Words + Colors

Sketchbook Adventures, Part 2

A few weeks back I shared a sketchbook creativity prompt and thought it would be fun to make that a regular thing. There are days when I sit down to sketch with oodles of ideas. But often, there are days where I stare at the paper and nothing comes. So my goal with these creativity kick-starts is to help both myself, and anyone reading, to get drawing and stop overthinking.

So… What’s the goal of this prompt?

Working with parameters.

I’ve mentioned it previously here, but it bears repeating: parameters are incredibly beneficial for artists. As creatives, our brains are hardwired to look for the unexpected answer. A blank slate for creativity can sometimes be just too much freedom. But hem us in and that’s when the really clever things start appearing. If I suggest you draw a cat, you may spend several minutes stumped, then begin to sketch a bunch of ideas aimlessly. But if I tell you to draw a cat making a movie about mice and you can only use two colors, you’ll be drawing a feline Fellini in no time. And you’ll most likely have multiple ways to represent this cat, all because of parameters. For illustrators, the ability to generate ideas within constraints is crucial.

So for this activity, break out your sketchbook. You’ll also need either paint or markers, as well as a pencil or pen. Start by drawing a grid of squares lightly. Or rectangles. Your choice. They don’t need to be perfect and no need to bother with a ruler. You can make them all the same size, or go crazy and create a whole range of dimensions.

The squares are there. I promise. Squint if you have to.

Once you’ve pencilled in your shapes, start filling them up with color using either paint or marker. Make each shape a different color. Don’t think too much about this; go with what resonates.

Wait for your paint or marker to dry fully. Once that’s done, grab a drawing tool. I used an HB pencil, but you could use a pen if that’s your jam. Now your task is this: for each shape, observe the color and draw something that represents that color. So if you painted an orange square, you’d draw something orange within that shape. I punted and drew… an orange. But I could have drawn a sunrise, zinnia, a mysterious potion or a lifejacket.

For the teal color, I drew the bluebird that nests in the box outside my bedroom window. We’ve already addressed my boring orange square. The ferns that are everywhere this time of year take up the green box. There’s a fish in blue and a Key Lime Pie (my favorite) in the minty green. Blue eyes and a sailor’s delight sky come next. There’s a yellow sun and blue/violet Lupine. That pinky color made me think of childhood sunburns I’d earn on the beach in New Castle. British Soldiers lichen grew up in the greenish blue box. And the small green rectangle became a college cardigan I loved until it fell apart and its neighbor, the peas growing in my garden.

I didn’t overthink these, rather going with the very first thing that popped into my mind. I wanted to draw whatever immediate connection existed in my brain between color and memory. An additional constraint was the size of the box. Smaller boxes made me think about what I was drawing differently than larger boxes. And by sticking with just a pencil for drawing, I didn’t get hung up on adding additional values.

You could absolutely take this prompt in a range of directions. Maybe you’d want to try different shapes, amorphous blobs contrasting with severe triangles. You could always do a purely greyscale version, thinking of the range of lights to darks in everyday living (i.e, that grey light in the early morning vs. the darkness of car tires on the highway). Or, you could stick to just one range of colors (all blues) or, just one value range.

However you choose to run with this, I hope it’s an easy way to start generating ideas and get drawing!