Transcripts
1. Introduction: welcome to the auto due in part three. Developing creativity there is. There are so many benefits for keeping a sketchbook whether you work in a creative field already or just started to explore your creative side as loss, having you doctor your life thoughts, they could help develop style, experience zero growth and progress over time and have a place to store your ideas. Inspirations in this class will be going over some tips to get in the habit of sketching and practicing together by starting a sketchbook and drawing today for a holy by the end of this class, you will have started a sketchbook. Have confidence and ideas for how to continue it even stuck and be ready to further expand your creative. I hope you'll join us. Can't wait to see what you create.
2. About the Project: the project for this class will be you to start a sketchbook and draw in it every day for a week. Through this week of drawing exercises, we will be tackling to common roadblocks to keeping a sketchbook. The first is getting in the habit, and the second is not having ideas or not knowing what to draw. So by drawing every day, we will help me get part of our daily routine and will be sketching from a list of reusable prompts that I'll be providing so we will never be in a place of running out of ideas. You're welcome to come with your own prompt as well well, firstly, going over us and sketch preparation materials as well as mental prep that will set you up for success and then go through each of the daily prompts and give some ideas of different ways. You can use them
3. Material Prep: It doesn't take much to start a sketchbook, but I just want to show you guys what I typically use. Allergies. A notebook that's big enough to draw comfortably in, but also small enough to carry around everywhere. I also like it to be blank, unlined and unrated pages inside for writing utensils. I usually carry around a pencil, and a couple of fine depends. Those are my basics. And if I want to be a little fancier, I'll also use Tom bullpens. Sometimes you can use whatever you like these air just to give you some ideas, but the point is, you really don't need much or anything too fancy.
4. Mental Mindset: just as important as physical materials is your mental preparation. So there are four things to remember when sketch booking The first thing is to be intentional with setting aside time to draw. It helps you to build a habit, even if you just put aside five minutes a day for drawing. Just having that consistency will help to build the habit. The second thing to remember is quantity over quality, and I know usually people say quality over quantity. But in this case, when it comes to brainstorming and coming up with ideas, the more ideas you can get out in a short amount of time, the quicker you can get two more original ideas rather than spending a lot of time on just one idea. Number three, it helps to have a list of prompt or topics to choose from. That way, you don't have to feel like you're starting from scratch every time or have no idea where to start. And having some structure for where to start helps make starting a lot less intimating. And finally, um, just be observant throughout your day for ideas, things that make you laugh, things that you could maybe incorporate into your sketches. And you'd be surprised how much inspirations already around you in your normal everyday life
5. Prompts: so I'll be going over each of the daily prompts and ways you can use them as well as examples of ways that I've used them in the past. I chose a mixture of words and drawings because sometimes sketching doesn't necessarily have to be pictures and words can be illustrated as well. The first prompt is to draw the highlight of the day. What was something memorable from that day? It can be things like hanging out with a friend, some kind of accomplishment, something funny that happened that day. A couple examples from me. This was something that I thought was funny. A friend of mine wanted Teoh hang out with a bunch of us on a Saturday night, do something fun together, something spontaneous, and we really couldn't think of anything and ended up just going to McDonalds and eating. Another highlight was just a simple, nacho happy art with a friend, and that was something that I drew in my sketchbook as well. The second prompt is writing phrases or notes. These can be class or meeting notes. A lot of times I'll take notes in my sketchbook for meetings and just try to make them as visually interesting. It's possible, and a lot of times I come with interesting ways to draw things while taking notes in meetings. It can also be song lyrics or quotes that have kind of caught your attention recently and can be really fun. Things to use prompts to draw in your sketchbook. A couple examples from me This is a song lyric that I heard it was just interesting and caught my attention. I wasn't really sure what it meant, and I decided to write it. Here are a couple examples of notes I've taken at things like conferences and sermons and talks, and so I can't be as sketchbook entries as well, because I always try to sketch out visuals of the things that I'm hearing while I'm writing and listening Props. Number three is to draw an observation so this can be something that you see were observed in a coffee shop or maybe interesting people you notice on the bus or a flower or plant while you're taking a walk that you just kind of observe and can draw, and it doesn't even have to be something interesting like sometimes I just look around me and pick the first thing that I see and I'll just draw it or I'll just think of, um, I'll observe the situation I'm in and just draw that out. So one example is I was observing that the weather that day was pretty weird. It was sunny in the morning and then it rained, and then it was sunny again. And then the forecast said there would be thunderstorms. So, observing that I sort of drew out this little illustration of, uh, me throughout the day in various weather, another one is just this sketch from vacation. I was visiting an island, and just through the view from where I was sitting prom Number four is to think of one word to sort of sum up or describe the day. This can also be a really good way to just reflect on your day and think about how it was overall, Um, yeah, so it could be any kind of word. It doesn't necessarily have to be an adjective. It could be a noun verb. Um, you can be creative with that. So a couple of my samples one is this word. Ah ha. And I think that day I had and ah ha moment. And that was something that really stuck out to me and really sort of to find my day. This one grateful I wrote on Thanksgiving because I was thinking about things that I was grateful for and felt like that summed up the day pretty well, too. The fifth prompt is to draw out a conversation that you have or that you overheard. So it's you can draw it out in sort of a comic book style exchange or just something that shows what happened in the conversation, using the conversation as inspiration for your drawing. So for me, I, like, draw out in a comic style. So in this one, I I had a conversation with the braced at the coffee shop about a drink that he made up. And this one, um, this was a conversation between my roommates that I thought was funny, and I wanted to document an illustration. Trump number six. I thought you had. This is another sort of reflective, prompt, um, sometimes like to think about what I've been thinking about and write down some of those thoughts, and it could be something serious, lighthearted, random. There was there was a point where I really like to at the end of the day, sort of draw right out. Um, a word cloud of what kind of thoughts I had that day and things I thought about more would be larger in the cloud. And then other topics that have been floated through my mind would be smaller. And that was pretty interesting to see what been going through your mind. I also like Teoh, um, sort of illustrate thoughts or write out thoughts that I have written in my journal. Sometimes there are a lot of interesting things there. My first example is this phrase that I said to my college roommate when I was really stressed out and I ended up writing it down and adding an illustration. Another example is a perfect storm. There was a situation in my life where I felt like a perfect storm. Felt like the best way for me to kind describe the situation. And so I wrote that down the seventh and final prompt, which I really like, is to draw how you felt. So rather than describing how you feel illustrating it, and it can be either a very literal illustration, maybe a facial expression that shows how you felt Or, um, like an analogy or a metaphor for how you felt. One example I have is me standing on an iceberg, and the feeling that I'm illustrating here is the feeling of being trapped from all sides and not really knowing where to go. This other example is when I was feeling very tired and in need of a lot of coffee, and I think this one is a little more self explanatory than the other example, but yeah, so I hope this helps in giving you some ideas of ways that you can use and reuse thes daily prompts in different ways. And now it's your turn to run with them and be creative and good luck on your week of sketching.
6. Conclusion: congratulations on starting your sketchbook. I hope you have fun with the process and are happy with what you created. As you continue withdrawing, it will help you be more observant. It'll help give you a reason to create regularly. Help you reflect with day document your thoughts, memories, styled time. There's just so many things that for me personally, I learned through sketchbook to start experimenting with different materials and different types of pence. I also learned that I've really enjoyed drawing comics, which I previously didn't really think I knew how to do good at, but they're just trying it in my sketchbook. I kind of figured it out and realize that really enjoyed it and started trying to improve on it. Look forward to seeing your projects in the gallery and you've enjoyed taking this class.
Cathy Wu, Freelance designer & illustrator
