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by Liam

How to Find Drawing Ideas

How to Find Drawing Ideas

Blank Page Syndrome. It is generally spoken about in relation to writers, but illustrators are also affected by this plight. You feel like drawing, you have the time, so you get all your materials out, motivated, and then... faced with the blank page... well, you don't know what to do.

I understand you! And we can't leave things like this, so here's a little article to help you come up with drawing ideas :D

HAVING A DRAWING PROJECT THAT GENERATES IDEAS

The simplest way to always want to draw is to have a small project to work on. It can be making portraits of your family members, drawing your dream house from every angle, making greeting cards for every occasion, creating a series of illustrations around a particular theme, etc. There's no need to embark on something ambitious, we are simply looking to set a goal.

It is often much more motivating and enables you to create a framework. This will lead you to carry out research and all the preparatory work upfront, and then, as soon as you have the opportunity, to be able to execute your ideas.

 

A SKETCHING SESSION

Do you have no project ideas? Nothing that excites you? In that case, a good old sketching session! You can even have your partner or children pose. Set a little timer and it's done! A way to mix business with pleasure! I recommend you read the blog article about easy exercises for beginners, to see the different possible sketching sessions. And if you are just starting out in drawing, and would like to have more information on this, then check out the Dessindigo article how to learn to draw!

A DRAWING CHALLENGE

Have you already done many sketching sessions and have no project idea? No problem! The web is full of challenges among sketch artists. Some are one-time events, while others take place throughout the year. The advantage is that you will not be the only person participating. Lots of other artists, of all levels, will also take part. This will enable you to discover many artists, perhaps even their own vision of the challenge and their work, so you won't be all alone in your endeavor.

Some challenges are very popular, others much less so (I will indicate popularity with + signs). Some offer official lists of themes, like Inktober, others do not. It is also common to see unofficial lists appear on social networks as the challenge approaches. Having a theme for each day helps a lot.

For example, for the month on unicorns, if you have an additional theme for each day such as "jewel," "fire," "plant," "baby," "queen," etc., this will help you in designing each unicorn and boost your creativity ;p

Even when there is an official list, you are not required to follow it. This is only provided as a guideline.

CHALLENGES THROUGHOUT THE YEAR FOR FINDING IDEAS

You can find both professional artists and amateurs wanting to try their hand at character design there. Note, the instructions are given in English: https://characterdesignreferences.com/news/theme-of-the-month

MONTHLY DRAWING CHALLENGES


A creature or fantasy animal. The challenge is to draw one each day!

 


This challenge involves drawing a fairy picture every day during the month of February.

 


As its name suggests, this challenge involves drawing a robot every day in March.

 

 

 


A drawing a day related to the theme of rain - because we do not shed a thread until April is dead.

 


This is a challenge that involves drawing a mermaid every day in May.

 

 

 

 

 


A Kaiju in Japanese is a monster. So it's a month where you draw a monster a day :D

 


This challenge involves drawing a unicorn every day :D

 


This is a challenge where the goal is to draw an insect every day.

 


Lycanthropy, like lycanthropes, that is, werewolves. So, it's about a werewolf drawing per day!

 


Smaug is the name of the dragon in The Hobbit. In August, draw a dragon every day!

 


This is a challenge that involves drawing a forest animal every day, including fawns ^^

 


It's simply about creating a sketch/drawing every day in September.

 


A very popular online challenge that consists of drawing one inked drawing per day. The technique used is not important. There is an official list of themes and lots of unofficial lists ^^

 

 

 


It's Halloween month so we can also draw one drawing per day on the theme of Halloween! Note that we can combine the different challenges of October by making one inked drawing per day on the Halloween theme :D

 


This is the last one for October, I promise! This challenge is about drawing gorey, bloody, dripping, scary stuff. In short, fans of horror movies and monsters of all kinds, this challenge is for you! Once again, a drawing a day on this theme.

 


This relates to designing a character every day. A different character each day, of course!

 


This involves working a little every day on a single illustration throughout the month of November (and posting the progress on social media, of course). Ideal when you want to embark on something a bit more complex than usual. You will also be able to collect feedback from internet users every day to correct any possible mistakes.

 


A challenge focused on color! It involves choosing a shade and creating a drawing around that shade, using almost exclusively that color in monochrome. A new hue for each day ^^

 

 

 

ONE-OFF CHALLENGES TO CELEBRATE AN EVENT


"May the Force be with you", which can also be written as "May the 4th be with you". So that explains it :D It's therefore a day where we celebrate Star Wars and fan art related to the saga pops up everywhere on social media!

 

 

Not to mention the random challenges that can appear on the web like the "Draw this in your style", which involves redrawing a drawing from a generally quite famous artist in your own style!

There are probably other occasional challenges, feel free to mention in the comments if you know of any others :D

On that note, get your pencils ready!

Editor and illustrator: Rakjah