Connect the Dots
This one is fun, easy, and only as time consuming as you want to make it. It also relies on and strengthens the creative parts of your brain. It's kind of like looking for shapes in clouds, only on paper. I find this to be particularly useful as a warm-up, and also to help kick-start the imagination on days when it seems to be responding a little sluggishly.
As with most of these exercises, all you need is your sketchbook and a pen or pencil.
As with most of these exercises, all you need is your sketchbook and a pen or pencil.
Start off by making a group of random dots in a small area of the page. The best way to do this in a random fashion is if you're using a traditional pencil (that is to say, not a mechanical one,) you hold it by the eraser end and tap a localized area of the page, like you would if you were using the pencil as a drumstick. You'll want at least 12 dots, maybe as many as 20 or so. Believe it or not, the less dots you have, the harder this is.
Now, connect the dots in some random order to form one contained shape. Don't think about this or try and plan it, that defeats the purpose. If you find yourself on a dot and you can't jump to the next one without crossing one of your lines, just add another dot or two to correct the problem. I won't tell. I will probably look down on you forever because of it, but I won't tell.
Now, take a look at the shape. what does it look like to you? Is that so? Well, that's stupid, look again. Still the same? Oh well, go ahead and draw what you think it looks like, but don't show your parents, it'll just confirm their fears you are indeed functionally retarded.
Oh, don't be afraid to turn the page and look at it from a different angle. The score is now Connect the Dots: 1, Cloud Gazing: 0. you can't spin a cloud around to get a new perspective.
Wasn't that fun? No? Who cares? Do it again. And then again again. Keep doing this till you come up with something better to draw, or your page is filled. If you're really feelin' froggy, after you've filled most of the page, start connecting the dots of neighboring drawings and making new shapes in the negative space, and then turning them into new pictures of whatever your imagination sees there. Want extra credit? Go grab a box of crayons and color one or two of the little shape creatures in vibrant hues, and then use your pencil to shade the rest of them in gray scale. Not only does it look sorta neat, there's an added bonus: if you do 500 of these pages and change your name to something ridiculous like "Ovalioros," you can sell them to a New York gallery as "modern art" and make a mint off of the upper crust of society's gullibility and poor taste.
Oh, and in case you couldn't tell what my little shape creatures were, I labeled them. Now, stop eating my paste.
Final score - Connect the Dots: somewhere between 4 and 3,000, Cloud Gazing: still 0. Eat it, you cloud-loving hippie pukes.
Here's an example of this exercise taken to an extreme:
Here's an example of this exercise taken to an extreme:
