Sketch ideas for your sketchbook

Sketch from life, around you

1. The shoes by your front door
2. A houseplant from three angles
3. Your hand holding a cup
4. Everything in your pockets
5. Your desk chair, seen from above
6. The dish rack after washing up
7. A bowl of fruit, before and after you eat one
8. Your bike or scooter
9. The view from your bed
10. Laundry drying on a rack
11. A stack of mugs
12. Your own face in a mirror
13. A pet asleep
14. A pair of scissors, open
15. Your favorite jacket on a hook
16. The inside of a kitchen cupboard
17. A window with the curtains half drawn
18. Light switches and plugs on a wall
19. A squeezed tube of toothpaste
20. A tangle of cables and chargers

Quick sketches, 5 minutes each

1. People waiting at a bus stop
2. A dog in the park, mid-run
3. Someone reading on a train
4. Cars parked along your street
5. The tree outside your window
6. Pigeons on a ledge
7. People's hands while they talk
8. Your coffee before it goes cold
9. A crowd in the distance, as simple shapes
10. Clouds as they change shape
11. A street corner
12. A cat in five different poses
13. The skyline from a high window
14. A café table after someone has left
15. Bicycles locked to a railing
16. A market stall
17. Someone cooking
18. A row of rooftops

Page themes, to fill a whole page

1. Ten different cups
2. Every kind of leaf you can find
3. The shoes of everyone you live with
4. Faces from one bus ride
5. Doors in your neighborhood
6. Everything in your bag
7. Twenty hands in twenty poses
8. Fruit and vegetables, cut open
9. Kitchen tools
10. The windows on one street
11. Your favorite snacks
12. Hats
13. Chairs
14. Tiny portraits of your family
15. Things that are blue
16. Things that are older than you
17. Plants in pots
18. Everything on your desk right now

Studies that make you better

1. Eyes from different angles
2. Hands holding different things
3. The folds in a shirt on a hanger
4. Noses and ears
5. Your reflection in a spoon
6. A glass with water in it
7. A crumpled paper bag
8. Hair seen from behind
9. Feet, in shoes and bare
10. The shadow on a white egg
11. A face in profile, three times
12. The fur of a sleeping pet
13. The wood grain on a table
14. Clouds at sunset
15. A long hallway in perspective
16. The shine on a kettle
17. How someone sits when they're tired
18. A tree in winter, just its branches

Sketchbook challenges

1. Sketch something in one continuous line
2. Sketch in pen, with no pencil first
3. Use only three tones, white, gray and black
4. Sketch the same object every day for a week
5. Fill a page with your other hand
6. Sketch the same thing in 30 seconds, 2 minutes and 10 minutes
7. Sketch only the shadows, no outlines
8. Fill a page using one color
9. Sketch something you love and something you hate
10. Draw your morning in five tiny boxes
11. Sketch a place from memory, then go and look
12. Draw with a brush pen only
13. Sketch a portrait from a photo turned upside down
14. Fill a page with mistakes, on purpose
15. Sketch something tiny, very big
16. Draw a map of your neighborhood

A 30-day sketchbook plan

1. Day 1: your hand
2. Day 2: your favorite mug
3. Day 3: the view from a window
4. Day 4: a pair of shoes
5. Day 5: a houseplant
6. Day 6: something from the fridge
7. Day 7: a self-portrait
8. Day 8: a chair
9. Day 9: a pet, or an animal from a photo
10. Day 10: a page of eyes
11. Day 11: your bag and what's in it
12. Day 12: a tree
13. Day 13: a street or a corner outside
14. Day 14: someone reading
15. Day 15: a piece of fruit, cut open
16. Day 16: your keys
17. Day 17: something made of glass
18. Day 18: a page of hands
19. Day 19: a building
20. Day 20: clouds
21. Day 21: something you ate today
22. Day 22: a bicycle or a car
23. Day 23: a corner of your room
24. Day 24: folds in fabric
25. Day 25: a flower
26. Day 26: an object from memory, then from life
27. Day 27: a person in motion
28. Day 28: your favorite place
29. Day 29: something old
30. Day 30: your hand again, to see how far you've come