31 inspiring drawing challenges
1 ✏ Free-flowing shapes
Wet a thick piece of paper and drop a few drops of Ecoline (or paint) in different colours onto it. See what happens and how they blend into one another. Leave it to dry. Take a good look at the shapes. What do you see in them? Let your imagination run wild; use a fine brush to turn the Ecoline stain into an animal, a flower, a house, a figure, …
What you’ll need: ecoline (or watered down paint), regular brush, fine brush or thin marker
2 ✏ Particular portraits
Paint a sturdy piece of paper or a sketchbook page black (using Indian ink or black paint) and leave it to dry. Then draw your portrait on it using a marker pen (such as a Posca). It doesn’t have to be perfect. Then draw your self portrait again on that sheet, but this time with your eyes closed or from a different perspective.
Repeat this a few times and experiment: dare to draw lines over lines and try switching hands on purpose.
What you’ll need: Indian ink (or black paint/marker), paintbrush, chalk pen (alternatively: pastel chalk, oil pastel, soft coloured pencil in a light shade)
3 ✏ Wasco-printing
Colour a page (from your sketchbook, for example) with wax crayons. Place another page on top of it (the next page of your sketchbook, for example). Draw a sketch with a pen on that page. Your pen drawing will show through the wax crayon, creating a new, colourful drawing on the reverse side.
What you’ll need: wasco or oil pastel, pen
4 ✏ Without outlines
Draw an everyday scene, such as a table setting or a still life, without outlines: build up the image using areas of colour (in oil pastels, felt-tip pens, etc.). Work without a preliminary pencil sketch. If you do use a line, choose a coloured one and avoid black or grey.
What you’ll need: colourful art supplies
5 ✏ Charcoal magic
Make a charcoal drawing of a plant.
Cover the page evenly in grey using charcoal. Remove the lighter areas with a kneaded eraser, and build up the darker areas with several layers of charcoal. Use strong contrasts to create volume and depth. Details and highlights should only be added at the end. Need an extra challenge? Then limit your drawing time to ten minutes.
What you’ll need: charcoal (alternatively: a very soft graphite pencil or pastel), kneaded eraser
6 ✏ Mail art
Draw or stick something onto a blank postcard and send it to someone you care about. That person can then get creative with it in any way they like: drawing, collage, painting… Anything goes – big or small, on the front or the back. The card is forwarded until someone decides: ‘It’s finished!’ That’s when the card is collected.
What you’ll need: blanco postcard or paper in the right size, art materials
7 ✏ Walking and drawing
Draw what you see during your walk, as a kind of report. You can challenge yourself by not stopping, but drawing whilst you walk.
What you’ll need: sketchbook, drawing materials, walking shoes
8 ✏ Waiting game
Today, take your sketchbook to a place where people are waiting, such as a railway station. Sketch the people waiting – they make ideal models, given all the poses they strike. Bear in mind, they aren’t posing, so you shouldn’t expect them to stand still.
What you’ll need: your sketchbook
9 ✏ Turn the page
Draw individual elements. Flip the page after each element. This creates a fresh composition.
What you’ll need: art materials of your choice
10 ✏ Don't look back
Choose a subject and study it carefully for one minute. Then turn away from the subject. Draw it as accurately as possible from memory. Try not to correct your drawing by looking at it again. Notice which details stick in your mind and which fade away.
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
11 ✏ Hatch it
Choose a subject and draw it using hatch marks. Vary your line work and the type of markings you use.
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
12 ✏ Sketch what's inside
Choose an everyday object. Draw it as if it has been cut in half. Keep the outside recognisable, but give the inside an unexpected interpretation (functional or completely absurd).
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
13 ✏ Carving colors
Colour your sheet with oil pastels, using different colours. Draw or scratch a picture into this background using coloured pencils. Feeling uninspired about what to draw? Look out of the window, go out into your garden or sit by your houseplants.
What you’ll need: oil pastels, coloured pencils
14 ✏ Spread your wings
Draw a figure or a little creature, or cut one out of a magazine and use it in a collage. Give him/her/it some drawn or glued-on insect or bird wings.
What you'll need: drawing materials of your choice, magazines & glue (optional)
15 ✏ Vivid shapes
Find a piece of coloured paper. Cut out a random shape. Turn it around and look at it until you start to see something in it (a head, an object, the start of something). Draw a picture using this shape.
What you'll need: coloured paper, scissors, glue
16 ✏ Touch and draw
Sit down with your pencil and paper in front of you. Keep one hand behind your back. Ask someone to place an object in this hand. Try to draw the object, using only your sense of touch. What shape is it? How big is it, and what details does it have?
What you’ll need: an object, drawing materials by your choice
17 ✏ String drawings
Tie a piece of string about 5 cm long to your ballpoint pen. Dip the end of the string in ink. Let the string touch your paper and trace the outline of your friend, partner, mum, cat, child, grandparent or neighbour. Because you lose a bit of control, you’ll create a new kind of line work.
What you’ll need: string, ink, paper, ballpoint pen
18 ✏ Scissor portrait
Take a pair of scissors (or another object with lots of shapes). Use the scissors as a template to draw a random portrait. Follow the curves and lines of the scissors with your pencil. Move the scissors around each time and look for shapes that suit the portrait.
What you’ll need: pair of scissors, drawing material of your choice
19 ✏ Three lines only
Create a drawing with only 3 lines. Use a different colour for each line. The line must not be broken; you may only choose a new starting point when you change colour.
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
20 ✏ Long limbs
Draw a character with extremely long limbs.
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
21 ✏ Go geometric
Draw a portrait or a figure, but only use geometric shapes (such as circles, rectangles, triangles, etc.).
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
22 ✏ Stacking plates
Stack the kitchen utensils to create a sculptural piece that gives you a sense of (im)balance. Try drawing this tower in a continuous line and capturing the tension in your sketchbook.
What you’ll need: kitchen utensils, drawing materials of your choice
Sculpture and sketch by Hilde Marcoen
23 ✏ Drawing things to live
What if an object could talk? Choose any object on the table. Draw it with a face and an expression.
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
Sketch by Vera Hoozee
24 ✏ Newspaper drawings
Cut out a piece of text from a newspaper (a complete sentence or just a few words) and stick it at the bottom of your page. Draw an image above it that interacts with your text. You can take the words literally, create a mysterious connection with them or deliberately contrast with them.
What you’ll need: newspaper, a pair of scissors, glue, drawing materials of your choice
Sketch by Karine Geens
25 ✏ Your inner expressionist
Pick out a lovely landscape photo and take a coloured sheet of paper. Work with complementary colours: red-green, yellow-purple or blue-orange. Sketch the outline of your landscape in pencil. Then colour in your drawing using a colour complementary to your sheet. Use different shades of your chosen colour (e.g. various shades of blue). Start with the light colours and finish with the darker shades. Vary your lines, shapes, planes, shadows, textures, perspective, depth, etc.
What you’ll need: coloured paper, landscape photo, coloured drawing materials (such as coloured pencils, oil pastels, soft pastels, neo-colours, felt-tip pens, etc)
26 ✏ Urban sketching
Head out and find a nice spot. Settle down in a quiet spot with a good view. Look for an interesting composition and start by sketching the large areas in pencil. Decide what to include in your drawing and what to leave out. Feel free to add elements that aren’t actually there; give it your own twist. Then finish your drawing using your favourite medium and experiment with colours.
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
27 ✏ Animal tracing
Find a large or detailed photo of an animal and place it next to you. Take a sheet of (preferably old) paper and place carbon paper over it. Sketch the animal on your carbon paper with a pen, without looking at your sheet and without lifting your pen. In other words, draw the animal in a single continuous line. Focus on details such as fur, feathers, textures, and patterns. Take your time.
What you’ll need: carbon paper, photo of an animal, pen
28 ✏ Drawing roulette
Go for a short walk. During your walk, choose an object to draw. Settle down on the spot, or take a photo and draw it at home. Lay out six materials in a row. A colourful mix of colours, control, chaos or texture: pencil, pastel, ink, brush or marker – the choice is yours. Every time your hand stops moving or you lift your material off the paper, you must switch to a different material. Once the row is complete, start again from the beginning.
What you’ll need: 6 different drawing materials
29 ✏ Paper stencils
Make some stencils out of paper. Cut out abstract or concrete shapes from a sheet of paper (e.g. based on something you see in your surroundings). Now create a charcoal base on a new sheet of paper. Place your stencil on top and let your imagination run wild: colour in the cut-outs or use an eraser to make the shape white. By shifting, repeating and layering your stencils, you’ll create a surprising composition. Fix the work afterwards.
What you’ll need: sheets of paper, pair of scissors, charcoal, (charcoal) eraser
30 ✏ Drawing ban
Find a subject with pronounced shadows. Sketch only the shadow shapes onto the paper, without drawing any lines. To see the shadows more clearly, you can narrow your eyes slightly and look through your eyelashes. If necessary, add a few sparse lines, but don’t turn it into a colouring picture. Let the connected shadow areas do their work.
What you’ll need: drawing materials of your choice
