Has your sketching time become a chore? Do you dread that “oh now I need to figure out what to draw!” moment? I hope I’ll have a little fun to inspire you to make that daily drawing time a lot more impactful for you!

Looking around your home/studio to find “something to draw” can lead you to the same objects again and again, especially if you follow my advice to draw from real life, every day for at least a few minutes.

Yes even if you “can’t” draw. That’s when it’s even MORE helpful! Get yourself a sketchbook and a pencil, promise yourself you won’t show that sketchbook to another living soul, preserving your dignity. Then draw daily!

I know I have too many cups, glasses, and bowls in my sketchbooks. Lots of fruit, cookies. Yes I have a food problem but that’s for a different blog post! But I like drawing those things. So how do we take those same objects we’re drawn to over and over – and make them more FUN!?

A few months back I posted a reel of this daily sketch of an apple that falls into the make-it-more-exciting camp….and it got a surprising amount of attention! A closeup, lots of water drops. So I hadd put “apple” on my to-do list for a video. Today’s the day!

Tutorial: How to make daily drawing MORE EXCITING

Watch the video below and scroll to the end to leave comments or questions — or click HERE to watch it on YouTube and leave comments over there. I read both dutifully!

The OLO tower (on sale Jan 13-19)

This sweet spinning tower holds 64 pens – which for me is 128 colors! Most folks don’t own the full set, since the company is fairly new, so the 64 is likely adequate for most people.

My marker set has 24 colors – and I have them paired with their refills on side 2, so i’m keeping them in a separate cup so I remember which ones are mine. I also put 3 grey markers and the blacks in that cup, as well as the rando brown that ended up with the long handle on the back end (I don’t find that handle particularly helpful.)

I arranged the tower in roughly rainbowish order; each pen has a color from the same family on the other side of it, then all the reds are near each other, all the blues, purples, etc. This makes it so easy to find the color I need. And this tower spins easily!

The sale on the OLO tower will be from January 13 -19, 2025
• 10% discount on the tower.
• If you purchase a set of 128 colors (half brush or half chisel), the OLO Tower will be included for free.

My apple photo

Feel free to use my apple photo to create a sketch – better yet, cut into your own apple to draw from life!

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To make drawing time more exciting and fun

Think outside the box a little; so many of the humdrum objects around us don’t seem “fun” enough to spend our valuable time and supplies on….but we can make them more fun!

1. Food: partially prepare it! Cut it, slice it, dice it, spritz it with water. I’ve even steamed broccoli for dinner and done a quick sketch while eating.
2. Containers: put something IN the container…not just a liquid or expected plant. But what about your hedgehog? Fill it full of jellybeans? Spill the liquid or beans from a tipped cup!
3. Light it up: Find a spot, or several spots, in your home/studio where the light is good and strong; see if creating strong highlights and shadows with light makes it more clear where values change.
4. Mix and match: find 2 objects that normally wouldn’t have anything to do with each other and position them together. A pencil eraser balanced on a golf ball. Anything that’ll make you smile while sketching!

Get out of your own head

So many times we think we know what an object looks like. Haven’t we been writing with a pen forEVER and should know what it looks like? Don’t we drink out of a coffee mug daily?

Surprise yourself by really LOOKING at the subject. Note what the designer of the mug did with the handle…does it get skinnier in one part or another? Just how was that pen clip constructed? 

Be prepared to admit you were wrong about knowing what that object looked like – and find more things to be wrong about. The feeling of conquering something you didn’t even know you needed to learn is kind of amazing!

My daily sketches

It’s free to visit or subscribe – just pop over to my fine art site and see what’s cookin! There’s nothing fancy to read in the posts you receive by email, just a little tidbit of inspiration.

My weekly sketches

On my Patreon I share a sketch a week for those at the $10+ levels, with some descriotion that may be in a book I hope to write someday. For $5 subscribers it’s a weekly sketch but not much text. And for $1 a month folks, once a month they receive one of the sketch pages to enjoy.