This project used 100 sketches to increase familiarity with pencil and paper. These sketches each had a prompt, which is shown below the picture.
Though I drew all 100 sketches, I found it very interesting how much my drawing ability ranged. For example, if I was more tired while drawing, or if I simply didn't enjoy the prompt as much, the sketch would not be as well done, and would appear rushed or sloppy. It amazed me how much my talent could simply vanish if I wasn't completely invested in the task at hand. Even to a casual observer, it is fairly clear when I enjoyed a prompt or not. I particularly liked sketches that required taking a vanishing point into account. These are not the types of drawings that I do regularly, so it was fun to do something different. I had also never done blind contours before, and I found them very intriguing. I did not like sketches that were based off of an imagined image, as I found it very difficult to remember each detail, and the drawing never seemed to come out quite right.
1. "Freehand draw (without a ruler or any other straight edge) and fill a page with horizontal lines that are spaced at their own width, that is, the spaces and lines between them are the same thickness."
2. "Freehand draw (without a ruler or any other straight edge) and fill a page with vertical lines that are spaced at their own width, that is, the spaces and lines between them are the same thickness."
3. "Fill a page (do not allow a border) by freehand drawing circles, where each circle is a unique size."
4. "Hold an egg in your hand and freehand draw it from 10 different views on one page."
5. "Place a coffee cup under a towel so that you can feel it but not see it. Draw from feeling the cup."
6. "Draw the inside of your mouth by feeling it with your own tongue: record all your teeth, the roof of your mouth, the inside of your lips, possibly your tongue itself."
7. "Draw your non-dominant hand as a blind contour using your dominant hand. Catalog and recod as much detail as you possibly can. Do not worry about proportion, perspective or other issues of realistic representation. Your guiding principle is the translation of accurate observation into marks on paper."
8. "Draw your dominant hand as a blind contour using your non-dominant hand. Catalog and record as much detail as you possibly can."
9. "Cut open an apple and lay the two pieces on the table. Draw it as a blind contour."
10. "Draw a series of lines on one page that convey the feelings: relaxed, hurried, hesitant, light, heavy, sharp, soft."
11. "Freehand draw 15 circles where the line describing the bottom of the circle is thicker than the line describing the top of the circle. Experiment with varying hand pressure and pencil angle. Aim for smooth transition and a suggestion of weight and volume to the circle."
12. "Use a straightedge to draw 15 rectangles. Experiment with thickening the sides of the rectangle in varying combinations, so that each rectangle is individual in size, proportion, and which sides are thickened. Aim for variety."
13. "Draw a bicycle from memory. Attempt to record every single element of a bicycle, with completion your goal. Proportion and position of the elements is secondary."
14. "Hold a CFL light bulb in your hand and freehand draw it, aiming for accurate observation."
15. "Lay a CFL light bulb on the desk or table in front of you, sketch it lightly on the page, capturing it first as a series of ovals that block in the shape. Lightly draw center vertical and horizontal axis that mark off the length and width of the light bulb. With a firmer line, draw in the light bulb as accurately as possible."
16. "Place a pair of scissors or pliers under a light source so that it casts a visible shadow. Draw the scissors or pliers and shadow from observation."
17. "Crumple a piece of plain paper into a semi-enclosed form larger than your fist. Place it under a light source so that some of the paper is dark from shadow, and some of the paper is bright. On a page, shade by gently drawing soft parallel lines very close together (hatching) and record only the darker planes of the crumpled paper. This will not produce a realistic drawing, but one with unexpected shapes and patterns."
18. "Fill a clear glass with ice and water. Observe the middle section of the glass and using blind contour, draw everything you can see."
19. "Fill a clear glass with ice and water and use a straight edge to capture the objects accurately in terms of scale, that is, paying special attention to the relative size of the ice cubes to each other and to the glass."
20. "Draw your bare feet using blind contour."
21. "Draw your bare feet working from general to specific, sketching lightly first rounded geometric shapes, then width and length marks, then finally, just your toes in detail and with bold line."
22. "Play a song you enjoy and while you listen, draw 20 lines on a page, one for a beat. The movement of the lines should match the way the music sounds to you."
23. "Draw a frozen frame from a television show with at least three characters visible, in such a way that a viewer recognizes the subject as a television screen, without including the actual edges of the screen."
24. "Cover an entire page with crosshatching, that is, close, almost touching, parallel intersected with another set of close, almost touching, parallel lines."
25. "Draw your face in the mirror using blind contour."
26. "Using a ruler or straight edge, look in the mirror and locate the position of your left eye to your nose as accurately as possible. You need only represent the eye and nose as basic shapes: ellipses, rectangles, and triangles; the scale and location are most important.
27. "Draw your breakfast using blind contour."
28. "Draw your lunch using blind contour."
29. "Draw your dinner using blind contour."
30. "Place an egg near a light source so that it casts a shadow. Draw both the egg and its shadow as accurately as possible."
31. "Draw a pinecone as accurately as possible."
32. "Peel a banana halfway open and draw it as accurately as possible."
33. "Sketch your dream car, actual or imagined."
34. "Draw from observation your bed when it is unmade."
35. "Draw from observation your bed when it is made."
36. "Sitting at one end of a room so that the windows and walls are trapezoids, use your straight edge or ruler to draw a wall of at least three windows."
37. "In a different room, repeat exercise 36."
38. "Accurately draw stairs from observation."
39. "Set up a clear glass so that it casts a shadow. Using the side of the pencil to gently shade, capture without sharp line the shadow, without the glass, paying close attention to variation in value, such that the thickness of the glass and the resulting darker or lighter shadow is apparent."
40. "Accurately draw a can opener from observation."
41. "Sketch a robot dog with only parts made of cylinders and globes. Shade so that the robot dog appears to have volume."
42. "Draw a wet towel on the floor using blind contour."
43. "Draw a dry towel in such a way that it is recognizable as dry. Do not use words."
44. "Draw a stove using blind contour."
45. "Draw a stove using ruler or straight edge and from observation."
46. "Find a copyright free image of a bird on Wikimedia Commons and capture the correct proportions and relative location of the beak to the head. Do not worry about detail, only about the accuracy of the bird's profile (without tracing!)"
47. "Using the same or another copyright image of a bird, draw its eye as accurately as possible (without tracing!)."
48. "Holding a roll of masking tape in your hand, draw its basic shape from five different views so that you have ellipses of varying widths. One view should be straight on, so that the basic shape is a rectangle."
49. "Draw a roll of masking tape from three different angles with accurate edges and form."
50. "Hang a roll of masking tape on your non-dominant hand like a bracelet. Draw the tape and your hand as a blind contour."
51. "Hold a roll of masking tape in your non-dominant fist. Draw the tape and your hand using blind contour."
52. "Set up a roll of masking tape standing upright with two light sources so that there are multiple shadows. Draw the tape and its shadows using crosshatching or soft shading."
53. "Draw from your imagination a car designed for a giraffe to drive."
54. "Draw from your imagination a mechanical parrot. Use line quality to suggest the metallic surfaces."
55. "Draw from memory (don't peek!) a pair of scissors."
56. "Draw from observation a pair of scissors in such a way that a viewer can recognize which edges would be sharp and which would be dull."
57. "Trace a leaf. Over the tracing, draw the same leaf using blind contour. Darken in any shapes that form where the lines overlap."
58. "Draw from observation a hallway where you can easily see the lines of the walls, ceiling, and floor appear to converge."
59. "Using your straight edge or ruler, draw your bed in your room as accurately as possible, focusing on scale and location, not detail, so that you may draw the room and bed as nested boxes."
60. "Draw a squirrel from memory. (Still don't peek!) Just try and remember all the different parts and relative scale of its body."
61. "Observe squirrels outdoors and draw another squirrel, this time more accurately."
62. "Trace a leaf. Over the tracing, draw the same leaf using blind contour. Darken in any shapes that form where the lines overlap."
63. "Using your straight edge or ruler, draw an imaginary skyline."
64. "Using a photograph of the Moon’s surface from the link above, draw craters and ridges using only lines."
65. "Using a photograph of the Moon’s surface from the link above, draw craters and ridges using blind contour."
66. "Using a photograph of the Moon’s surface from the link above, draw craters and ridges using only soft shading with the side of the pencil and smudges using your finger."
67. "Using a photograph of the Moon’s surface from the link above, draw craters and ridges by shading darkly then removing graphite with your eraser to create the light areas."
68. "Using a photograph of the Moon’s surface from the link above, draw craters and ridges using only guided (by straight edge, ruler, or compass) lines."
69. "Sketch in a loose style a design for flying shoes."
70. "Draw in a geometric, hard edged style a design for flying shoes."
71. "Set up a still life of a shoe with two other objects and draw it accurately from observation."
72. "Draw a pretzel from observation, paying special attention to surface texture."
73. "Draw a building with at least ten stories from observation. Use a straight edge or ruler to get good, strong, vertical lines."
74. "Draw a construction vehicle from observation, noting the location and time when the sketch was done."
75. " Draw the space building where Chipotle and Starbucks are located on Grand from memory (really no peeking!)"
76. "Draw the space building where Chipotle and Starbucks are located on Grand from observation, noting your location and the time of day when you do the drawing. Use a straight edge or ruler to get good horizontal and vertical lines."
77. "Draw a guitar from memory. Try and get every part necessary to make music."
78. "Imagine a cross between a fire engine and an elephant. Draw this."
79. "Find a seed pod. Hold it in your hand and draw it enlarged to fill a page. Capture the texture."
80. "Find a reflective vessel such as a kettle or a pot. Place it near a coffee cup. Draw the cup’s reflection, capturing any distortion as accurately as possible. You don't need to draw the pot."
81. "Draw a small potted plant from observation, capturing all the leaves and stems, but only with line, no shading."
82. "Draw a fork from observation as accurately as possible."
83. "Draw a comb with hair in it as accurately as possible."
84. "Draw from observation, cars on a street, where the cars are rectangles and the street is just a few lines, but the cars seem to get smaller as they recede from view and the street converges. Note the location from where you draw the street."
85. "Place three boxes below you on the floor when you sit to draw. Draw the boxes as simple linear forms and as they appear to you in perspective."
86. "Place three boxes on the table where you sit to draw. Draw the boxes as simple linear forms as they appear to you, viewed straight on."
87."Place three boxes up high from where you sit to draw. Draw the boxes as simple linear forms as they appear to you in perspective."
88. "Draw a salt shaker from observation rendering it as simplified, geometric forms which are accurate in scale and location. Pour some salt on the table next to the salt shaker and draw that too, using dots."
89. "Take a long sleeve, collared shirt or blouse and lay it out flat and unbuttoned so that you can see all the inner seams. As if you were making a pattern, accurately draw the piece or pieces of fabric that make the back of the shirt."
90. "Pause an animated television show with one character visible and draw the character, working loosely and lightly, mark down basic shapes and then width and length axis until you draw its face, confidently and accurately. The rest of the drawing should remain sketched and light."
91. "Open a can and push its top up. Draw the can and lid plus the edges of the label as accurately as possible, paying attention to the ellipses of the top and bottom edges of the can as well as the ellipse of the lid."
92. "Place a sheet over a chair. Draw from observation, the sheet so that the form of the chair is recognizable, without drawing the chair."
93. "Find three round objects, set them up with a light source from the side, and draw them suggesting weight, light, and shadow with variation in line width."
94. "Draw your kitchen sink using blind contour."
95. "Draw your toilet from observation and using a straight edge or ruler to get it as accurate as possible. Use only line; do not shade or hatch."
96. "Draw from observation, a plant growing outdoors. Note the location and time of day from where you draw."
97. "Using a straight edge or ruler, capture the converging lines of library bookshelves. You do not need to draw the books, but all the shelves from floor to ceiling on both sides."
98. "Using drawing guides, create from your imagination a scene of large glass globes floating in dark water."
99. "Draw clouds from memory at the top of the page, using the ruler or straight edge, draw rain filling the rest of the page, streaming at an angle, in drops or streams, as you imagine it."
100. "Set a timer for two minutes. Put your pencil to the page. Close your eyes. Draw your hand drawing itself, both the hand and the drawing of the drawing hand, and do not stop drawing until the time is up."
