László Maholy-Nagy (Hungary, 1895 – 1946) wrote: “every drawing can be understood as a motion study since it is a path of motion recorded by graphic means.” For this challenge, take that idea and try to create sketches that record motion — in any number of forms or interpretations. You can draw something moving, or […]

This one comes from the book Doodle Revolution by Sunni Brown: “Grab a pen or marker, and try this simple exercise. Start with the following two design parameters: The line must go unbroken–don’t lift your pen from the page for about ten seconds–and the line should cross over itself multiple times, creating enclosed forms. Other than that, […]

For this sketchbook challenge, which is connected to the reading for March 27, choose one letter from the alphabet and sketch it multiple times in different fonts. This is slightly different than hand lettering, which is also a great exercise to try in your sketchbook when you can’t think of anything to draw. For hand […]

  Sketch what you ate! Or… what you WISH you had eaten, in a “I should eat healthier food” kind of way or in a “What would I have if this were my last meal” kind of way. For inspiration, I suggest @goodfoodcrapdrawing on Instagram and Liz Steel’s blog. For real-life inspiration, you need to […]

The reading for week 6 reviews design principles such as pattern/repetition, movement, balance, unity, texture, line, shape, and more. For this sketchbook challenge, do some studies of principles by sketching thumbnail compositions to represent the design principles. The eraser works great for creating negative space if you are using a pencil, and a pen creates […]

Since there were so many great examples of mixed-media sketchbooks in the comments on Response 1, I thought it would be a good idea to challenge you this week to do some mixed-media sketches. By that I mean: try some sketchbook pages in which you incorporate other media, such as paints, watercolors, tape, collage effects, […]

In the Cullen reading for today, she talks about intuition as “the inner voice” and says that is separate from reason or learned knowledge. Intuition and learned knowledge “work in conjunction” (45), she writes, but goes on to say that “the inexperienced designer may doubt personal instincts” (45) and “reason will counter many gut reactions […]