Creativity in Everyday Objects
Some of the most beautiful works of art focus on the everyday. A simple mug or a piece of fruit can be an inspiration for a simple and beautiful drawing. You can concentrate on accurate shapes and values, or explore expressive line and atmospheric tone. Try drawing and painting one object in various ways and with different mediums. Do a scrapbook or sketchbook page with a sketch of your favorite mug on your kitchen table, a photo and a note about why you love it.
People Who Matter: Draw Yourself, Family and Friends
Forget trying to draw portraits from washed-out, glossy-magazine celebrity photos. Draw real people. People you care about. Self-portraits guarantee you a willing model and are a time-honored way for artists to express their deepest feelings. Friends and family can be sketched as they go about their day, or drawn in detail posing. These drawings can become treasured mementos, even family heirlooms.
Inspiration from the Garden and Nature
Complex natural forms can offer pleasantly forgiving subjects for drawing and painting -nobody knows if it’s a wobbly line or the shape of the leaf. And they can also be challenging and complex. It’s up to you. You can explore nature up close, drawing leaves and pinecones, or on a grand scale, sketching scenes.
Amazing Animals and Furry Friends
Draw your pet sleeping by the hearth, or sketch them at play. Or draw from a photograph taken in natural light, at pet’s eye-level. Have a day sketching at the zoo. Zoo animals offer a range of interesting challenges - how do you draw a crocodile’s skin or a leopard’s spots? Create a series of scrapbook or sketchbook pages with zoo sketches. Draw the entrance with a wall or fence along the bottom of a page, and sketch the visitors looking at the exhibits.
Fantasy Flights of Imagination
Look at paintings in books and online for inspiration. See how artists have interpreted these themes. Do you agree with them? Bring traditional ideas into the21st century. Get friends to model for reference photos - accurate anatomy and correct fall of light and shadow is important in creating a believable fantasy. Create scrapbook or sketchbook pages that suggest a story. Stain pages with tea or diluted ink, draw decorative borders and imagine a day in the life of your dragon or witch.
Inspiration from Literature and Film
Have you ever read a description of a character or scene in a book that comes to life in your mind so clearly, that you can see it like a movie in your head? Try drawing it! If you love a book that’s been made into a movie, try to get the movie version out of your head, and read it afresh. Or try re-casting the scene with different actors.
