art sketchbook assignment

Sketchbook Ideas

Sketchbook assignment ideas.

Current HS Sketchbook Assignment Handout :  

Sb assigns-adv hs art q3 2018-19, sb assigns-adv hs art q2 2018-19a.

SB ASSIGNS-ADV HS ART Q1 2018-19

Sketchbook Ideas to Boost your Creativity FREE PDF -Sign up for my Create Art with ME Newsletter!

NEEDED Sketchbook Supplies:

Great books on building creativity:

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Requirements for my HS Art Sketchbook Assignments:

You must complete a minimum of 4- 5 assignments listed below in each 9-week period.

• Drawings should fill the ENTIRE sketchbook page (points will be deducted for small drawings.)
• Include DETAILS (include textures & value, unless otherwise specified.)
• Spend a minimum of 45 minutes on each assignment.
• Each sketchbook counts as a QUIZ grade!
• Sketchbooks handed in late will be accepted but 30 points removed for lateness, 2 days late will receive a “0”.
• DRAWINGS NEEDS TO BE FROM DIRECT OBSERVATION ie: you LOOKING at the objects ! That means NOT from memory, photos, or imagination. (except where otherwise noted). Pay close attention to proportions (size relationships)

YOU MUST LABEL EACH PICTURE at the top with the appropriate title (ex: SB #1: Black & White Design )

Size                 0-5

Effort             0-10

Creativity       0-8

Title               0- 2

                     25 pts.

Sketchbook Assignments:

Below are just some of the sketchbook assignments we have done throughout the years. Not listed are the essential contour line & gesture drawings that are required throughout the year.

SB #2: Juxtaposition Drawing: Create a new object by combining 2 unrelated objects-one needs to be from nature, the other needs to be mechanical. Render with full shading. Medium: colored pencil

SB #3: Contour line: Look in your backpack or purse, pull out 5 things you use on a regular basis (phone can not be one!) arrange them in an interesting way, then draw a contour line drawing (outline only) of the composition. Medium: drawing pencils

SB #4: Scissor Metamorphosis : Use a pair of scissors as a beginning point, creatively transform the scissors into something else- a monster, a robot, a machine, a vehicle, an animal. Change its scale & it purpose. Render with full shading . Medium: colored pencils

SB #5: Student Choice: Choose your own subject and complete a drawing using skills & techniques learned in class. Medium: Your Choice

SB #6: Preposterous Cross-links: Choose any 2 words below to combine together in one image:

Turtle      Octopus      Snake        Bird       Bee          Rat    Fish      Cat

Pencil      Saw            Hammer    Pliers     Scissors  Tire    Clock   Drum

Medium: colored pencil

SB #7: Futuristic Mutation : Take an everyday object and use your imagination to redesign it with a futuristic look. Medium: colored pencils

SB #9: Shoe: Draw one of your shoes from your closet. Or a shoe that you think is very interesting (ballet, boot, etc.) ADD FULL SHADING Medium: colored pencil

SB #10: Wheels : Draw something with wheels (Real or imaginary). Medium: your choice

SB #11: 2D & 3D Arrows : Create a full page composition using a combination of 3-dimensional and 2-dimensional arrows. Use overlapping to break up the spaces into interesting positive and negative shapes. Medium: Outline with sharpie and fill the shapes with markers

SB #12: Non-objective: Create a non-objective drawing using lines, shapes (geometric) & color-use a color scheme ! Look at artwork by Wassily Kandinsky for inspiration. Medium: Markers or colored pencils

SB #13: Pet Portrait : Draw a picture of your pet or the pet you would LOVE to have. Medium: Colored Pencils

SB #15: Hand Value Study:  Draw your hand in 2 different appropriate positions (both on the same page). Render with full shading. Medium: drawing pencils

SB #16: Eye Study:   Find 4 different eyes in magazines. Cut them out & glue them to your sketchbook page. Draw the eyes underneath the picture & render with a FULL range of shading. Medium: pencils or colored pencils

SB #17: Color Scheme: Choose your own subject, create an obvious focal point and complete the drawing by coloring it in a color scheme of your choice. Label what color scheme you used next to the title. Medium: Colored Pencils, Paint, or Markers

SB #18: Realistic VS Abstract: Choose one object to draw (an interesting one! NOT simple!) Divide you sketchbook page in half with a pencil line. Label at the top of one side “Realistic” & on the other side label “Abstract.” Under the Realistic side, use a pencil to draw the object as realistically as you possibly can. On the Abstract side, distort your object so that it is still somewhat recognizable-use abstracted colors to color it. Medium: Colored Pencils

SB #19: Crushed Soda Can: Draw a crushed soda can, include details like the logo. Render with full shading. Medium: drawing pencils

SB #20: Worm’s Eye Point of View: Draw your choice of subject matter from a worm’s eye point of view. From below looking up at the subject. Add shading to indicate highlights & shadows. Medium: drawing pencil

Sketching Improves Your Skills

SB #21: Bird’s Eye Point of View: Draw your choice of subject matter from a bird’s eye point of view. From above looking down at the subject. Add shading to indicate highlights & shadows. Medium: drawing pencil

SB# 22: Paper Airplane:     Fold a paper airplane, place it in front of you & draw from direct observation as accurately as you can. ADD FULL SHADING Medium: drawing pencil

SB #23 : Creative Hand Drawing:   Trace you hand -yes I said Trace your hand on your page (tracing is usually forbidden). Use your imagination to turn you hand into something totally different. Add details-make it creative and interesting!    Medium: colored pencil

SB #24 : Cloth Drawing :    Draw the cloth that is hanging on the art room wall. ADD FULL SHADING Medium: Drawing pencil or Charcoal pencil (spray when finished)

SB #25: Interactive Drawing & Photo :  Fine a photo either of yourself or someone else (can be from a magazine). Cut the person out & brainstorm how you can create a drawing that combines the two so that they interact with each other. ADD FULL SHADING Medium: drawing pencils

SB #26: Flat to 3D- Come Alive: Look at the two examples below of a flat drawing-mostly lines/no shading that slowly transforms to become 3D with full shading. See MC Escher’s Drawing Hands for an example. Design your own drawing that morphs from flat to 3D. Medium: drawing pencils

SB #27: Visual Puns : Illustrate 2  visual puns (a visual rendering of a two-word noun phrase that illustrates the combination of the nouns with their literal meaning). Look at artist Don Stewart’s artwork  https://dsart.com/ Examples: hot dog, cat fish, hair brush, two face, fish face, bone head, Angel fish, Bat man, iron man, flower bed, Bed Bug, Boxing Match, Car pool, Card Shark, deviled Eggs, Fire Drill, Fish Tank, Football, Fruit Flies, Hammerhead, Handbag, Home Run, horse Fly, Jail Bird, Lightening Bug, Photo Bug, Strong Box, Submarine Sandwich, Swordfish, Watch Dog, Bird Brain, French Fries Medium: colored pencil

SB #28: Procreate Or Sketchbook App Drawing:  Use your iPad to create an ORIGINAL drawing of subject matter of your choice.  Medium: ipad

S B #29: Botanical Study:  Find a flower or plant from nature. Study it carefully before drawing. Draw the whole plant on 2/3rds of the page. Select 3 areas to “magnify” & draw smaller, partial up-close drawings of those 3 areas including all the details. ADD FULL SHADING Medium: watercolor, watercolor pencil, or drawing pencils

SB #31: Mixed Media Experiments: Have fun experimenting with mixed media techniques. Do the experimenting on other paper, then cut out the different experiments & glue them in your sketchbook. Label each experiment with a brief description of how you created it. Try at least 6 of these different experiments. Use up a minimum of 2 pages in your sketchbook. Medium:  various art supplies

SB #32: Collaged Music Sheet Drawing:  Glue a music sheet onto a page in your sketchbook-Let it dry completely (do at least one day in advance). Choose an image or two to draw with India ink & draw it directly onto the music sheet. Add color with watercolors or colored pencils. Medium: collage, ink, watercolors or colored pencils

Sketching Challenges Your Design Concepts

SB# 34: Line Inventory:   Draw two rows of four squares; one row of four vertical rectangles; and one row of four circles. When you have drawn your blank template, place four different kinds of lines in the first row of squares. Refer to the example below, but do not copy — come up with your own kinds of lines. Then, invent a series of variations on each line in the remaining columns. Medium: ink or sharpie

SB #35: Tool Metamorphosis: See Idea from Stan Winston School Choose a tool (hammer, ax, wrench, pliers, drill) as a beginning point, creatively transform the head of the tool into something else – a monster, a robot, a machine, a vehicle, and instruments, an animal, etc. Change its scale & it purpose. Render with full shading . Medium: colored pencils

SB #36 Balance Sketchbook Assignment: Draw 3 squares or circles. Use shape templates & rulers to create non-objective design examples of each type of balance (symmetrical, asymmetrical, & radial). See Types of Balance Lesson. Use Shape templates to create designs that illustrate each type of balance. Fit ALL designs on one page. Label & color them with colored pencils or markers.  Medium: colored pencils or markers

SB #37 Adult Portrait: Find a frontal view of an adult male or female. Cut it out or print it out. Open your sketchbook so it is showing 2 pages (a spread), glue onto the left side your sketchbook. On the right side use what we learned about adult human facial proportions to draw the portrait from the picture. Use light shading to indicate major values (highlights & shadows) or to lightly shade the nose. Medium: drawing pencils

SB #38 Refraction Drawing: Refraction is the visual distortion that happens when an object is viewed through a glass container filled with water (or some liquid). Find an interesting glass container (drinking glass, vase, jar, etc) and place a spoon or fork inside. Fill the container only half-way with water and place it on a light colored surface.  Carefully observe the distortion. Use observational drawing skills to draw the glass, spoon, water & any lights/ shadows you see on the table surface. Medium: drawing pencils

SB #39 Illuminated Letter :   Choose a letter to draw. Go on a computer & play with the letter in different fonts- choose one & print it out. Look up examples of illuminated letters for inspiration. Draw the letter large in your sketchbook in pencil. Add decoration to the letter, possibly even a border Medium: colored pencils, sharpies & markers

Sketching is an integral part of the creative process

SB #40 Fantasy Landscape: Use your imagination to draw a fantasy landscape. It can be anytime period on earth, in space or some other world. What type of plants, flowers, and trees would you see? What does the typography look like? can you see other worlds from the planet you are on? Are there buildings? What is gravity like in the land you are drawing? Medium: colored pencils

SB #42 Color Mood- Know about colors and their effect. Certain colors inspire certain emotions; learn to use them! Choose a color to explore, compose a realistic, abstract or non-objective drawing based on the emotion produced by a single color. Use the tints and shades of a color to add different values to the drawing.  Medium: colored pencils, watercolor pencils, or markers

• Black – authority, discipline, strength and promoting independence.
• Blue – cool, calming, relaxing, and promotes feelings of tranquility and peace.
• Green – balance, refreshing, normalizing, and promotes emotional growth.
• Orange – cheerful, commanding, and stimulates goodwill, conversation and appetites.
• Pink – calming, accepting, and encourages affection and socialization.
• Purple – comforting, spiritual, and generates mystery and a good sense of intuition.
• Red – empowerment, stimulation, drama, competition and passion.
• White – purification, energy, unity, and gives vigor to other colors it is used in combination with.
• Yellow – cheerful, expanding, and increases energy.

SB #43 Cast Shadows: Choose an object that has a lot of broken negative space (like a bike wheel). Using either natural light (Sun) or a lamp, position the light on the object so it creates a long and interesting cast shadow ( see bike example ). Compose a drawing that shows only a portion of the object & MOSTLY the cast shadow . Add value to the SHADOW, the rest can be contour line only. Medium: drawing pencils

How to Draw Steampunk Books:

SB #45 Broken Object Drawing : **ASK parents for an object that is not valuable. Break the object a little and then draw it showing all the broken fragments, tears, and loose debris. ***If you break something glass or metal, please wear protective gear (gloves and goggles) See Example by Armin Mersmann Medium: drawing pencils or colored pencils

SB #46 Travel Drawing : Draw a place you want to visit. Find a reference picture and create your drawing from that. Idea is from Art is Medicine Medium: colored pencils, drawing pencils, or watercolor pencils

SB #48 Merging Animals:  Combine 2 real animals to become a fantasy creature. Use characteristics of both and colors of both in the new design Medium: colored pencils

SB #49 Animal Eyes: Choose an eye to draw from these 4 types of creatures: Animal (land or sea), Bird, Reptile, and Insect. Draw 2 per page so they take up approximately ½ the page. Render with full shading.  Medium: colored pencils or Pen & Watercolor

Sketching brings new ideas & techniques to the surface

SB #50 Small to LARGE Enlargement Drawing : Choose 1-2 small objects to draw (less than 2”). Draw 3 preliminary sketches focusing on an interesting composition that enlarges the object (s) so much that it goes off the page on at least 3 sides of the paper. Medium: drawing pencils

SB #51 Magnification Drawing: Using a magnifying glass, look at an object or insect very closely. Draw the details of what you see. See The Helpful Art Teacher: Drawing Magnified Leaves Medium: colored pencils

SB #52 Sculpted Paper Strips Drawing : Credit- A Faithful Attempt-Curled Paper Drawings Give each student 2 strips of paper (½x11” & 1×11). Have students twist/bend/manipulate them into some type of curl or even add zig-zags. Tape them onto a sheet of paper so they are spread apart. Draw lightly with a HB pencil until they get the proportion just right. Use Drawing pencils 4B to add shading. Medium: Drawing Pencils

SB #55 New & Old: Find 2 objects to draw something new and something old or vintage. It would be most interesting to find an old and new example of one type of object (like phones, computers, mixers, anything that can show the progression of technology) Place them side by side or slightly overlapping each other and then draw them with full shading . Do research on the internet if needed Medium : drawing pencils

SB #56 Grid Journal: Read MilliAnde’s What is Grid Journaling  article, watch her video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NmlEY5TK1zo , and view her examples. Choose a piece of architecture to explore (best to be physically present, but if you cannot then find several reference pictures to work from). In NONE of the grids will you draw the whole structure, you will focus on smaller sections.  Following her instructions draw your first box and one detail from the architecture. Next choose another detail to draw, make sure to draw the box to fit the detail. All the boxes should be different sizes. Continue to draw until you have between 7-10 boxes on one page.  Medium : Pen & Ink

Sketching Develops Communication Skills

SB #58: Skeleton of Animal Study: Choose an animal (living or extinct) to draw its skeletal structure. First, draw a contour line -outline ONLY- of the animal (FULL body). Second, draw the skeletal structure inside the outline. Third, use a sharpie to fill in the negative space behind the skeleton. Medium: Drawing pencil & Sharpie

 SB #61: Realistic & Geometric: Choose an animal to draw a head portrait of. Draw a line down the center of the face vertically. On the left hand side draw the animal realistically with color and shading and go over major lines with sharpie. On the right hand side draw the animal as if it were make up of simple triangles, circles and squares (simple geometric shapes) that follow the major contours and textures of the animal. Go over major lines with sharpie and add shading. See examples here &  here .    Medium: Sharpies and Colored Pencils

SB #62 See a Need Fill a Need:  Think of a common problem that humans or animals struggle with. Design a solution to fixing that problem. Write down what the problem is and write out your intentions to fix the problem. Draw the new solution with full coloring. Add descriptions of gadgets to help us understand your ideas. See Invention Idea List below to kick-start your thinking.  Medium: Colored Pencils and Ultra-thin Sharpie

Invention Idea List

• New utensil or tool
• Help someone break a bad habit
• A new way to prevent ___________
• Something to help children who have a certain disability
• Make something safer
• Help find or keep track of _____________
• A better way to ____________
• Recycle ____________ to make or do ____________

 SB #63: Texture Spheres: Draw 6 spheres (2-3″). Apply 6 different textures to the different spheres: fur, fish or dragon scales, craters, basket weaving, spikes, lumpy, bricks or stones .  Make sure your textures follow the contour of the sphere! Watch Video: Pen & Ink Drawing Tutorials | How to create realistic textures (Part 3) Medium: P en and Ink or sharpies 

SB #64: Unique Door Handles:  Find a reference photo of a unique door handle. Draw the door handle large on your page including part of the door in pencil, then use watercolor pencils to paint it. Add DETAILS and shading!  Medium: Watercolor Pencils

SB #65: Story Dice Cubes Drawing: Use Rory’s Story Cubes to roll 3-4 images. Develop a story or scene with these images and illustrate it in your sketchbook. Medium: Colored Pencils and Ultra-thin Sharpie

SB #69 Personification Drawing: According to Dictionary.com Personification is “the attribution of a human characteristics to something nonhuman, or the representation of an abstract quality in human form.” Choose a man-made object to draw (stapler, hair dryer, etc) then draw the object, but personify it by giving it a face and other human characteristics. Medium: Sharpie and Colored Pencils

SB #70 Splatter Creature: Splatter some liquid watercolor on your page, blow it around with a straw. Let it dry. Now turn it into a creative creature (obviously fantasy). ADD LOTS OF DETAILS! Medium: Liquid Watercolors, Sharpie and markers

SB #71 Word Illustration: Choose a word (like Autumn, Flower, Candy, Science, etc) and create a FONT in which the letters are illustrations of the word you chose. See https://www.edinaschools.org/Page/4373 for examples of Mr.Henricksen’s 6th grade Word Art Project. EACH letter should be a different illustration of the word (ex: autumn: A-shape of candy corn, u-basket of apples, t-scarecrow, etc.) Medium: Sharpie and Colored Pencils

Sketching Builds Hand-eye Coordination and Develops Fine Motor Skills 

SB #72 Ball Point Pen Drawing: Choose a subject to draw. Render it with shading using only a ballpoint pen. Medium: Black or blue ballpoint pen

SB #73 Board Game Observational Drawing: Set up a board game with some of the game pieces on it. Choose a small section of the board to draw from. Render with shading. See Full Project from Nicole Brisco https://www.incredibleart.org/files/Nicole.htm#Mixed Medium: Drawing Pencils

SB #74 Organic Design Building: Design a building derived from an organic form (form found in nature). Draw the basic organic form and alter it into a building. Add details to the building that are influenced by the shapes, colors and textures of the organic form. See Example at https://www.studentartguide.com/lessons/art-lessons-for-substitute-teachers Medium: Colored Pencils

SB #75 Board Game Observational Drawing: Set up a board game with some of the game pieces on it. Choose a small section of the board to compose your drawing. Render with shading. Medium: Drawing Pencils

SB #76 Design Your Dream Swimming Pool: Design your dream swimming pool. What kinds of special features will it have-slides, bridges, pirate ships, fountains, etc. You can either draw from a bird’s eye view (directly above) or from a frontal view. Medium: Colored Pencils

SB #77  Candy Drawing:  Choose 3 different pieces of candy  (lollipop, ring-pop, gummy bear, peppermint, tootsie roll, candy cane, etc.). Arrange them so the partially overlap each other in an interesting way. Keep the candy in its wrapper (except for lollipops & ring pops). Take a picture of your composition from the viewpoint where you will be drawing from (so you can finish it later if needed). Draw in pencil as accurately as you can while looking at the candy directly. ( Look twice, Draw once ). Once drawn, render with shading in colored pencils. Medium: Drawing & Colored Pencils

SB #78  Thankful :  Think of something or someone you are thankful for. Draw it or them with SHADING! Medium: Drawing Pencils

SB #80 8 Ways of Seeing Part 1: (This assignment will be finished in 2 Parts) Website: https://medium.com/@katerutter/sketch-things-better-with-the-7-ways-of-seeing-6f9a24e5b9dd (my class’s assignment was slightly altered from the article)

Use a full spread (2 facing pages) & divide your sketchbook page into 8 sections- 4 on each page. Choose 1 object to draw & find a reference picture of it (Save to Photos). At the top of each section, write these titles: Symbolic, Gesture, Blind Contour, Simple Shapes, Contrast, Negative Space, Guided Contour, and Cartoon. Medium: 2B Pencil

1: Symbolic: Without looking at the object, draw a simple version of it. Sketch the “idea” of the object, not the specific thing. (think of logo symbols and how simple they are) 2: Gesture: Look at the object and make a very quick sketch of it, using only a few lines. Try to capture the “energy” and “rhythm” of the subject. Work super-fast! 3: Blind Contour: Without looking at your pen or your paper, use your eyes to “trace” the edges of the object, while, at the same time, using your pen to draw the outline in a steady, continuous line. Don’t look at your paper, and don’t pick up your pen! Go slow. 4: Simple Shapes: Stare at the object and break it down into basic shapes in your head. Aim for 3–4 shapes…no more than 6! Draw the shapes on your paper.

8 Ways of Seeing Part 2:  Using the same object from SB#5, create these drawings: 5: Contrast: Stare at the object and identify the shadows and darkest parts. Draw ONLY the darkest parts. Don’t draw outlines or lines unless they are the darkest parts. 6: Negative Space: Draw the space AROUND the object. Try to get as much detail in the shape as possible. When you’re done, draw a box around the shape and quickly fill it in. 7: Guided Contour: Look intently at the object and use your eyes to “trace” the edges of the object, while simultaneously using your pen to draw the outlines and shapes. Glance back and forth between the object and your paper. Try to get as much accurate detail as possible while still working at a quick pace. 8: Cartoon: Turn the object into a cartoon. Use abstraction methods: simplify edges, twist, stretch, pull, distort color, resize, exaggerate.

SB #81 Anthropomorphic: Anthropomorphic , derived from the Greek word anthrōposi , which means “human being”. It means suggesting human characteristics for animals or inanimate things. Toys can move, think and can talk; candlesticks and teapots can sing and dance. Choose an object or animal to transform anthropomorphically. Medium: Colored Pencil

HOW to Draw Anthropomorphic Animals and Objects:

• Make them bipedal (walking on two legs)
• Give them clothing and human accessories (make-up, glasses, hats, etc)
• Create animated facial expressions
• Change their proportions to more human-like body proportions
• Show them holding objects and otherwise change their physical abilities to include human abilities
• Show them doing human tasks (painting, driving a car, etc)

This Website has good ideas of how to create anthropomorphic characters: https://design.tutsplus.com/articles/how-to-draw-furries-aka-anthropomorphic-characters–cms-30243

SB #82 Texture Rubbings: Explore physical texture through texture rubbings. Divide your sketchbook page into 10 boxes. Find 10 actual textures from your surroundings. Create rubbings from the textures in your sketchbook by placing the object under your page and rubbing a crayon (on its side) over the object. Label the box with the object. Medium: Crayons & Watercolors

SB #83 16 Circle Challenge: (Modified 30 Circle Challenge ) Use a circle template to draw 16 circles on your page in pencil. Turn each of the circles into unique recognizable objects. You can draw inside and outside the circles. Medium: Drawing Pencils

Additional Sketchbook Resource s:

Student Art Guide: Tips for Producing an Amazing GCSE or A Level Art Sketchbook

Deep Space Sparkle- The Sketchbook Project (k-5th grades)

Other HS Art Project Ideas

• Beyond the Border Pen & Watercolor HS Project
• Mixed Media Drawing Collage
• Motorcycle Mixed-Media Art Lesson High School
• Ceramics Roll-A-Beast Animal Sculptures

Have you done any unique sketchbook assignments with your students? If so, I would love to hear about them! //

PLEASE Share this Post:

Just found your blog while doing some research on sketchbook assignments. This is a life saver! I am going to assign 10 for now to see how it goes with my students. Thank you for sharing!

Great Cynthia! These are good assignments for developing creativity & imagination. I have used all of these in my classroom & seen success with them! Let me know if you have any suggestions. Michelle

This is amazing! I always struggle with inspiring myself on what to draw, and this is perfect! Something new for every day 🙂

Thank you for the ideas! I am just starting out and find these very helpful. Are these assignments done at home or in class? What type of sketch books do you require? Spiral, bound, hand made?

Hi! These assignments are homework-outside of class (unless they finish a project, then they can work on the sketchbook assignment). I require a 70+ page spiral bound sketchbook (I like the single loop & if it has a folder that’s awesome!). I also prefer a heavier weight (80-90#). I will add a link to the top of this page with what I prefer.

Blessings on your school year!!

These are some great ideas for use as home work, thank you!

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Step by Step Sketchbook Drawing Prompts

Practicing basic drawing techniques can help artists of all ages build confidence and sharpen their technical skills.

I love having my students keep a sketchbook. It’s a great opportunity for students to practice foundational skills, brainstorm artwork ideas, and write and reflect about their own artwork and the artwork of others.

It’s a great place to hit all of the standards of teaching that are NOT about producing finished artworks! I think creativity and self-expression are the pillars of a quality art education, but sometimes it’s time to focus on those drawing basics!

Here is a list of my go-to drawing sketchbook assignments. These are step by step video guided tutorials that are classroom ready or can be done at home! I love doing these in the classroom, but they are perfect for distance learning in our new reality of Covid-19.If you’re not an art teacher or in an art class, draw along with me in your sketchbook to grow your artistic skills.

How to Shade Water Droplets

Facial Proportions for Beginners

Two Point Perspective

One Point Perspective 3-D Letters

Value Scale Zentangle

Contour Drawing

How to Draw an Eye

Value Scale & Sphere Shading

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HI! My name is Sierra Machado and I am an art educator in Oklahoma. This is a creative space dedicated to the craft of teaching and art making. My goal is to inspire young artists, encourage and support fellow art educators and to push myself to create more art. View all posts by Sierra Machado

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365 Drawing Ideas For Your Sketchbook: A Year of Daily Drawing Prompts

Boosting your drawing skills requires consistent practice, but all aspiring artists know this. To make this daily commitment easier, I present a curated compilation of 365 doodling, sketching, and drawing ideas . Whether you’re a novice or an experienced artist, this list will help drawing become a seamless and fun part of your routine!

Ever find yourself eagerly opening a sketchbook only to be greeted by a mental block? That frustrating moment when you crave inspiration to put pen to paper but end up with NO IDEAS?

I hate getting sidetracked by these creative roadblocks, so I’ve brainstormed a variety of sketchbook ideas, ranging from simple to advanced. Each suggestion is adaptable to your skill level, the time you have available, and even your mood on a given day. Say bye-bye to the struggle of facing an empty page and embrace the inspiration these ideas bring to your artistic journey.

How to Use This List

You can approach the drawing ideas in different ways. Here are two approaches, but you may have a different plan in mind, so don’t feel like there are set rules.

Some artists use idea lists to stay in the habit of a sketchbook practice, to challenge themselves to draw things they wouldn’t have thought of, or to push them out of their comfort zone.

These are perfect for high school or college students who need to keep a sketchbook practice going for class.

Or you may simply not want to deal with coming up with ideas every day to draw. It’s so nice to look at a list and have someone else tell you what to draw!

Good Idea: Click this box to print out 80 silly drawing prompts for kids and have your wee ones draw along side you.

A Daily Sketchbook Practice

I challenge you to carve out a little time each day for drawing. The consistent practice will blow your mind at the end of the year when you see how far you’ve come with your drawing skills. (Take a moment to picture how proud of yourself you’ll feel after you’ve completed this awesome challenge. Don’t worry if you miss a day here and there; pick up the next day where you left off!)

Try your hand at different drawing styles and subject matter to figure out what you like to draw, what you need to practice more, and even what your drawing style is.

Push yourself to go beyond drawing the same, easy, go-to things you usually draw, and you will advance to higher and higher levels of drawing!

Draw Just For Fun, Or When You’re Bored

Here’s an idea: Keep your sketchbook nearby at all times. That way when you have a little down time, you can train yourself to reach for your sketchbook and do a little drawing instead of automatically phone-scrolling. You’ll be amazed at how much drawing you end up doing when your sketchbook is readily available.

If you’re feeling bored or antsy, it’s so fun to immerse yourself in drawing, and you can simply choose any idea from this list that pops out at you. Some of them are intentionally more vague than others; interpret these however you wish, and I encourage you to do a few different drawings based on the same prompt.

For most of the prompts, you choose what supplies you want to use, but a few of them do specifically ask you to use a certain tool. If you want to skip or modify these, feel free. If you are being faithful to the list, or just want a more varied sketchbook experience, make sure you have on hand:

Drawing pencils

Erasers – these are my very favorite erasers

Good sharpener

Black drawing pens

Colored pencils

Small stick erasers with holder – for detailed erasing

Tortillon smudgers

Related: What is the best drawing pencil?

365 Drawing Ideas For a Daily Sketchbook Practice

1. draw each of your hands, using the opposite hand.

It’s fun and rather funny to attempt to draw using the non-dominant hand. When I do this I notice that I am concentrating harder on drawing, and I can feel a different part of my brain waking up.

2. Cover a page in pencil and erase a plant drawing out of it

Cover the page using the edge of your pencil to lay down a graphite layer. Erase-drawing is fun because you can be very loose and painterly with your drawing. It’s definitely a different way to draw since you’re drawing the highlights instead of the shadows.

3. Eyeglasses

You can draw regular glasses or sunglasses. Set them up at an interesting angle, maybe take into consideration the reflection in them, or add your own made-up reflection.

4. Your face, but from looking at an upside-down photo of you

This taps into the same part of your brain I mentioned in prompt #1 – drawing from an upside down reference makes you realllly look at the image and draw what you SEE, as opposed to the preconceived ideas you have in your mind of how to draw a face.

5. A scene from a favorite book

Hunger Games, anyone? Or maybe you are a Catcher in the Rye fan. Heck, pick a scene from The Very Hungry Caterpillar if you’d rather.

Eggs are the perfect little items to draw. Not only are they beautiful, there aren’t any harsh lines to them, so you are forced to focus on all of the subtle shading that goes along with drawing an egg.

7. Illustrate a dream you’ve had

Pick out a moment from a dream you’ve had – that split second you just can’t seem to forget – and see what comes out when you go to illustrate it.

8. Money – watch this video for inspiration:

9. A video game or cartoon character

This could be a simple drawing or something much more complex, depending on if you want to draw an entire background as well. Your choice!

10. The contents of a backpack or bag

Draw all the fun items you carry around every day, either with or without the bag.

11. Design some new pants

Pants are the coolest. Even if you hate to wear them, you could learn to love to draw them.

12. Perspective drawing looking down a road

Find a road, any road, snap a photo, or sit and draw right there. I wouldn’t recommend sitting in the middle of the road. I guess I’d be a little nervous to sit and draw right next to the road as well. Maybe if you can pull off into a little pulloff area, you would be safe. I’ve put far too much thought into this one. BE CAREFUL. Drawing can be deadly.

13. Draw a page of overlapping quick sketches of people moving

Hey this is fun! Quick, light gesture drawings overlapping all over a page looks really cool.

14. A bunched-up paper towel or piece of paper

Get ready for some good shading practice with this one!

Make up your own UFO or go the traditional route – you know, with the lights and beam sucking something up into it.

16. Feathers

Feathers are great to draw from life, so if you happen to find a big old goose feather lying around, grab it.

17. Organs in cross section of human body

I’m picturing a medical drawing sort of thing here – like you see in anatomy books, but go for however you want to interpret this one.

18. Design a playing card (or a whole deck!)

I’ve seen a drawing assignment where you draw a self portrait as a playing card, so that’s an option here if you want.

19. Your hand in a fist

Hold your fist in any direction you want to draw it. You could even do a series of drawings on the page of different angles of your fist.

20. A terrifying monster

Make it cartoony terrifying, or actually horrifying. Make this monster the best monster you’ve ever drawn.

21. Arrange a piece of fabric on a surface to make lots of folds

Set a bright light on the fabric at an angle to give you good shadows to draw.

22. Draw 9 circles on a sketchbook page, and fill each one in with a drawing of an animal portrait

Make the circles fancy or 3-d or designy if you want. Draw the animals realistically, abstractly, comic style. Artist’s choice. Actually all. of this is artist’s choice, you powerful artist.

23. A hoodie hanging from a hook or the back of a chair

Grab a hoodie, hang it from a hook, over the back of a chair, or even from a corner of a chair, and just draw that beautiful thing.

24. Your reflection in a window at night

This was one of my favorite drawing assignments at RISD. Even though I stayed up all night doing it and may or may not have started to hallucinate because I hadn’t gotten much sleep the night before, either.

25. A glass of water with a straw or utensil in it

Drawing water is challenging, my friends! Especially when you add something into it so you get that fun refraction.

26. Many quick sketches of birds on one page

27. a forest, but using only straight lines.

I am curious to see how people interpret this one, so tag me on Instagram @artmakespeople if you post yours. That goes for any of these, I want to seeeeee them.

28. A corner of your home

Pick a corner, plop yourself down, crank the jams, draw away.

29. Balloons

Draw some balloons in a bunch, separate, flying away, popping, barely hovering over the floor, whatevs.

30. The view out of one of your windows

What goes on out there? Draw it.

31. A still life of shoes, either arranged or tossed into a pile

Shoes are the classic items to draw. Here’s your chance to draw several.

32. Design a candy bar wrapper

What would be your ultimate, amazing tastiest candy bar ever? Design its wrapper. Mine would be dark chocolate, peanut butter, a cookie almost as crunchy as a biscotti, and probably 3-4 peanuts under the top of the chocolate.

33. Find images of beetles and draw a page of them

Aren’t beetles so cool looking? There are some stunning beetles out there, just begging to be drawn.

34. A scene from your favorite movie

I guess this will look a lot different if your favorite film is animae opposed to Pulp Fiction.

35. Octopus

Draw yourself a fantastic octopus. If you haven’t watched the documentary, My Octopus Teacher yet, do so. It’s so good.

36. A page of robots

Robots are just always fun to draw. I mean, you can go regular old beep boop robot, or you could make up your own.

37. Illustrate a favorite song

That’s all.

38. A plate of tacos (or another favorite food)

Tacos just have that fun shape that makes you want to eat them AND draw them.

39. A quick, light sketch of a human figure, with a more detailed drawing over it

I was thinking another human figure over the first one, but really, you could draw anything you want. A face, an animal, a building, flowers…

40. Flowers, either from observation or memory

Get in there and draw those beautiful, fascinating odiferous wonders.

41. Doodled, abstract flowers

Now focus on lines and shapes and even colors if you want to.

42. I love those drawings that look like they are defying the rules of lined paper! Try this one:

Chairs are the perfect drawing models since they tend to not move on their own, they come in all sorts of shapes, and you can arrange them however you want before you draw them. Set a few up, or just draw one at a table.

44. Tattoo designs

Come up with brand new tattoo designs. Make a page of drawings, or draw a human figure and tat it up.

45. A house – as simple or detailed as you want

This is a fun one – draw your dream house, sit and draw your own house, or sit in your front yard and draw the house across the street.

Buy 2-3 lemons, set them on a surface and draw them. Or! Draw a whole bowl of lemons. Or! Or! Buy a couple lemons, chop them up, and draw the wedges or slices. So many lemon options here.

47. A flat lay of some of your favorite treasures

Fun! Gather a few of your favorite things, and spend some time arranging them into a flat lay – probably on the floor – and draw away.

48. Roses in a bunch

You can either splurge on a dozen full, sumptuous roses and draw them, or draw from a photo, but get in there and spend some time rendering these beauties. Short on time for this one? Try a blind contour drawing of roses, or even a quick sketch using as few lines as possible to get the point across.

49. A page full of a pattern

Aimlessly doodle a pattern, or go research patterns and find a favorite to draw.

50. A cell phone

Ya got a cell phone? Draw that bad boy.

51. Draw the cover art from an album you love

Scroll Spotify or the Googles for some cover art to draw. Reinterpret it if you like.

52. Microscopic items

53. Magazine Transfers

Using pencil, trace images from book or magazine covers (or elsewhere) onto tracing paper (printer paper works fine for this in some cases), lay your drawings face down onto a sketchbook page, and go over the lines with your pencil to transfer them to the page. Shade or add lines or erase to create new sketchbook drawings. Tip: Softer, darker pencils transfer more easily than hard pencils.

Clouds. Have fun turning them into cloud creatures or recognizable objects in cloud form if you so desire.

55. Your pet

If you don’t have a pet, draw someone else’s or an internet pet. I highly recommend Boobie Billie, both to draw, and to follow on Insta. 💙

56. Draw a hanging piece of clothing and shade using crosshatching

Do you love crosshatching? Now is your time to practice the hatching.

57. Toothbrush and toothpaste

Another classic duo to draw, since most of us own these items.

58. Snowflakes

Draw some snowflake doodles or cut some out and draw them from observation. Or even shoot some snowflakes with a macro lens and draw your own!

59. An undiscovered sea creature

Make up a sea creature even weirder than everybody’s favorite Angler Fish.

60. A bike or closeup on a bike part

A cool wheel close-up would be fun to draw, or turn this into a long drawing by drawing the whole bike in an environment.

61. Draw frames in your sketchbook and fill them with portraits

Fancy, ornate frames, or simple ovals – your choice.

62. Your hand flat on the table

More hand-drawing practice! Don’t skip the hand drawings!

63. The silhouette side view of an animal with its skeleton drawn over it

Draw the outline of an animal, and draw the skeleton inside. Or shade a very loose pencil shadow of an animal and erase or draw the skeleton inside. Or ink a dark silhouette and draw the skeleton with white pen.

64. Your bed

65. 1 cow, 2 pigs, 3 goats.

Ha ha, I’m picturing them in a stack for some reason. You definitely DO NOT need to draw them in a stack.

66. Copy a Degas painting

Any time you copy a painting by a master like Degas, you’ll get a lesson in light and composition. So good.

67. Draw the passage out of a book

Draw the actual words. Try to copy the typeface perfectly or use your own style of letters.

68. Stack objects from your home into a tall tower and draw it

Here’s where I make you actually draw a stack of items.

69. Fill an entire page with one long, slow scribble

This is fun and relaxing. Listen to music or a podcast, and draw the scribble as slowly as you want.

70. A celebrity portrait

Who will you choose?

71. Make up a comic book page

Just one page – the comic can be a scene from your own life, a dream, a story you heard, have fun with it!

Draw bowls set up on a table, in your cabinet, in the sink, the dishwasher. Find the bowls and draw the bowls.

73. A quote or word in bubble letters and then doodled in

I mean, bubble letters are super fun, but if that’s not your thing, block letters will suffice. And if doodling isn’t your thing, practice drawing textures or shading.

74. Your bathtub or shower

Preferably not while taking a shower. Come to think of it, a relaxing bath while drawing might be fun.

75. Equipment from your favorite sport or activity

Anything goes here. If your favorite activity is meditating, use your cool imagination for what to draw here. 🙂

76. Magazine Starters

Cut out parts of humans from a catalog or magazine, glue them into your sketchbook and draw back in any parts you cut out. You can make this funny or realistic.

77. A skeleton from memory

Try to draw al the bones in a human skeleton, without looking at any references.

78. A skeleton from a photo

Now you can look a skeleton up and draw it.

79. Candy hearts with messages

Draw some of those cute Valentine’s hearts with any little messages you like.

80. Draw your grocery list

Draw all the things you need to buy at the grocery store. If you don’t do the grocery shopping, make up a quick list without overthinking whether or not you want to draw it.

81. A landscape drawing without lifting your pen/pencil from the paper

No cheating! Don’t let your drawing utensil leave the page.

82. A stairway

Going up or going down; draw a stairway.

83. Design a new automobile as cool or wildly unrealistic as you like

You could even reimagine the Batmobile. That would be fun.

84. Wrapped gifts

You can save this one for a holiday, draw from imagination, or actually just wrap up some items for the sole reason of drawing.

85. Write a letter to a friend using only drawing – don’t forget to mail it!

You could draw out interpretations of words, draw scenes, ideas, feelings, or even drawn words.

87. Draw the first image you see when you Google ‘beautiful mountain’

There are some beauties to draw.

88. 3 different pieces of food with bites taken out of them

I mean, you can take bites out of as many different foods as you feel you need to to find those perfect 3.

89. Any type of boat

Anything from a tiny rowboat to a grand cruise ship!

90. Watch a show, and every once in a while pause it to do a quick sketch of a scene

I immediately just thought of Dexter, but that could be a little intense for some people. Blues Clues, anyone?

91. Make a t-shirt design that you would actually want to wear

Bonus points if you actually scan it, clean it up, and make a real t-shirt for yourself.

92. Drop 3 raw eggs onto a table (or a tray 🙂 – protect the surface) and draw them

You thought you got a thrill from drawing whole eggs. Broken eggshells and innards are a whole new ballgame.

93. A person diving

You could even make a series of little sketches of different diving positions.

94. Vegetables

Draw. a vegetable still life, patterns, personified veggies, spiralized, whatever floats your veggie boat.

95. Look up prehistoric tools and draw them

There are some really beautiful old tools to be drawn.

96. Draw a scene in the style of a 6 year old

Just try to make a drawing as cool as 6 year olds do.

97. Design a new book cover for a book you love

This could be super fun. You can go minimal or throw in all sorts of references to the story. ooh – maybe your favorite book is a comic or a cookbook!

Got any Amazon boxes lying around? I know you do. Draw them either arranged neatly, or kicked into a random setup.

99. A favorite toy from childhood

Mr. Bunny Boo Boo Face needs you to immortalize him on paper.

100. Tree branches

Yay! Branches are so beautiful. draw them spooky, draw them full of leaves, draw them broken, hanging, full of birds, or even in a big old vase.

101. A lamp or hanging light

To make this extra challenging, you can draw the light on in a semi-dim room. Or even draw it with light shining on some objects.

102. Slice an apple in half and draw it by only shading with the edge of a pencil (no actual lines)

Let’s practice shading spheres with this apple drawing prompt.

103. Combine 2 animals

Draw one or several of these; they’re fun to create!

104. Create a fantastical underground world that you might see if you could lift a slice out of the earth

Oh my goodness. Let your imagination run wild with this one.

105. Vines taking over a tree or another object

You’ll get your leaf-drawing practice in with this one.

106. Makeup

Draw different makeup containers, from life or from photos

107. Design a dress

Channel your inner fashion designer and design a knockout dress. For a guy or a girl. For a kid or an adult. For a human or an animal. Or an alien.

108. Grab your HB and 2B pencils and follow this video on drawing 3 different textures:

109. A page full of fish

Fish are absolutely wonderful to draw. Go black and white and focus on your linework, or go all full, beautiful color.

110. Separate your page with 8 lines, and draw patterns in each section

Lines can be wavy or straight, all across the page or not.

111. Your keychain and everything on it.

I have 2 keys on mine, so it’s pretty boring, but I know people who have TONS of keys, little toys, id’s, etc.

112. Do a pointillism drawing of your foot in any position

POINTILLISM! FOOT!

113. Snap a photo of the inside of your refrigerator and draw it – Bonus points for full color

Refrigerators hold so many secrets. This will be fun to look back on in a few years to see what was in your fridge.

114. Draw some snacks like pretzels or potato chips – Pringles would be fun, or Cheetos

Snacks are good drawing practice, and you can munch while you draw.

115. A stack of books

Books are good drawing practice. You can focus on the stack of books as a color study, hone in on the lines, treat them as an object in a larger scene, or go abstract with them.

116. Draw just the tops of trees

I saw a cool photo of only the tops of trees popping up through the bottom of the print, and thought this would be a great drawing challenge.

117. A person tripping over something

If you look up ‘people tripping’, you will get some really funny images to draw.

Sushi is just a perfect, beautiful food to draw.

119. A Halloween scene, or just a jack-o-lantern setup

So many options here. Halloween is fun to draw.

120. A campsite

You either love camping or hate it. Your campsite could be all fun and perfect, or maybe it’s a horror scene?

121. The profile of a horse drawn with scribbles

Just a side view of a horse – or even a horse’s head, maybe – but you can only use scribbles.

122. Runway Fashion

Design something over-the-top that you might see on the runway, but that no one would ever wear in real life. Need some inspiration?

123. Draw donuts

Either a page full or stacked on a plate. MMMMM you might have to go buy some, you know, for observational purposes

124. Something in motion

Like a frog jumping, a top spinning, a person dancing. Try to show the motion.

125. Earthworms

Ew, worms. These things are quite interesting when you look closely at them.

126. A Recipe

Write out a simple recipe (can be extremely simple) and add little drawings of the ingredients to the page.

127. A baseball cap

Do what you will with this one.

128. Negative Space

129. Things that fly – all together

Butterflies, birds, dragons, insects, planes, etc all together in a very crowded sky.

130. A tea party

Tea parties are fun! Draw one of your choosing.

131. Make up some new emojis

There are plenty of emojis that we don’t have the pleasure of being able to use. What are some that you can think of that you would like to design. Or redesign a current emoji you feel could be improved upon.

132. Someone laughing

This will give you practice drawing the face when it’s not at rest. Listen to some comedy while you’re drawing!

133. A whole bunch of hairstyles

Draw from hairdo pictures or make up your own.

134. A city scene of skyscrapers

Again, follow a photo, draw from life if you live near a city, or make up a fantastic city, full of the tallest skyscrapers ever.

135. A leopard print or zebra print design

Who knew drawing animal prints could be good drawing practice? Try your hand at different animal prints if you enjoy this one.

136. A sleeping baby

Draw a sleepy little baby. That cute little drooly mouth will be fun to draw.

137. A lizard tank

Complete with lizard(s) of your choice, and all decked out with lizardy toys, etc. Sub a snake or turtle if you prefer those reptiles. Heck, if you really want to, make a tiny dinosaur or dragon tank!

138. Smudgy Marks

Make marks and lines with your pencil and smudge them with your finger. Go massively smudgy or just smudge little bits here and there, but have fun experimenting with moving the graphite around the page.

139. Shopping carts

Shopping carts are intricate and interesting – draw them however you see fit.

140. An African mask

Draw more than one if you get inspired – there are some beautiful examples of African masks to get you started here.

141. Turn 3 everyday objects into living beings

Personifying inanimate objects is fun!

142. A cake

Draw anything from a simple cake to a decked out wedding cake masterpiece.

143. A balloon animal

This will be a good way to practice highlights feel free to twist up your own balloon creations if you want to draw from life.

144. A seahorse

Seahorses are so fascinating, and you can get really detailed or just make a few line drawings.

If you’re drawing from life, really pay attention to the subtleties in shading here.

146. A front door to a building

This would be a fun one to scout out and draw from life.

147. Someone crying

I don’t recommend making someone cry just to draw them, but do what you gotta do.

Hand-letter your family’s names in different styles – or all the same if you would rather.

149. Turtles

Lots of turtles, a few turtles, turtles swallowing turtles, turtles breakdancing. Anything turtle.

150. Tree stumps

This could be a good one for practicing colored pencils.

151. A mandala design or doodles in a bullseye

152. cute wrapped or unwrapped candies.

This one practically demands you use color, but could also be a really interesting pencil study.

153. A page full of bubbles

Enjoy drawing bubbles.

154. Old fashioned roller skates

You know, the old metal kind that you needed a key to expand. Or you can go with the cool sneaker-style 1980’s skates like these. (I may or may not have owned a pair of these, and totally rocked them.)

155. A page of leaves

Leaves of all shapes and colors, or just keep it simple with one leaf style.

156. Tools and screws or nails

Make a little still life if you have these items in your home.

157. A paper airplane

Ya gotta fold your own planes for this drawing prompt.

158. Funny characters

Dive into your imagination and draw some characters of your own design.

159. Seashells

There is endless visual inspiration to be had with seashells.

160. Tiny Square Numbers

Separate your page into a grid, and in each square draw a number in different styles.

161. Draw a long, winding river or stream

Draw a real one if you have one near you.

162. Logos for cars, sports apparel, or other businesses

Draw existing logos or make up brand new cool logos.

163. Ribbons or rope or string

Try your hand at drawing undulating ribbons, a coil of rope, or a messy pile of string. This is definitely good observational practice.

164. Impromptu Still Life

Grab 5 things you see just by looking around, place them together in front of you, and draw them.

165. A train

Choo! Choo! Feel free to give your train a face. You know, sometimes it needs to happen.

166. Illustrate a children’s song

Listen to a happy kid’s song over and over and over again at full volume while you draw. Or save your sanity and listen once or twice before drawing.

167. Take an old electronic item apart and draw the innards

Got anything old and broken to take apart? There are some fun things inside to draw.

168. Scissors, slightly open, pointing toward you (that’s a challenging angle!)

This is good foreshortening practice. Plus, scissors are fun to draw.

169. A pile of pencils or pens or markers or paint brushes

Drawing your drawing tools is so meta.

170. A big, wide open mouth

Discover the mysteries of the wide-open mouth while you draw. Don’t hurt your jaw if you are drawing your own mouth. Maybe alternate between life and a photo…

171. A page full of connected triangles

This is very doodly. Keep it simple or vary your shading, triangle sizes, etc.

172. This is so cool! Draw this ladder optical illusion:

173. Water droplets

Try dripping water on different surfaces to see what makes them look best.

174. Draw a whole playground

Draw the playground from one point of view, or split it up and draw the pieces separately.

175. Make a toilet tube drawing

Draw a little scene as seen through a toilet paper tube.

176. Draw a map

Of your neighborhood, school, or workplace, complete with little illustrations.

177. Design a postage stamp

Draw it the size of a real stamp or enlarged.

178. Set up a scene of different bottles and draw them

Focus on the shadows and highlights, and set the bottles up in an interesting composition. You can even crop in on the bottles so parts of them are off the page.

179. Popcorn

Either in a bowl or closeups of a few popped kernels.

180. Design an ugly Christmas sweater

Pet ugly Christmas sweaters are not off limits here. 🙂

181. Draw a fancy Polynesian drink

This is your chance to draw a tiny, colorful paper umbrella.

182. Underwear! Draw underwear!

Nothing more fun than drawing a page full of undies.

183. Your hand, palm up, fingers curled slightly

Another hand pose to give you more practice.

184. Your favorite stuffed animal

Yours from childhood, a child’s, or make up your own brand new super stuffie.

185. Open an umbrella and draw it

You can do a few sketches of the umbrella in different poses if you’d like.

186. A page full of mushrooms or other fungi

There’s a whole world full of interesting mushrooms and fungi to draw.

187. Larger-than-life fingernails

Draw some or all of your fingernails enlarged.

188. Drip Drawings

Drip ink, coffee, any drops onto your page and make a design from it.

189. A room framed

190. An open banana

Peel it mostly or just part way and draw that yellow fruit.

191. A hanging towel

More fabric folds to draw!

192. Draw your toilet

2 days in a row spent drawing in the bathroom.

193. Strangers in public

Go to a coffee shop or park and draw a person (or people).

194. Spaceships and planets

Draw space. The final frontier.

195. A doorknob

Feel free to draw your self portrait in the doorknob if you can see it.

196. Sports balls – one or different kinds

Sporty still life

197. You as a child

Draw yourself from a photo, a video, or draw a strong memory of yourself doing something from your childhood.

198. Stonehenge

Look up Stonehenge and practice drawing that cool, mysterious monument.

199. Write an outlined word and doodle/Zentangle around it on the page

If drawing letters isn’t your thing, you can washi tape a word to tangle around.

200. Marbles

Marbles are a nice little challenge to draw.

201. A pine tree

Or lots of pine trees.

202. Tablescape

Set a table and draw it – or just one place setting.

203. Follow this drawing video:

204. An open book

Face up or face down, or one of each.

Boots are good to draw – try a single boot, part of a boot, or a boot pile.

206. Doodle Tracing

Trace around some random objects, overlapping them, and doodle in the spaces. Again, if you hate doodling, try to perfectly draw a pattern, or make the objects look like they are 3d.

207. Half leaves

Cut some leaves in half and lay them on your page. Draw the other half of the leaves – you can then draw the first half if you wish, or not.

208. Elephants

All that amazing wrinkly skin will push you. Unless you go the cartoony, flat grey illustration route.

209. Copy a Rembrandt painting using pencil

I had this as an assignment in college, but we had to draw it larger than life with charcoal. It was a mess, but really fun.

210. A plastic grocery bag

Do you ever feel like a plastic bag? Draw one doing something.

211. Lily pads

Such great shapes- just draw the pads themselves or in a pond.

212. A person from the back

No faces to distract you, but you can still challenge yourself to find a really interesting pose.

213. Car tires

Super close-up car tire texture would be cool, or maybe a pile of tires.

214. A close up of a jeans pocket

Any jeans pocket, full or empty, color or not.

215. A tree, but only using short flicks of a pen or pencil to make your lines

This will give you license to be expressionistic with your tree drawing. Have fun with the marks.

216. A dinosaur

217. a cowboy hat.

Cowboy hats are a great shape – feel free to draw it on a head if you wish.

218. A favorite cartoon character from childhood

Who was your favorite? How old are you? Are you the Jetsons generation, Spongebob, or all about Paw Patrol?

219. The end of a plug cord

Draw the cord, too, but the focus should be on the plug.

220. A broken pencil

All those shards will look lovely in a drawing.

Draw as many or as few as you want. Draw them on a game board if you want.

222. Be inspired by this artwork by Willie Hsu:

223. a self portrait filled with patterns or shapes.

So many opportunities for this one. I’m picturing going in lots of different directions – have fun!

224. A small, secret fairy door at the base of a tree

This can be really cool and mysterious.

225. A bird skull

Skulls and skeletons are just good to draw.

226. A very loose landscape sketch from memory

Or just make one up. Make it loose and easy.

227. Butterflies

You have so many butterflies to choose from, flying or at rest.

228. A Halloween mask

Will you go terrifyingly scary or cutey cute?

229. A page full of circle doodles

Loops and circles all over the page.

230. A scene with a horizon line very low on the page, and the sky full of clouds

This can look beautiful and serene, or really ominous, or even puffy and adorable.

231. A person from the shoulders down

No neck, no head!

232. A truck

Draw a truck, any truck.

233. A hand holding a piece of fruit

Photo your hand at different angles holding fruit and see which one you like most.

234. An item from a celebration from another culture

Have you been curious about Dia de los Muertos? Or maybe some Thai lanterns seem more interesting to draw.

235. A funny selfie with a Snapchat filter

Don’t forget to actually get off of Snapchat and draw…

236. A close-up of an animal’s eye

Get really detailed with this one and then make everyone you know guess the animal.

237. An animal dressed in human clothes

Ah more fun with personifying non-human things. Or this can be a dog dressed up in your t-shirt.

238. An abstract shape tower

Play with shapes and forms.

239. Draw the side view of someone’s face

Look for different interesting photos or draw from life.

240. Sharks

Sharks are fascinating creatures and you can draw all sorts of different types if you want.

241. Flowers in the ground and show the roots underground

Imagine the roots of the flowers underground – what might they look like?

242. A sandwich

Any kind of sandwich you want to draw.

243. One object morphing into another object (source: Eddie Kisosondi)

244. a crowd of people.

This one can be as detailed or as loose and sketchy as you want.

245. Draw what’s on your nightstand

Mine is a mess. Feel free to make yours look lovely if you want to, before you draw it.

246. Draw something that symbolizes a place you want to visit

An object, a building, nature. Your choice.

247. Dried pasta – preferably different shapes

These are great to eat draw.

248. A bear lying down

Big old sleepy bear wants you to draw him.

249. A page of succulents in pots

Succulents make amazing drawing subject matter.

250. A restaurant

From a scene in a busy restaurant to a server serving someone to people leaving, or people at the bar.

251. A page full of 3-d cubes

Remember learning to draw 3-d cubes? Perfect them.

252. A movie screen with a movie scene on it

Will you draw the movie of your life? Or a movie you’ve seem before?

253. Skateboards

Skateboards being used, propped up against the wall, in a shop, what else can you think of?

254. Street signs or traffic lights

Either or both.

255. A Greek God

Yeah! Take some time to draw from a statue or a photo, or from your imagination.

256. Someone blowing a bubble

A small bubble will give you more face practice, or you can hide the face with a giant bubble. Fun!

257. A scene through a rain storm

Day or night, wherever you want, but focus on making it look like rain.

258. Ducks on a pond

Want to try color? Or black and white for this one?

259. Blind contour drawings of objects around you

Really look at what you are drawing and concentrate on drawing what you see.

260. Design a cereal box

I feel like it wouldn’t be that hard to design a much better cereal box than what is currently out there.

261. The Impossible Rectangle!

Foxes are lovely little creatures. Draw one.

263. Paisley designs

Practice your paisley.

264. Glue a few fragments of magazine images to a page and incorporate them into a drawing

This can be an abstract drawing or something recognizable.

265. Draw a large spiral on your page and make a little creature journeying through the whole spiral

Eek, what will happen during the journey to the center of the spiral?

266. Your feet

Draw both of your feet propped up and crossed at the ankle in front of you

267. Listen to your favorite music and doodle aimlessly

268. a stack of plates.

From above, straight on, or maybe draw them from slightly below them, looking up at them.

269. Sketch everything you eat for an entire day on one page

These can be quick sketches if you want.

270. Shadow drawings

Hold up items between your sketchbook and a bright light (try your cell phone flashlight) and trace the shadow outlines.

271. Draw your couch

Then sit on it for a while. You’ve earned it.

272. A pinecone

Pinecones have all those cool darks and lights and so much great texture.

273. A page full of quick little faces with different expressions

Practice drawing expressions.

274. Make a maze

It doesn’t have to be a regular old maze….

275. An ear

Aren’t ears weird looking? Draw one.

Draw many bats or just a few.

277. A brand new superhero

Ooh, what sort of superhero will you make up?

278. A castle

I immediately think of a Medieval castle, but maybe you’ll want to draw another castle entirely.

279. Pots and pans

All that metal will be fun to draw.

280. A stack of rocks

See how high you can make the stack.

281. Geometric Animal

An animal face or the entire animal made up of only geometric shapes

282. A watch

There are so many shapes, surfaces, materials that can go into one watch.

283. A page full of rocks or crystals

Set them up however you want, or scatter them around a table.

284. The inside view of a car

If you sit in a car and look around, there are endless views to draw.

285. A view from a drone

What could a drone see? Draw whatever you can imagine, or of course, photograph if you have a drone of your own.

286. A large ant

You can make it simple or cute if you’re grossed out by ants, or very detailed and realistic.

287. An arm in a cast

I have no idea why I thought this one up, but I guess it sounded like an interesting subject.

288. A flower in a vase

This is a good excuse to go buy flowers – or nab them from your neighbor. No, jk, I don’t condone that.

289. A volcano

I’m sure an exploding volcano would be fun to draw, but you can draw a sleepy quiet one if you’d rather.

290. A plate of french fries

Buy one to eat, and one to draw 🙂

291. Items flying around in a tornado

Cars! People! Furniture! Hats!

292. A tardigrade

293. fill the page with small squares and connect as many corners as you can with any kind of lines.

This is one of those mindless drawing prompts where you can end up with a really cool design.

294. Draw a recurring dream

I love dreams as drawing prompts – if you have a recurring dream, draw it out. Otherwise, any dream will do.

295. Grab the items you use to style your hair and draw them

Not much of a hair stylist? Draw any other tools. Or your shampoo.

296. The entire alphabet, and play with different letter designs

Alphabet letters are great little starter shapes that can take you in a million different directions.

297. A plant growing out of a sidewalk

Don’t you love when little plants just decide to shoot up through sidewalk cracks because they are awesome? Draw it.

298. Combine a flower pattern on the page with a lettered quote or saying

Maybe this is overdone nowadays, but feel free to put whatever twist on it you want to. Make it as lavish and lush or as minimal and stark as you like.

299. Draw a self portrait, but give yourself completely different hair

Now is your chance to play hair stylist.

300. A person on stilts

Stilts always seem to add a surreal twist to people, so se what you want to do with this drawing idea.

301. Heads of garlic

Garlic is beautiful, really. The shape, texture, matte silvery whiteness.

302. Paper lanterns

Choose what kind of paper lanterns you want to draw, and whether you want to draw them in the day or night.

303. Easter Island heads

These heads are so cool, and must be drawn.

304. A view through a window, including the window

Windows make lovely frames to the outside world, so find an interesting scene.

305. Shading practice

Separate your page up into many random, slightly undulating lines, then shade in some of the spaces to make it look like they are recessing, to different degrees

306. A jar full of something

Lights? Worms and dirt? jellybeans? Moonshine? Sand and shells? So many options.

307. 2 Hands holding

308. use a page to try to draw a perfect circle – freehand.

If you get a perfect circle, I must see it. @artmakespeople

309. Family portrait

Have fun and be creative with interpreting this prompt.

310. Different types of bees

There are so many bees. Bees are cool. Let’s celebrate bees by drawing them.

311. A person floating on water

Ahhhh I first thought of this as a soothing, relaxing water-floating pose, but get all dark and murdery if you’d rather.

312. A fence

Yes. A fence.

313. Draw siphonophores

Do we know what siphonophores are? No? Go look here.

Aren’t cacti weird and interesting? They’ll be fun to draw.

315. An empty country road

Draw all kinds of country road emptiness.

316. An empty city road

Draw all kinds of city road fullness.

317. An ant’s view looking up at something

I mean, anything bigger than an ant is fair game.

318. A plaid design

There are so many plaids- they’re actually really interesting. Just choose your favorite and emulate it.

319. Your favorite junk food

French fries, onion rings, Doritos, Funyons?

320. Blind contour drawings of your face

Blind contour drawings are the best.

321. Brooms

Draw brooms in utter detail or simply the outlines.

322. Pick one object and draw it in pencil and then in ink

How does your drawing differ with different media?

323. Spider web(s)

This will be an exercise in patience. Spiderwebs are perfect little gossamer creations, aren’t they?

324. An egg carton

(Feel free to drop some more eggs on the table), but just draw the carton. 🙂

325. Pants laying flat on the ground

Choose your angle. You can draw them from any perspective.

326. Rolls of toilet paper

Make a toilet paper still life and draw away.

327. Design an interesting barcode for a product

328. make a google doodle.

Go check out previous Google Doodles for ideas.

329. Circle art

Draw overlapping circles on your page using a drinking glass and doodle or color in spaces.

330. Swapped Sizes

Draw a large object and small object next to each other, but make the large object tiny and the tiny object HUGE.

331. Paper Curl

Cut a piece of paper into a strip, curl it around something, set it on the table, and draw it.

332. Draw your hand with fingertips coming at you

Okay, last hand-drawing prompt, I promise. Drawing from this perspective is a great challenge!

333. Smudgy Portrait

Draw a portrait in pencil or charcoal and the make tiny smudge marks in the whole thing with an eraser.

334. Layered Drawing

Do a texture-rubbing on your page and draw something over it (you can draw the textured object if you want, or an animal, something in front of you, even yourself.)

335. Negative Space Creatures

Draw a big, full-page scribble and then turn the negative spaces into creatures.

336. An old, wrinkly face

Practice drawing those beautiful skin wrinkles.

337. Muffins

Muffins are a fun food to draw – shoutout to those people who bake their own first.

338. The bottom of a shoe

Draw the bottom of the shoe straight on, or at an angle. You can choose one perspective, or a few sketches.

339. A spoon, a fork, and a knife

However you want to set them up.

340. A scene from your favorite vacation

Got a favorite vacation? What do you want to remember by drawing it?

341. Something on fire

I don’t recommend actually lighting anything on fire here, unless you are at a bonfire, and you’re the edgy person with the sketchbook.

342. Comic Panel

One square from a comic strip – make up your own or copy one.

343. Close your eyes and draw slowly and deliberately on a page

This is a cool way to draw by simply feeling and thinking about where your pen(cil) might be moving.

344. Ancient symbols, real or imagined

Look them up or create your own.

345. Yourself as a vampire or werewolf or Frankenstein

Reimagine yourself as a classic monster.

346. The inside of a box

It might be fun to play around with pointing a bright light at the box the see what kinds of shadows you get.

347. A backhoe

Big old trucks are so interesting-looking.

348. Lie on your back and draw your view in front of you

I’m just assuming here you can find something above you to draw besides the blank ceiling…

349. The floor plan of your dream home

Ahhhh grab a ruler and plan out your dream home.

350. Exercise equipment

Treadmill, weights, medicine ball, you choose.

351. Wrappers

Unwrap some things and draw the wrappers. I would personally choose candy.

352. Your initials as different animals

Turn you initials into animal friends.

353. Crushed cans

Try to get cans in different levels of crushedness, so you have some variation to draw.

354. Calendar Doodles

Draw this calendar month on a page and fill in each square with a tiny drawing.

355. Gloves

Draw some gloves off or on hands.

356. A weapon from history

It doesn’t necessarily need to be from far off history, but there are some fascinating Medieval weapons that would be fun to draw.

357. A giant ground sloth next to a tree (image source: Sci News )

358. cookies.

Practice cookie drawing. You’ll obviously need several packs of cookies for this, or make your own.

359. A lifeguard in a lifeguard chair

Drawing by the pool sounds fun.

360. Puddles

Hopefully you’ll get some good reflections to draw.

361. Personify a food or product

Pick a favorite food or product to turn into something living.

362. Peanuts in the shell

Draw that peanut shell texture while snacking on peanuts. If you have a nut allergy, draw from a photo or sub out for something else to draw.

363. Baskets with things in them

Prop baskets with interesting items and draw.

364. A treasure map

Arrgh, will your treasure map be detailed or simple?

365. 2 puppets talking to each other

What would puppets look like if they were having a conversation?

Once you’ve made your awesome drawings, why don’t you share them on social media with these arty Instagram captions! (Don’t forget to tag me @artmakespeople)

Want more drawing ideas? My lists of drawing prompts are here.

What Sketchbook Should I Buy?

Oh, goodness. I love sketchbooks with my whole heart. There’s nothing better than cracking open a fresh sketchbook and running your hands over that blank page. Especially when you have all these cool drawing ideas to choose from!!

For now, here’s a list of the best sketchbooks based on different criteria. Look for a whole deep dive sketchbook post coming soon!

Inexpensive sketchbook for sketches – this is perfect for students or someone who just wants to dash off pencil sketches to keep warmed up. This links to the 2-pack of this sketchbook.

Good everyday sketchbook for mixed media – This is a hardbound, 8.5×11 sketchbook with paper that is more heavyweight than the first sketchbook. It’s a great book if you want to be able to draw in different media, although I wouldn’t go all watercolory with this one.

High end sketchbook for serious drawings – Moleskine of course is an artist favorite, and has been for years. Moleskines are super high quality and contain some magical dust that makes you draw better. Or maybe not. But every artist should try a Moleskine once to see if you love it or not.

This is the “large” size, which is 5″x8.25″, and what many artists prefer to carry around with them.

Another wonderful sketchbook choice would be from Fabriano – I like this 9×9″ square sketchbook , but I really want to try out this one, it’s adorable!

Related: Gift guide for your favorite artist

• Image #26 credit: Alex Stanton
• Image #64 bed drawing credit: Todnar Bonya
• Image #86 credit: Deposit Photos
• Image #97 credit: The Arty Teacher – this is a wonderful post on looking at negative space in drawing.
• image #151 credit: Rishi Kasingh
• Image #189 credit: Popham Designs – See my post featuring them here.
• Image #222 credit: Willie Hsu
• Image #292 credit: The Guardian
• Image #327 credit: D-Designs

This post was updated 11/21/23.

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Doodle something odd if you’re stuck. Draw an unusual form or squiggle to use as inspiration. Another option is to use colored paper as a starting point and rip or cut it into random shapes. Then, on one page of your notebook, scribble two or three forms. I often do this, and I frequently like the results so much that I had them made into temporary tattoo patterns

I haven’t really sketched anything since I was in H.S.. At that time, I used to do it daily. I miss it, and have tried to get back to sketching over the years, but life gets in the way. Now that things are not so busy, I will try it. Thank you for this challenge! I needed it.

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10 Sketchbook Prompts Your Students Will Love!

Wooo! You decided to (or at least thinking about) start bringing in student sketchbooks in your art class! In my previous blog post, I talked about the many benefits I have found from having students work in sketchbooks every single day. These range from enhancing creativity, improving drawing skills to building classroom communities. I genuinely cannot say enough positive things about the possibilities they can create. But the burning question is always: What the HECK do we draw in them? The short answer is- a variety of different things. With prompts I try to find ideas that are simple enough for a beginning artist to complete, but broad enough that an advanced student can expand upon and add lots of details. I also try to give prompts that require them to put their own interests into to allow me to learn more about them. I also open up my supply cabinets and let them experiment with whatever medium they choose- charcoal, watercolor paint, markers, color pencils, gel pens, etc. I have found by giving them a range of options and choices they feel more inspired to actually *do* the assignments. I also try to find time during the week to do the prompt with them during class. This is just a fun thing to do. It gives me an opportunity to make art with them and they see me modeling what I want them to do. With that being said- here are some of my all time favorite prompts I have done with my students throughout the years. These are all images of my students’ artwork! Feel free to check out the packet of these prompts and others in my TPT shop if you are interested in trying them out with your students!

Circle Challenge

“Fill a page in your sketchbook up with circles and decorate each of them however you want. No less than 45 circles.” Why it’s great: This is a great prompt that pushes their creative skills. What are all the different ways you can take a circle and turn it into something else? How many things can make up a circle? (Donuts, fruit, planets, pizza, peace signs, emojis, more..) It’s also a great exercise to create variety in artwork.

Design a skateboard.

Why it’s great: This is the first prompt I give every year. It’s simple and easy for the students to come up with different ideas. Who doesn’t love a good skateboard design??

Watercolor Doodle Strokes

My students love working with watercolor paint. And the ones that are a bit iffy with it, this is a great way for them to get their feet wet in it (no pun intended). Why it’s great: There’s very minimal drawing needed for this one! They pick a color scheme, fill their pages up with watercolor strokes and fill them in with fun doodles. The doodles can be simply line designs or patterns- or they can be detailed little drawings that advanced students will enjoy doing.

Arrows Challenge

Similar to the circle challenge except it’s “fill up a page with different arrows”. Once they have them all sketched out, they pick a fun color scheme. Why it’s great: One of the biggest challenges with my students and their sketchbooks is making sure they utilize ALL their page space. This prompt is a great way to practice overlapping, variety and space usage.

Song Illustration

Everybody and I mean eeeeeeeverybody loves music and has that one song that speaks to them on so many levels. I love seeing what my students’ favorite songs and music groups are. Why it’s great: The majority of this prompt can be text from the lyrics with a smaller, simpler drawing to compliment the design. Good for beginner art students but your advanced kids will come up with a plethora of creative ideas!

Draw something inside of a jar/envelope.

These are 2 different prompts with the same idea. It’s basically a “free draw” prompt but in a more enclosed space. Why it’s great: These give the students a lot of freedom to draw whatever they want but they don’t have to worry about filling up the *entire* page.

Favorite Decades

Dedicate a page in your sketchbook to your favorite decade. You can include everything from music, toys, fashion, fads and trends to celebrities and movies/TV shows. Why it’s great: This is another prompt that allows you to see your students’ interests. It always warms my millenial heart when someone does a 90s spread!

Keyhole Bedrooms

For this, I recommend they look up photo references (you can also show them a few from the internet). Pinterest (if it’s not blocked from your school server) tends to have the best pictures of bedrooms. I recommend dorm room photos as well because the furniture tends to be very simple and not elaborate. I tell the kids to not worry about achieving a realistic perspective on this one… just try and design a really cool looking room. Why it’s great: This prompt is challenging for many students! It definitely pushes them but they usually end up really enjoying it in the end. If you want to incorporate writing, have them write a story about their room on the back of their sketchbook page. 

Rubber Duck Challenge

I did not even know this was a thing until I saw it in one of my many art teacher facebook groups. It’s definitely being used by many teachers everywhere and for good reason. Ya’ll. They are HILARIOUS. I was seriously wheezing laughter when I was flipping through grading them. It makes me want to turn it into a full blown project- which I may actually do in the future. Why it’s great: This prompt is so freaking weird. And the kids LOVE. IT. They come up with SO many great ideas and it always ends up being a class favorite.

I hope these prompts give you a good place to start with your students. Feel free once again to check out my prompt packet on TPT if you would like to try them out with your students. Happy Art Making!

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100 Sketchbook Prompts eBook

“It is only by drawing often, drawing everything, drawing incessantly, that one fine day you discover, to your surprise, that you have rendered something in its true character.” Camille Pissarro

When it comes to sketchbook prompts and ideas, you can’t ever really have too many. As art teachers, we are always looking for ways to inspire our students’ creativity. It is hard work. To help make one task a bit easier we have created a 100 Sketchbook Prompts eBook based on our always popular article, 100 Sketchbook Prompts Your Students Will Love . It is ready to download for you and your students’ use. Not only are the prompts innovative and unique, but each of them is also paired with plenty of space to draw beneath them. So, pick up something and start drawing!

Download your own 100 Sketchbook Prompts eBook .

Download Now!

Would you like more drawing ideas?

7 Ideas to Pump up Your Drawing Curriculum How to Get Middle School Students Excited About Drawing 50 Visual Journal Prompts to Promote Drawing and Creative Thinking Skills

What are your best drawing prompts for students? 

What are your students’ favorite things to draw?

Magazine articles and podcasts are opinions of professional education contributors and do not necessarily represent the position of the Art of Education University (AOEU) or its academic offerings. Contributors use terms in the way they are most often talked about in the scope of their educational experiences.

Megan Dehner

Megan Dehner, an art and Spanish language educator, is a former AOEU Writer. She believes in empowering art teachers with resources and knowledge to overcome barriers students may face in the art room.

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How to annotate a sketchbook: a guide for art students

Last Updated on November 29, 2021

High school art students often have to submit sketchbooks, art journals, or other preparatory material that includes writing as well as visual material. This annotation plays an important role in how examiners assess and respond to your work. Although each qualification has their own assessment criteria and requirements, almost all high school art programs have similar standards and expectations when it comes to annotation. This article sets out best practice when it comes to producing outstanding sketchbook annotation, and includes examples from students who achieved excellent results around the world. It is likely to be particularly helpful for students who are wondering how to annotate an A Level Art sketchbook, those wishing to conduct formal analysis for an IB Visual Arts Process Portfolio, or those looking for GCSE Art annotation examples.

Want more guidance? Some of this material and much more is in our new book: Outstanding High School Sketchbooks . This book has high-resolution images so that fine details and annotation are clear, making it an excellent resource for students and schools.  Learn more !

Communicate intentions

It is helpful to begin a sketchbook by discussing your intentions, initial ideas, or design brief, including any requirements and restrictions set for the project. (Some students also include brainstorming and mind maps at this stage of their project).

READ NEXT: How to make an artist website (and why you need one)

Demonstrate subject-specific knowledge

Aim to communicate your thoughts in an informed, knowledgeable manner, using a range of art-related vocabulary and terminology. This knowledge may be the result of formal classroom lessons, individual research, or personal art-making experience.

Include personal responses

Aim to record personal reflections, evaluations, and judgments, rather than regurgitating facts or the views of others. The aim is to provide insights into your thinking and decision-making processes. Visual art examiners do not want to read long lists of facts, excessively detailed descriptions of technical processes, extensive artist biographies, or long-winded passages documenting broad periods of art history. Use research to inform your own responses. It is not acceptable to copy written information directly from other sources, although small portions may be quoted and referenced.

Avoid the obvious

Self-explanatory statements—such as ‘this is a drawing of a shoe’—are unnecessary. Such comments do not communicate any new information to the examiner.

Communicate with clarity

Write in a succinct and clear manner. A sketchbook should not contain endless pages of waffle; this wastes the examiner’s time as well as your own.  You can record thoughts in any combination of legible formats: mind maps, questions, bulleted summaries, or complete sentences and paragraphs. Whichever format you choose, avoid ‘txt’ language and ensure that you proofread for spelling errors. These indicate carelessness and may suggest that the work belongs to a low-caliber student.

Don’t feel you have to write in full sentences. Noting key words or phrases can be just as effective. Annotating your work, GCSE, Art & Design, BBC Bitesize Guides

Reference all images, text, and ideas from other sources

All content from other sources should be formally acknowledged and credited. This is true even when you are interpreting the content rather than directly copying it. It is helpful to cite the artist underneath the relevant image (artist name, artwork title, media, date, and image source). Also, provide brief details about any visits to studios, galleries, or museums, noting that you visited in person. Label any original photographs so that it is clear to the examiner which images are your own.

Critically analyze artwork

Art analysis is an integral component of most high school art programs. Make sure you also analyze your own artwork, appraising the outcomes against your original intentions and the assessment objectives. These insights should inform and influence subsequent work.

For further assistance with sketchbook annotation, please read our guide to analyzing artwork . This is a comprehensive art annotation help sheet, with art annotation vocabulary formulated into questions to help guide students through how to annotate an artwork.

Need more help with creating a sketchbook?

This article is part of a series we have published about high school sketchbooks. You may also be interested in viewing our other sketchbook resources:

• Painting / fine art sketchbooks
• Photography sketchbooks
• Graphic design sketchbooks
• Textile and fashion design sketchbooks
• Sculpture, architecture, and 3D Design sketchbooks
• Digital sketchbooks
• Tips for producing an amazing high school sketchbook (this was originally written for A Level Art and IGCSE/GCSE Art students, but is relevant for students creating a sketchbook, art journal, or visual diary as part of any high school art qualification)

Amiria has been an Art & Design teacher and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for seven years, responsible for the course design and assessment of student work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Art & Design Coursework Assessor.

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