure. Draw some aspect of the human form foreshortened.
- Hand-drawing practice. Draw 5 hands.
- Draw a weapons-user who employs an unusual/non-weapon object(s) as their main weapon.
- Draw an animal version of a historical figure.
- Draw or sketch 10 parts of the human body that you have trouble with.
- Create an illustration inspired by a work of poetry.
- Study the structure of wings, draw your character as a bird, draw your favorite bird, draw some creepy bird skeletons— whatever. The point is to draw something related to birds and have fun with it, even if it’s just a sketch.
- Draw 10 of something you’re not used to drawing.
- Create an illustration that involves gears.
- Draw a living thing from life. It could be a plant, a pet, a person—anything living.
- Create an illustration based on a psychological/physical/medical condition (depression, schizophrenia, Addison’s disease, etc.).
- Post a beginning/early stages shot of a piece along with the finished piece for comparison.
- Draw a fanart of whatever you’re currently into.
- Illustrate a scene from a book.
- Draw a warrior.
- Create an illustration based on a quote from Shakespeare’s works. If you’re stuck for what to draw, just type in a noun of your choosing plus “Shakespeare” into google, and you’ll come up with plenty of cool stuff. Shakespeare has written some seriously awesome insults too, if you want to go in that direction!
- Draw a muscle system; it can be of any creature. The point of this prompt is to gain a greater understanding of how an animal is put together, and how it moves.
- Draw an insect, or insects, doing something insects don’t normally do. Examples of this would be an insect sitting at a bar, an insect drawing a picture, an insect playing the piano, etc.
- Create an illustration based on your favorite film, film genre, movement or era. It can be a redraw of a movie poster in your style, a portrait of your favorite character, or whatever you wish!
- Create a short comic, at least three panels in length. It can be as simple or as complicated as you’d like! The point of this prompt is to work on conveying a sense of progression, a sense that something has happened.
- Draw a forest floor
- Draw something reflective.
- Practice drawing water.
- Practice drawing rocks or mountains.
- Practice drawing trees.
- Draw nightmares/other worlds.
- Draw 5 people wearing hats.
- Draw 5 characters reclining on furniture.