Last night, I said it out loud.  “I am finally starting to really see myself as an artist.”  I have put the title on my profiles and have reluctantly used it in introductions, but I didn’t really feel it down to my bones.  I don’t know what shifted or what gave me permission to internally embrace it, but it happened recently.  I’ll have to think about it a bit more…about what changed and why.  But the result is that I feel freer and more willing to make a mess and create something I don’t like.  I feel more accepting of what comes out of my hands.  And I feel more excited to draw and paint.  I am hoping to share some of that enthusiasm with you by starting at the simplest, most honest, and forgiving place an artist can start – a sketchbook.  I’m going to share 15 sketchbooks exercises that I use to fill up pages, to practice, to play, and to hone my skills.

Before we dive in, I want you to promise me something.  Promise me that you’ll approach drawing and painting as a learned skill, not one that is a talent bestowed at birth.  If you always wanted to sketch and paint, collage, and create, you can learn how to do all of it.  And playing with various, no-pressure exercises in a sketchbook can really help.

I made a video so you can see the art in action, but I’ll also show pictures and share thoughts about each of the sketchbooks exercises in the post below.  I’ll also share my supplies and tools used in case a certain look appeals to you.

15 creative sketchbook exercises | video tutorial

 

one | have a no-pressure sketchbook

This isn’t so much an exercise, but an important tip.  I love having beautiful sketchbooks…vintage books, leatherbound, handmade, and filled with beautiful (expensive) papers.  But, those books can be a hang-up when I’m mentally calculating the cost of each page.   I’m far less likely to fill the pages with abandon and allow a creative wave to carry me through several pages.  I want to save those sketchbooks for good work.  So, I’ve started buying cheap sketchbooks with thin paper that I can fill with speed and recklessness.  As a side benefit, I actually love the look of watercolor on cheap, thin sketchbook paper.  It buckles and can barely accept one wash, but there is something about it that I am drawn to and curious to explore further.

two | blind contours

Nothing says “no-pressure” like not even looking at what you’re doing.  It’s the perfect excuse to not care at all what the finished result looks like and it’s a surprising way to finetune your hand-eye coordination.  Just look at your subject, don’t look at your paper or drawing instrument, and don’t pick up your pen/pencil.  Let the line flow and wait to look until you’re all done.  The drawings always end up looking crazy, but there is always something sort of cool about them.

three | draw with your non-dominate hand

This is another one of the sketchbook exercises that work on your hand/eye coordination and observation skills, but challenges your brain in a new way.  Since you’re working with your non-dominate hand, the sketch will be loose and shaky, yielding interesting results.  It also allows you to put judgment on the shelf since you’re working at an obvious disadvantage.

four | composition studies

I think composition studies are so fun!  Just draw out of a few squares or rectangles and play around with different composition ideas.  You can do abstracts, landscapes, portraits, interiors, still life…anything.  You can do these sketchbook exercises from life or from your imagination.  It’s a way to play and see what you like and don’t like.  I like using Copic grayscale markers for this, so I can cover a larger area quickly and play with values (lights & darks), but flat pencils are nice, too, as well as paints.

I tend to be very tidy when I work and I get overwhelmed by details, so this helps me to simplify shapes and find more interesting compositions.

five | continuous line drawing

I have grown to love doing continuous line drawings because they also force me to abstract shapes and the sketches always end up looking so cool!  These drawings have given me some interesting ideas I’m eager to try.  To do a continuous line drawing, just put your pencil on the page and don’t pick it up until the drawing is complete.  This develops hand/eye coordination, observation, and seeing scenes in larger shapes instead of in fine detail.

six | value studies

A value study is very similar and almost overlaps with composition studies, but you are focusing specifically on the lights and darks of a subject.  You’re drawing the light and shadows, which can be a helpful tool in developing a composition, mixing colors, and simplifying complex subjects.  I like to use watercolor washes, Copic grayscale markers, or flat pencils for value studies.

seven | add some color

When I want to work a little bit in my sketchbook, but I don’t have a lot of time or creative energy, I’ll just go back over some previous sketchbook exercises and add watercolor washes.  This is a fun way to turn a composition sketch into a color study or to add a little depth to a blind contour by adding a shadow.  This isn’t an exercise where you are painting a watercolor, but simply adding a few swipes of color here and there to play.

eight | color studies

When I really want to dive into color, I like doing color studies.  Not only are color studies beautiful to me, but they give me a chance to explore my colors, color palette, mediums, and to find the mixing capabilities of a specific color or an entire palette.  It can also help you create good color mixing habits, like cleaning your brush when you switch colors to avoid muddiness.  I have a free color mixing video tutorial available HERE if you’d like some guidance.

nine | mark making

Mark making is an exercise that can help you learn your tools and what kind of marks they are capable of making, but they can also help you learn how to create certain sketching and painting techniques like cross-hatching. These sketchbook exercises can be a reference when you’re deciding which medium or tool to use to get specific looks.

ten | one subject four ways

Try sketching one subject at least two different ways, but you can increase that number to four or more.  Draw the item from different views, with different lighting, in different mediums.  This can also help you explore different mediums and techniques to find which ones fit your style the best.  It’s also a nice way to brush up on mediums you’re not as comfortable working in.

eleven | simple shapes & shading

All drawing is really about identifying shapes – spheres, cubes, cylinders, squares, triangles, irregular shapes…  Take some time to practice drawing different shapes and then give them some simple shading and a shadow to make them have a bit of volume.  This exercise can then lead to playing with perspective and will likely remove some of the intimidation from drawing buildings, vehicles, etc.

 twelve | master study

A master study doesn’t have to be detailed, time-consuming, or recognizable to anyone else.  It’s just a time to study the work of an artist who has gained mastery over their style and you can learn from them.  You can do a quick, loose study that’s just learning the composition or use of color or you can try to make a close copy.  You can work in the same medium or a different one.  It’s totally up to you!  These are just sketchbook exercises meant to help you learn and grow.

I really struggle with watercolor, so I loved doing this study of a John Sell Cotman painting (above.)  He is so good with watercolor and I learned a ton just from this one sketchbook study.

thirteen | limited brushstroke/touch study

I am actually going to show a real-time version of this video soon because it is one of those very valuable exercises.  For this still life study, I worked on a scrap piece of Arches oil paper and I will glue it into my sketchbook when it dries.  (I like to use THIS paste.)  I just really love working in oil and that is what I’ll use for the final painting, so it’s worth the dry time for me.  The point of this exercise is to limit how many times you can touch the paper.  It can be a brushstroke count or, as I did, a touch count.  I can move the brush as much as I want for one-touch, but when I lift the brush up, that touch counts.  This exercise makes you focus on what’s essential to the painting.  You can get fiddly or lost in the details.  You have to focus on the big shapes and the most important notes.  I actually love the study I did above, which surprised me!  It’s not a finished work, but it showed me how little I need to say what I want to say in this painting.  I did it in 36 touches.

fourteen | speed drawing & painting

This is a great exercise to loosen up and create without being tight or overcritical.  When you have five or ten minutes to paint something, you don’t have time to overthink.  You just create out of intuition and I often enjoy these rushed sketches more than ones I spend an unlimited amount of time on.  This works in a very similar way to the blind contour.  If you know you created the work in a very short period of time, you’re more willing to judge it fairly.  It’s also similar to the touch/brushstroke limit since it forces you to decide what is most important to get on the paper/canvas.

 fifteen | curated collage

When I just don’t feel like painting or drawing anyway, I create simple collages.  I use fabrics, paint swatches, ribbons, old papers, old paintings and studies on scrap paper, and anything else that interests me.  I glue or tape things down and often add quotes or thoughts.  It’s a way to get something on the page without getting out the paints or drawing anything.  I really love some of these pages and how they capture my style in a totally different way.

I hope your head is buzzing after reading through all of these sketchbook exercises.  Of course, there are so many more you can do to get yourself going, but these are some of my favorites.

Have I talked anyone into getting a sketchbook?  Or getting back into a neglected sketchbook?

Five lessons I learned from filling a sketchbook

my first completed sketchbook

sketchbook tour | creative play