Tuesday, December 18, 2007

New Art Materials? Cool, but now what?



For me, holidays meant new art materials. But sometimes I'd be so excited about using the materials, I couldn't think of what to draw. Here are some ideas for when you get stuck:

Worm's eye view: get down on the ground and draw things while looking up.

Design a new bedroom. If I had a million dollars, what would I do?

How about a mural? Would your parents let you paint one on your bedroom wall? What about on a huge piece of paper instead?

Try your hand at one point perspective. http://www.olejarz.com/arted/perspective/

Draw your hand. You can imagine it holding all sorts of shapes: a glass, a pen, an invisible dollar.... What do hands look like in American Sign Language shapes? Hands can keep you busy for days...

Texturize it. Look carefully at the textures of everything around you. How is the floor texturized? Does it have a rug on it? Is it shag or tightly woven? Is it embroidered? Is the floor wood? Is it Linoleum? Look at the couch. Is it cloth or leather? Tightly wrapped around the frame or stuffed? Fluffy or smooth? Look at the chairs, the tables, the bookstand. Everything has textures. How can you show those on paper?

Mirror, mirror: put things in front of a mirror and try drawing them and their reflection. Look at the reflections in things like a toaster, a frying pan, a pool of water...

Blow up an image. Make a giant drawing of a candy bar, or a piece of jewelry, or a toothbrush. How does it feel different when you look at it large? Blow it up another way. Imagine someone pumped up a toothbrush with air, or an apple or a notebook. What would an inflated leaf look like, or a fork or a computer?