INTRODUCTION A huge welcome to this big book of drawing prompts – a book designed to help you build up a daily habit of sketching and drawing using just a few simple tools and materials. I am an artist, author and art tutor based in Surrey in the UK. A daily sketching habit is at the heart of all my creative activities (and I have a lot of those). I find that picking up a pencil, pen or paintbrush in short, regular bursts keeps me in tune with my creativity and inspired for the longer or larger projects that I undertake. After years of experimentation with different sketchbooks and methods of working, I have figured out that small amounts of sketching on a more frequent basis works best for building a habit and boosting creativity. It is this habit – and how I achieve it – that I will share with you throughout this book. This book is packed full of advice, tips, handy warm-up exercises, and of course, the all-important 100 sketching prompts that you can dip in to whenever you want or work through in order. Some of the prompts have brief explanations, others a little more information or even a step-by-step guide. This book is aimed at beginners, dabblers, those who haven’t picked up a pencil in years and anyone looking to focus on exactly how to add a sketching practice to their art activities – this book, therefore, is for anyone serious about cultivating a daily sketching habit. I will ask you to explore your own reasons behind why you are here, help you shift your mindset about creativity and of course ask you to open that sketchbook regularly and make marks. My daily sketching habit has built up gradually over the past four years. Of course, there are days when I don’t sketch or draw at all due to work pressure, family commitments or being too tired. However, the intention is always there. No one is perfect (certainly not me), and none of my sketches are perfect: they are playful and enjoyable and are often a foundation for my other creative pursuits. I regularly use a huge variety of sketchbooks and random bits of paper. Sometimes I use pencil, sometimes ink pens; I enjoy experimenting with paints or just using whatever I have to hand, including my little girl’s crayons and felt-tip pens. I have sketchbooks for all occasions, from large A3 ones, in which I can go big and bold, to little portable books that sit in my handbag. This variety provides me with plenty of opportunities to draw and sketch – I never get bored or run out of ideas and I put no pressure on myself to create finished pieces of work. I just sketch… I share my own sketches, doodles and scribbles throughout this book – some neat and tidy, others loose and messy. The aim of the book is to inspire you and show you how sketching on a regular basis can be a playful, rewarding and very achievable habit. I also share in this book some of my top tips for filling a sketchbook – things I do myself, things that have helped me and those I have seen help others as well. I suggest you keep learning and reading about art throughout your time using this book. The more you fuel your mind creatively, the more your mind will create. I look forward to sharing this book with you and hopefully seeing some fun, exciting and beautiful sketches from everyone. By the end of this book I promise that you will see huge benefits from the process of opening up a sketchbooks and making marks. So, let’s get started!
THE 30-DAY SKETCHBOOK CHALLENGE As someone who is enthusiastic about getting everyone sketching and creating, I host an annual 30-Day Sketchbook Challenge (#30daysketchbookchallenge), starting on 1st January each year. Thousands of people take part to boost their creativity; I email out sketching prompts for 30 days in a row, giving everyone a topic to sketch and draw, along with some tips and words of encouragement – it’s super-fun! I initially started the challenge in 2018, and many of the people who have participated over the years have continued to sketch daily. I hope that this book can provide continued support as well as a host of further sketching prompts.
HOW TO USE THIS BOOK I recommend reading through the first few sections of this book before jumping to the daily sketching prompts. This will help you to mentally prepare for a daily sketching practice, gather your materials and learn a little bit more about my approach before you get started. You will find a whole section dedicated to developing a creative mindset, so that you can get the most out of your sketching sessions, however short they may be (see pages 16–27). After this comes the practical preparation – an explanation of what to expect from the prompts, followed by a discussion on the tools and materials that you might like to use, and then some handy warm-up exercises that you can use to get you loosened up (see pages 34–47). Finally, you will find all the drawing prompts. I have included 100, which is enough to keep you going for months and even more, if you spread them out or repeat them. Some of you may choose to follow the daily prompts as a chronological series of ideas from number 1 onwards, which can certainly be a progressive and logical way to work. It is also extremely satisfying to get to number 100! However, you may also choose to use this book as a place to find inspiration every now and again. Simply open the book at random, or flick through the pages to choose a prompt that ‘speaks’ to you, and work with that.
Put simply, prompts take the ‘thinking’ out of sketching Why use sketching prompts? Prompts give us something specific to work on. They narrow down the field from absolutely anything in the whole wide world (which can be hugely daunting) to one specific thing. I used to find that if I sat down to my sketchbook with no fixed plan, I had to stop and think what to do, and occasionally I closed the sketchbook again because I didn’t know where to start. Being told what to draw can be super-helpful in getting the ball rolling, especially if you are a beginner to drawing. When the drawing prompts are varied each day, they force you out of your comfort zone, encouraging you to tackle something you may never have drawn before (and may never draw again). It keeps your sketching fresh, and you on your toes and constantly inspired. I have also found that I get inspired by topics that I never had an interest in before. It can lead me down a creative path of exploring a whole new theme. For example, one year on the 30-Day Sketchbook Challenge, the prompt was ‘biscuit’, and I spent five minutes drawing a Jammy Dodger biscuit in pencil. I turned this into a block print, and I created a series of tea towels and hand-printed bags. I would never have done this if it wasn’t for that very different sketching prompt. Drawing prompts are also fun! Don’t take them too seriously – this is simply a reason to play with your pencil and exercise those creative muscles. If you make a sketch and decide you don’t like it, it doesn’t matter because tomorrow there is a whole new topic on the way. We move on, turn the page, sketch again, and explore a new subject. Sketching can help you to unwind on a daily basis. Even if you just have ten minutes available, whether first thing in the morning, during a break in your work day, sitting out in the garden or last thing at night before bedtime, a quick sketch can work wonders and bring a little happiness and calm to your day.
AFTERWORD & NEXT STEP I truly hope that, having followed along with some (or even all) of the suggestions in this book, you have ideas to fill your sketchbooks for years to come.
The biggest tips I can give you going forward with your sketchbook practice are:
• Do small amounts regularly (in a small portable sketchbook, ideally);
• Don’t be hard on yourself if things don’t pan out as you’d like them to (refer to the ‘Mindset and creativity’ chapter if this is a constant battle for you);
• Have fun!
Don’t forget, also, that it’s OK to skip the stuff that you don’t enjoy and do more of the stuff you love. I do it all the time. There are several prompts in this book that I fill whole sketchbooks with (and it was hard to decide which sketches to select to include) and others that I put off sketching until the very last minute. And that’s perfectly normal as we are all different.
Always lean into your own likes and the things that spark your curiosity and creativity. As I’ve said before, I believe that a sketchbook is a place to experiment and explore possibilities. If you think of a finished piece of art (or even a finished sketch) as the tip of an iceberg, the work and studies in a sketchbook are the ice that lies under the surface. To know what you enjoy sketching and what inspires you to get that sketchbook out and make marks, you must also have a good understanding of what you don’t enjoy or find inspiring. Invigorate your sketching and creativity by pushing yourself out of your comfort zone and trying new things. Come back to this book as often as you need, and try out a prompt or an exercise you have not yet tackled.
I am aware that there is a
lot of content in this book, so do take your time digesting it. There is no pressure to finish anything here and no medal for being the first to reach the end. Yes, it is amazing if you complete a sketch for every one of the 100 prompts, but there is a wealth of additional shorter challenges, warm-up exercises, ‘Susan says’ and further ideas hidden within the pages, all of which are worth you taking your time to explore, too.
This isn’t the end – just the beginning of your sketching adventures.
Susan SUSAN SAYS Tackling all 100 prompts myself has reinvigorated my own sketching practice and I can think of at least five different prompts that I want to explore further. Why not try this yourself? Pick five of your favorite prompts from this book and dedicate a whole month or a whole sketchbook to each. Going deeper on a subject matter by sketching it several times will really build your sketching confidence. For example, if you use the prompt on pages 100–101, ‘Trees, woods and forests’ as a starting point, you can fill a whole sketchbook with little tree drawings from daily walks in nature.
Copyright © 2022 by Susan Yeates. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
