Drawing Studies - Venture outdoors!

If you spend most of your time indoors (I definitely do), spending some time outside is not only a good practice to improve your mental well being, but it's a great way to find subjects to draw.

I'm lucky enough to have a backyard and I love to find various plants, critters, as well as random objects to draw. If you don't have a backyard, see if you can venture somewhere in nature (but please be safe!). You're bound to find some different plants, critters, or random man-made or natural objects to draw.

Wildflowers, weeds, ferns, and different types of grasses are some of my favorite things to do art studies on. They're a great way to draw various shapes you may never have otherwise (there's naturally so much variation here), to draw things in perspective, and practice drawing 3D forms in general.

Although it’s a seemingly boring drawing subject normally, this rain downspout actually has a lot of detail and character when you take a closer look at it. Drawing something like this a great way to practice drawing inorganic forms, as well as incorporate various textures and changes in form. Start with the most basic shapes, then go into the details (this is a great rule of thumb for drawing in general). I love how much weathering is shown here, and showing that in a drawing, to me, helps bring it more into reality. There seems to be a more tangible feeling to the drawing. After all, it's not just a random piece of metal in pristine condition -- it's been in this environment for some time and it shows in its form. I think that's neat, and I can use this study to incorporate this concept in my art overall.

Should you decide to draw a critter, I would suggest drawing its most basic forms first, then drawing the details afterwards. If you can identify the critter, then even if it moves out of view, you can draw in the details using a photo reference.

After doing these drawing studies, try and come up with various concepts to incorporate what you learned. Maybe you can draw a new creature, or a variation on a plant you drew, or incorporate those into a landscape or into the design of a house!

Here are a few studies I did today!

If you decide to do this activity, I hope you have fun doing so, and I hope that you create drawings you love from what you learned from your studies. Happy drawing!