Nature, people, objects, places, a season, an event. Sometimes, an emotion or a feeling spurs an Artist to paint or draw. Other times, an Artist draws because he or she wants to make a stand for or against something.
An Artist should NEVER say "I don't know what to draw." because you can draw everything and anything you want.
However, we all have our bad days, so here are 15 ideas on fun projects to do when you have a "down day". They are accompanied by drawings of mine. Some are pretty old, (2010) some are products of experimentation, others are actual drawings that I am satisfied with. But they all serve to show you that you an idea of what you can do.
15 ideas on fun projects to get your creative juices flowing:
1. A traditional still life. Think of apples, pears, wine bottles, bread, flowers. etc.
Forgive the bad picture and lighting. This is a pretty old drawing. This was done using student grade pencils back in 2010, but I've kept it well, so it hasn't degraded... yet.
(I do not advocate drawing with student grade materials because if you do like your drawing, there's no way to make it last longer than it will.)
3. A man-made landscape. New York, any city skyline.
(I've not drawn any city skyline yet. But here's a drawing with a sort of backdrop. Done in Pastels.)
4. Water. For the adventurous. I suggest reading up on how to draw water correctly. Here's a link to a lesson in drawing water. Or you could try here too.
5. A painting of an interior. One of Van Gogh's famous paintings was of an interior. Do you know the name of the painting? Hint: Heavy brushstrokes and a yellow hue, it had.
6. A close up (macro) of a flower.
For the fun of it, here's my drawing of a macro flower. It's titled "Molee's Flower" because it was given, as a birthday present, to one of my Mum's friend. The white outside the line is the canvas in which I stuck it upon. Done in Prismacolors.
7. A drawing of a single object. A wine opener, a stapler. An object that is simple in shape but has details is a good candidate.
And here's one of my "single object" drawings done on the 31st of May, back in 2010. It's a wine opener. Signed and dated.
I did this small painting in Pastels.
9. Draw a wild animal. Tigers, jaguars, elephants, giraffes. Think big animals.
Initially, I had thought of a background for this painting, but gave up on it at this stage. Blame the low quality paper and the student grade pencils. I know better than that now.
10. Draw your pet. Or if you don't have a pet, your friends'/neighbors' pet(s). They make good birthday gifts too.
Photo reference.
Actual drawing. Again, this is pretty old and was done with bad quality paper and student grade pencils. At that time, I thought it was nice. Now... not so much. Still, I post it up here for you to see.
11. A graphite drawing of a still life. Keep it simple. Also, I might do a step-by-step tutorial on how to do this kind of drawings at a later date, so, keep an eye on this blog.
12. Do a fun "word project". Draw with words. I used markers to write the word "tuscan" over and over again in different colours to create a picture of a tuscan. This is more of a fun project than "real Art", but still...
13. Draw a small bird. Like the ones that my Dad draws. I'm currently doing a "my Dad inspired" painting.
Here's one of his paintings. Japanese Ink on Chinese Rice Paper. 24cm by 27cm.
14. Learn to draw humans. Yes, it is difficult. But just look at humans just as you draw anything else. Learn to see in terms of shapes and shadows.
Here's another of my Dad's painting, cause' I haven't learnt how to quite draw humans, yet.
15. Mix mediums. It's not all that easy, but it can result in beautiful works.
Not my best, but still. You get an idea.
I hope this list has given you an idea of what to draw when you're stuck in a creative down. Leave me a comment below to tell me what you do when you're feeling un-creative.
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