Sketchbooks!
Q. Why do I need one of those?
A sketchbook is a tool to make you look harder at things, use your imagination, and explore ideas and techniques
that interest, challenge, and stimulate you. You will find that practice does indeed pay off and your confidence in
your abilities will increase proportionally to the amount of effort and care you put into your work.
Q. What am I supposed to do with it?
You will need to do at least one sketch per week in your sketchbook, from the list of things provided.
Include the # of the prompt that you are drawing in a corner of the sketch or on the back. The drawing
should take 45-60 minutes.
I expect you to fully shade and use detail in all drawings.
Feel free to use colored pencils, paint, glue things in that inspire you, use collage, or anything else! This
is your place to experiment and grow!
I will ask you to use your book for things such as planning class projects, brainstorming, etc. You
need to bring this to class every day. I will check it weekly for your sketches.
You may find that your sketchbook turns into a journal of sorts and that personal things that are not
part of your assignments find their way into it. This is completely fine and I respect your privacy if you
do not care to share. Please paperclip these pages together when I do checks, and you have my word
that I will not look.
I recommend carrying your book with you regularly, not neglecting it in your locker. You can do your sketches in
study hall, while you wait to get picked up, at night before bed, on the weekend. You never know when you’ll have
the perfect chance to draw something cool!
Q. What am I supposed to draw?
You are expected to draw at least one sketch per week from the list of 101 prompts below. Of course, it’s your
sketchbook and you may draw other additional things, BUT your weekly sketch must come from this list. That said,
these are just prompts. PUSH THE LIMITS!
1. Part of a vehicle
2. Your bare foot
3. Draw something not pretty
4. An interior of something
5. Inside of a closet
6. 3 unlikely objects together
7. Your Parent’s choice
8. Part of any object (the rest is a mystery!)
9. A scene that depict peace
10. Illustrate your favorite poem
11. The contents of a trash can
12. A house plant
13. The tools of a certain profession
14. Clothing for an occasion
15. Crumpled fabric (Challenge: fabric with a pattern)
16. A large jar of any shape full of anything you want
17. Design a school desk
18. Draw an object melting that does not melt under normal conditions
19. Fruit in three stages of being eaten.
20. A piece of popcorn
21. Design an album cover for your band (which of course has no drugs, violence, etc. as per school rules)
22. Design a logo for your company
23. Draw a sculpture you have seen and shade it
24. Clip a small part of a picture from a magazine, glue it in, and make a drawing from it
25. Self-portrait
26. Draw everything you can see from where you are-could be imagined (as if in a hot air balloon, SCUBA
diving…)
27. Draw an object of interest from 3 views
28. Draw something shiny and what is reflected in it
29. Draw a can of pop (Challenge: drink pop, then draw crumpled can)
30. Draw your greatest fear or hope.
31. Draw a dream you had (the sleeping kind)
32. Draw a bicycle and its shadow
33. Make Xeroxes of a couple interesting objects. Tear/cut and collage them together. Glue into your book,
and draw to enhance or change.
34. Create a mural design for an ugly wall.
35. Draw dessert and make it look delicious.
36. Draw moving water
37. Draw still water
38. Lie on the floor, draw what is eye level
39. Something that is lit by light coming through blinds
40. Draw the Mona Lisa in modern times
41. Draw something that is pure propaganda on something you feel strongly about.
42. Make a drawing that is 100% truth
43. Make a drawing that is 100% lies
44. Draw what is right outside your bedroom.
45. Draw an interesting patch of curb/asphalt/concrete, in detail.
46. Draw an insect under a magnifying glass
47. Design a cyborg insect
48. Draw a portrait of your family as insects
49. Draw an interesting building with detail
50. Draw the imaginary skeleton of a piece of fruit or vegetable
51. Draw a portrait of your friends and yourself as playing cards
52. Make a map of a real or imaginary trip you have taken, with details specific to the trip (the location
where you had to pull over so your sister could be carsick. The location where you gave your inaugural
speech, the location where a bear stole your shoes)
53. Invent a superhero and draw him or her
54. Draw one thing on this list in a style that you are not comfortable doing.
55. Draw an elderly person
56. Draw a flower from the perspective of a bee
57. Draw a mysterious doorway or staircase
58. Draw a place that looks haunted, but no ghosts are visible
59. Draw what you will look like when you are 90
60. Draw Someone in old fashioned clothes
61. Create men’s and women’s fashion for 2050
62. Find a sentence in any book or magazine and illustrate it
63. Create a drawing with a secret to find.
64. Vegetables in Space!
65. Draw city life
66. Draw country life
67. Draw an empty room and make it interesting
68. Draw a monument to a bagel
69. Draw a monument to something important to you
70. Draw 3 things you couldn’t live without
71. Draw the contents of your pocket
72. Cover the page in graphite, then erase out a drawing of something on this list
73. Change the size relationship of two common things (giant mouse, small skyscraper)
74. Draw a detail of a feather
75. Draw an animal from life
76. Draw someone or something asleep (from observation)
77. Copy any work of art, and include a Xerox of the original in your journal.
78. Draw something that is completely impossible
79. Draw the way you feel when you get up in the morning.
80. Draw a fish swimming in an unusual place
81. Draw quiet (not things that are quiet)
82. Draw Noise (not things that are noisy)
83. Divide your paper into six irregular sections. Fill each section with a detail of a texture (fur, sand, rocks,
glass, etc)
84. Draw an ipod-ad-style drawing of something (dog at the vet, listening to his ipod)
85. Draw the view down a ladder
86. Draw what you see as a fireman holding the circular net for people to jump.
87. Draw something floating that usually doesn’t float
88. Draw the most beautiful place you can think of.
89. Draw something you love that everyone else hates
90. Draw something you hate that everyone else loves
91. Draw the grossest food ever and make it look disgusting.
92. Draw the contents of the garage
93. Draw a series of overlapping drawings of people in motion
94. Draw the monster under your bed when you were little
95. Draw your sibling
96. Draw a tree from life
97. Design a tattoo for someone in particular (celebrity, teacher, etc. do not be disrespectful. Funny is good)
98. Draw a self-portrait with strong light on one side of your face. (great to do with marker)
99. Draw a fantasy building and landscape
100. Create your own font- design the whole alphabet and numbers in this font
101. Draw a contour line drawing of a complex object (saxophone, stack of books, motorcycle)