How to Keep a Life Drawing Sketchbook

Sketch of a revolver from an Old West museum.

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Are you an artist who wants to start drawing more from real life? It's easy when it becomes a habit. This article will teach you how to keep a sketchbook for life drawing. Wherever you are at, whoever may be in front of you, take advantage! Everything around you is modeling just for you.

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Instructions

Difficulty: Moderate

Things You’ll Need:

A sketchbook
A ball point pen, one in which the ink flows easily and does not scratch your paper
A willingness to let people look at your work, because they will ask

Step1

Choosing a sketchbook and a pen. There are so many different sketch-books to choose from-how do you decide? I would suggest one no smaller than 8.5 x 11 inches. If a bigger sketchbook feels comfortable in your arms, and you will have no problem carrying it around with you everywhere you go, then go for a bigger one. Also, tonal or plain white paper? You decide what will work best for you. Decide what feels best in your arm for carrying and open it up and pretend you are drawing. Does it feel comfortable? Then get it! To pick a pen, use any pen that flows well and doesn't scratch your paper. It should also not blot up or run out of ink.

Step2

To start, just start sketching random shapes and lines. Circles are good practice. Familiarize yourself with the feel of the pen and the paper. Do a full page of just this, and I do mean fill the page! Are you ready to start drawing from life?

Step3

Gatlin-basic shapes are a tube with a wheel on top of it. Start by drawing simple objects first. It is important that you get the structure of this kind of sketching by working on inanimate objects. Things that are good to start with are toys, cardboard tubes, empty boxes, cans, simple furniture, parts of a playground set, a ball, and figurines of any kind. When you are drawing, see each part as a shape. Take this gatlin gun for instance. It is basically a tube with a wheel on it. Also make sure that any crosshatching or shade lines are moving in the direction of the plane, as if you had a wire fence wrapped around the object. If you do it in another direction, the drawing will flatten out.

Step4

Sketch of my husband playing video games. Once you can draw inanimate objects very quickly (within 5 minutes) you can move onto plants, then to animals and people. Start slow with sleeping pets and people watching TV or reading. After you've perfected that, then move onto anything that moves you. I've quickly sketched people walking and even running. And any time you feel like you're frustrated or not getting it, do a sketch of yourself! That is great practice for life drawing.

Tips & Warnings

Good places to go to sketch from life:
The zoo
The mall
The beach
Museums
The bus
Pet stores
The park

Comments

robertsloan2 said

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on 4/14/2008 This article is great, and so are your pen drawings. I usually sketch in pencil, colored pencils or watercolor pencil and use a spiral bound hardback sketchbook for its sturdiness and ease of scanning. I may have to try some ballpoint sketching sometime, your art is inspirational! However, I disagree that only large sketchbooks are good for this. Sometimes a small pocket sketchbook is better if you keep one in your jacket for whenever you're out doing something else and notice something cool to draw, or have a few minutes waiting somewhere. I usually do only one or two things on a page though, in a small sketchbook. My little Moleskine has so many pages that it doesn't matter.

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