How do I know what to draw in a sketchbook? When you just start work, with a new idea in your head and a blank sheet in front of you, do not try to immediately depict every centimeter of your story. Include in the drawing just enough details so that the viewer can catch what is happening on the sheet. Let the viewer mentally fill in the gaps in your drawing – this will captivate him for a longer time. And it’s okay if different people have different images in their heads. Crop the image to make it more interesting.
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What to draw in a sketchbook: Still life
Modern still life is much looser than classical still life. Often the motif for the work is the simplest everyday things – a mountain of dishes in the sink, cups on the table in a cafe or a basket of freshly picked mushrooms. In other words, still life sketches are primarily emotional in nature, designed to capture an interesting set of objects for the author.
Sketchers use very different visual approaches to express their ideas.
Some draw objects “as is,” finding a special aesthetic in their spontaneous arrangement. It is the art of seeing beauty in the ordinary, of capturing, transmitting and enhancing it. Here the author is an outside viewer, taking the existing composition as a basis, does not change the order (or disorder) of things, only emphasizes and sets accents.
Another approach, closer to the traditional notion of still life, is thought-out staging. Here the author gets involved in the process at the stage of selection and arrangement of objects, models the real composition in order to transfer it to the plane of the sheet. Seemingly more freedom in this case is deceptive. Often staged still lifes look more far-fetched and dry compared to the casual ones. A combination of the methods described above can be successful, when the artist makes minor changes or additions to the original story.
What to draw in a sketchbook? Of course, the first and main thing is an interesting story for you. It can be flowers, fruit, dishes, antiques – a million different things together and individually. Often we are inspired by original and exotic objects, but sometimes even familiar little things can add up to an interesting picture. Find something that touches your soul, and the process of drawing will be even more fun!
What to draw in a sketchbook: Interior Sketching
The interior is fertile material for the sketcher, whether he is working on a travel diary or a reportage sketch. The options are endless: some are after the exotic, others like the luxury of classic interiors, and still others prefer cozy cafes. This is a great opportunity to work with the image of the space, and to create a mood in a self-purpose interior sketch. However, even if you are not planning go into the technical details, it’s useful to know the basic principles by which space is depicted.
The workplace is not necessarily the desk in the office. Maybe you prefer to draw in the kitchen? Or at a table in your favorite cafe? On the veranda? And it doesn’t have to portray the artist’s studio, whatever it may be.
What to draw in a sketchbook: Reportage sketches
The main character of the reportage is a person, a dog, a bus, a certain place, literally anything. If something happens to them and the artist sketches it, you get a reportage. For example, you can draw the backyard of a restaurant night after night: someone is kissing, someone is fighting, someone is feeding cats, someone is taking out the garbage.
By creating a reportage sketch, the artist solves several problems at once: spatial (depicting the place of action) and plastic (drawing silhouettes or portraits of people). There is another important goal: you need to fit into a limited time frame. Thanks to this, reportage sketches are always especially lively and create the effect of presence, instantly involving the viewer in the story, like a play.
But there is another direction. Reportage sketches in cafes, museums, parks, and transport are becoming increasingly popular today. They do not require special training, complicated materials or a professional studio. The world around us is full of all kinds of subjects, all that’s left is to draw them!
A reportage sketch is always a focus on an event. That’s why it’s convenient to start by choosing a location. A park, a concert venue, a café, a circus, a food market, or a beach will give you a general background against which to tell your story.
What to draw in a sketchbook: Portrait
Portraiture is a commercially sought-after field. Despite the availability of photographs, many people dream of getting their own real portrait and, of course, order it from an artist they like. A portrait in sketching comes in many varieties: a cursory reportage sketch, a full-fledged realistic portrait, stylization in a certain manner, and even a caricature. The aesthetics of the drawing are all up to the author. Often the proportions of the face are altered to emphasize the character even more strongly.
In sketches, immediacy is much more important than similarity, which is often chased by novice artists. Still, it can be difficult to overcome the influence of realism. My advice is to draw animals. Animal studies are great for developing a sense of proportions and plastic anatomy. When drawing animals, we study symmetry, the joint system – everything that is also peculiar to the human figure – we work with different angles.
What to draw in a sketchbook: Cookbook
By the way, it is with the fashion for food photography that we can connect the birth of this trend in sketching. Thanks to the huge number of beautiful photos, artists always have sources for full-fledged illustrations, and you can even draw an exotic dish from the comfort of your own home. The work of photography often becomes particularly detailed and thoughtful. Such slowness makes it possible to achieve maximum expressiveness and even move away from realism in the realm of stylization.
Drawing food is a great topic for a creative journal. It can be a memory of a great day out or a trip.
Another reason for the growing popularity of fusketchings is their practical and commercial relevance. After all, with all the variety of photographs, sometimes it is difficult to find a picture with the right composition or the right ingredients. Drawing, on the other hand, allows one to combine many details, change the angle arbitrarily and place accents depending on the goals. Such illustrations often become the basis for logos and are used in the design of menus, websites, and printed products.
You should start with fruits and vegetables. On simple forms, it’s easy to trace the arrangement of light and shade, and work out the smoothness of gradients. Start with one or two objects, try to get into the character of the form and work out the volume. Once you feel confident in your abilities, add variety to the staging – compare different fruits and vegetables, their scales, textures and details.
Source of the article mif.to/keepcalm
