Sketchbook is a great tool for students to have in any art related class. And having a short silent sketchbook session in the beginning of each class is a great way to help students get into the mind set for art class. It also serves as a great transition period away from the hallway. And by providing students with a variety of topics to draw for their sketchbook activities; it also helps students to develop critical thinking/reflection/analyzing skills. And here I am providing a list of interesting topics for students to draw for their sketchbook activities than I have used in my practicum.
1. Pick two animals that reflect you
and combine them to create a new
animal
2. Draw an object and give it human
qualities
3. Illustrate an imaginary place in
your mind
4. Look up a word from the dictionary
and find a definition you never
knew about and create an artwork
in response to that definition
5. Draw a pile of unfolded laundry
6. Make a visual pun (ex. eggplant)
7. Draw your eye using a mirror
8. Do an image transfer using clear
tape or acrylic medium
9. Create a mosaic out of cut pieces
of magazines
10. Create a pattern
11. Photocopy your previous work and
paint over it
12. Fill a page with doodles
13. Draw a memory from childhood
14. Draw your favorite t shirt
15. Make your own drawing instrument
and draw
16. Design your own graffiti
17. Combine organic and geometric
shapes
18. Cut photographs to create a new
image
19. Find three images and join them
together
20. Make animated flip-book using the
corner of your sketchbook
21. Draw something backwards or
using your non dominant hand
22. Take turns drawing with someone
23. Use the spine of the sketchbook to
create an interesting image
24. Create a metaphorical self portrait
25. Pop-inspired drawing with personal
symbols or words
26. Draw something that doesn’t
belong to you
27. Draw many views of the same
object
28. Draw your hand and fill it in as if it
was a map
29. If objects had a skeleton what
would it look like
30. Doodle listening to music: pay
attention to the beat and draw
your own creative musical score
31. Draw what’s in your bag
32. Fill a page by writing whatever
comes to your mind
33. Draw something that doesn’t last
34. Do a blind contour drawing
35. Illustrate your favorite poem
36. Draw things that “connect”
37. Draw three objects with wheels
38. Create a sculpture from things that
are around you and draw it
39. Write a list of unusual things that
people do
40. Draw things that open and close
41. Draw your greatest fear
42. Create a character and draw it with
five different noses.
43. Invent and draw an imaginary
world on a toothbrush
44. Design your own handbag /car
45. Do a self portrait looking into a
spoon
46. Design an ad for a product you
invented
47. Create your own book of textures
48. Make a small viewfinder and move
it around a photo or image until
you find an interesting section and
enlarge the found image
49. What is home to you? Write, draw,
or collage about it
50. Design a method of transportation
not yet invented.
51. What do you see in the clouds?
52. Magnify a section of a leaf
53. Write about your earliest memory
54. Do a scribble. In it find an animal
or any kind of imaginary creature
55. Shine a light on an object and draw
it
56. Draw something/someone and distort it (ex.
Big head, tiny feet)
57. Collect images of movement
58. Illustrate a scene from a story
59. Draw the silhouette of an object
60. Record the texture of a driftwood
61. Draw something ugly
62. Simplify an artist’s painting
63. Sketch your hand, recording all
visible creases and folds
64. Draw your lunch & journal about it
65. Pick a small object and enlarge it
66. Create contrast between two ideas
67. Make a poster for a social cause
68. Go outside and do gesture
drawings of people
69. Do a contour drawing and fill the
negative space with collage
70. Pick a noun from a dictionary at
random and illustrate it