Drawing can be a lot of fun, but sometimes getting started feels really hard. If you're having a hard time thinking about what to draw, start right away with some thought-provoking tips and other pointers. You can also look for inspiration in the art world, in other areas that fascinate you or you can draw a thing or a person. Drawing regularly will help you develop your creativity.
Steps
Method 1 of 3: Finding Your Way
Step 1. Use a hint
There are numerous websites that have lists of business or subject suggestions that you can draw. You can find some by doing a quick internet search. You can also follow social media feeds, such as Art Assignment Bot (@artassignbot) on Twitter or Drawing-Prompt-s on Tumblr. Suggestions can include things like:
- “Draw a flock of birds having a good time in a club”;
- “Draw something that terrifies you, but in a fun way”;
- “Design a restaurant you would never eat at”;
- “Draw a host of an imaginary TV quiz”;
- “Draw one of Inktober's official challenges”.
Step 2. Work with one of your favorite subjects, but in a new way
You may feel stuck if you draw the same kind of things over and over again. If you like to draw something specific, like natural or fantasy scenes, you can still do it but taking a new perspective. For example, if you like to devote yourself to the human figure, you could draw someone:
- You know well in a place where you've never seen it;
- As you normally would, but by tracing one of his unusually large hands;
- Reinvented as an unlikely superhero;
- As you imagine it is in fifty years.
Step 3. Set limits or parameters for your designs
Sometimes, it is the excessive freedom granted by the question "What can I draw?" to make the choice so difficult. If you set yourself limits, you may actually have some interesting ideas. Establish a couple of rules and start drawing without breaking them.
- For example, you could draw the same thing 20 times, making a small change each time.
- Similarly, you may decide to draw the top 10 things that come to your mind whose name starts with the letter "M" (no matter what they are).
Step 4. Try "oblique strategies" suggestions
Oblique Strategies (“oblique strategies”) is the name of a deck of cards originally developed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt; each card has an indication intended to guide the work through lateral thinking or approaching a problem from an unusual perspective (there are also virtual versions of these cards available for free online). Choose a card and let it guide your design. Some examples of these indications can be:
- "Retrace your steps";
- “You perform a sudden, destructive, unpredictable action. Incorporates ";
- "Look carefully at the most embarrassing details and amplify them."
Method 2 of 3: Try Different Techniques
Step 1. Look around you for inspiration
There are so many things around you. Observe the people walking on the street or the furniture in your home. Looking around at the end will bring up an idea or two of what to draw.
It's easy if the object or person is close to you, because you'll have an exact copy of the real thing as you draw it. If you have an electronic device with you, you can take a photo of the subject and keep it next to you to make the operation easier
Step 2. Scribble
If you can't think of anything to draw, put the pen on the paper and move it. Draw lines, simple shapes, scribbles, cartoon characters, stylized people, or whatever. The physical act of moving your hands to create something can be refreshing. Scribbling allows you to think and create in a non-judgmental, almost unconscious way.
Step 3. Draw with quick gestures
This is the technique behind life drawing, but you can use it in other situations as well. Set a timer for sixty seconds and try to draw a whole figure or object before time runs out. You will have to work quickly, forcing yourself to capture only the essence of the subject. Make several of these designs giving yourself a maximum time of five or ten minutes.
You can even use images you find online as subjects for these quick drawings
Step 4. Draw from a photograph
Photographs can be a great foundation for a drawing, especially when you're running out of ideas. If you can't think of anything, go looking for photographs that might be interesting or fun to draw. For examples, or you can tell yourself that you will draw the first image you see on page 3 of a magazine, no matter what it is.
Step 5. Copy the masters
If you feel stuck and don't know what to draw, you can always copy what someone else has already done! Trying to recreate the work of an established artist not only solves the problem of what to draw, but it can also be a great opportunity to learn something.
- You could copy the work of masters of the past such as Raphael or Rembrandt, but also of more modern artists such as Frida Kahlo or Francis Bacon.
- Many museums allow you to draw on site. Grab your sketch pad, a pencil and draw a piece that particularly inspires you.
Step 6. Browse a book about drawing
Consulting a book on drawing might seem like a road to boredom rather than creativity, but if you feel stuck it could be a lifeline. Even if you're an experienced artist, brushing up on the fundamentals and trying out basic exercises can be refreshing and lead to great ideas. Some classic drawing books include:
- Betty Edwards' Right Brain Drawing;
- "Drawing while listening to the artist in us" by Betty Edwards;
- John Ruskin's “Elements of Design”;
- Henry D. Roosevelt's “Learning to Draw”;
- “Man Structure” by Alberto Lolli;
- "Proportions and anatomical canons" by Hikaru Hayashi.
Method 3 of 3: Developing Your Habits
Step 1. Do another activity before you start drawing
Read, listen to music, dance or do some other creative activity. Take a walk around the block. Emptying your mind can make you feel creatively refreshed. You can also consider these activities as inspiration for getting ideas of things to draw. For instance:
- As you walk around your neighborhood, look for a seemingly mundane object or scene that could make a great subject for a drawing.
- Think about what images are suggested to you by the music you are listening to and draw them.
Step 2. Don't limit yourself to just one technique
Trying out a new technique can be challenging if you feel stuck and don't know what to draw. Even the reinterpretation of familiar subjects can give rise to new inspiration, if implemented with a new technique. Try a variety of different techniques, such as:
- Pencils;
- Charcoal;
- Pastels;
- Quills;
- Markers;
- Colored pencils;
- Crayons.
Step 3. Draw every day
Make a point of drawing something even on days when you feel less inspired. Even if on a given day you think everything you're drawing is terrible, don't give up - getting used to drawing regularly will make you more likely to do good work, rather than waiting for inspiration to come.
