How to Use the Sketchbook
Almost every famous artist throughout history has utilized sketchbooks as a way to navigate the world
around them. The sketchbook can be used as a very powerful tool and has a multitude of uses. Your
students can benefit greatly from owning their own sketchbook, and they will take pride in what they
accomplish as they start to fill the pages. The following assignments are designed to teach students basic
vocabulary, drawing techniques, critical thinking skills, creativity, self-expression, personal reflection, and
observation. These assignments will also improve student skills through interdisciplinary connections with
language arts, math, social studies, and science. They have also been designed to be utilized in the
classroom in many different ways. PDF files are ready to print and distribute to students. Microsoft Word
documents are available so that these can be modified, simplified, and differentiated to your student’s and
classroom needs.
Possible Uses:
The information below is intended to give teachers many sketchbook ideas in the classroom. Every
teacher, classroom, and student is different. What works well for one may not work for another. Below
are the many possibilities for the sketchbook in the classroom.
Sketchbook Assignments:
 Print enough copies for one class, collect, and reuse in other classes to save on paper.
 Laminate a class set and make them usable for years.
 Give each student a copy of the handout. (optional for student to keep)
 Project the image on to a screen large enough for students to read.
 Digitally assign projects through the CMA’s online resource pages. (available summer 2013)
 Introduce the concepts by teaching the assignment orally.
 Handout the list of sketchbook assignments and allow students to choose which prompts they want to
complete.
Sketchbook Uses:
 Bell Ringers: Establishes a routine, refocuses the brain, and prepares students for learning.
o First 3-5 minutes of class students work on one assignment for 5 days.
o Set up a routine, first thing students do when they enter the classroom is take their sketchbook
and start or continue assignment.
 When starting a new assignment, students can take a handout, read directions, and start
independently. (unless more instruction is needed)
o Designate a specific due day (Wednesday) and a new assignment day (Thursday).
o Silent sketchbook work time allows for better concentration and less distraction.
 Allotted time during class.
 Self-guided homework.
 Visual journal: students may use the sketchbook for personal reflections, and daily experiences.
 Lesson integration: vocabulary, note taking, observations, research, brainstorming, thumbnail ideas,
etc.
 Closure activities: students write essential questions, what did they learn, reflect on progress, etc.
 Students that finish projects early can work in sketchbooks.
Sketchbooks:
 Create your own:
o Use six-ten sheets of white copier paper and one sheet of colored paper for the cover, fold in half,
and staple three times on the fold. (if age appropriate have students help make them)
o Book and journal making activities, could introduce a larger project or lesson.
 Purchase them: Full sketchbooks, half sketchbooks, spiral bound blank note cards, etc.
The following sketchbook assignments are designed for a variety of different age levels. Some may be
more difficult than others. Please feel free to edit the list and/or assignments to fit your students’ needs.
Sketchbook Assignment List
1. The Cover- Tell Me Something About You: What hobbies, sports, clubs, extracurricular
activities, interests, and personality do you have? Do you have a favorite food, object, pet,
person etc.?
a. Five Images: Draw five images that would tell the person looking at your sketchbook
what kind of person you are. Add your own unique style and be creative. Example: If
you are a person that likes to talk, draw a big mouth!
b. What’s in a Name?: Draw your first name with letters made out of objects that tell
the person looking at your sketchbook what kind of person you are. Example: If you
like baseball and you have an “I” in your name, draw a bat and above it draw a
baseball.
c. Personality: Draw your own personal design that shows your personality, it does not
have to include images. It could be abstract with lines shapes and color.
2. Paradise: Draw what you think your own personal paradise would be. It can be a real place or
something you came up with on your own. Push yourself to think deeper! Is it you sitting at
the side of a waterfall reading your favorite book? Is it a room made out of candy like Charlie
and the Chocolate Factory? Is it a giant arena filled with paint filled balloons? A place with no
brothers or sisters? Or maybe it is a place where teachers do your homework!
3. Extra Extra Read All About Me!: Create a newspaper page all about you! Design the
arrangement of the front page; name the newspaper; write headlines; sketch the photos or
ads; add captions to "photos." Use color and fill the page. It doesn't have to look like a
newspaper (maybe a magazine layout instead). You do not need to write stories, use lines or
shading to indicate the areas of type. Be inventive! The lettering is part of the look in page
design!
4. Letter-People: Make a six letter word (or more) out of the shape of people. Your word can
have repeat letters (like: Betty B.) but you can't use repeat letter people. You can include
objects with the people to create the letter, example: child holding a balloon = i. Fill the whole
page and plan it first so the drawings will all fit!
5. Create Your Own Cartoon Strip: Design and draw your own cartoon strip. Do not copy
another artist! Use color, fill the page. Create your own unique character or characters. Use
as many frames as you need to tell your “story.” You can include words, lettering, and voice
or thought bubbles. If you don't have a cartoon strip idea, you can draw “A Day in Your Life”
in cartoon format.
6. Create Your Own Amusement Park Ride: Create an amusement park ride for a theme park.
First pick a theme for your park and go from there. What kind of ride would it be? Is it a
roller coaster completely underwater or a merry-go-round with zombies? You can draw close
up, far away, or even as if you were on the ride!
7. Illustrate a Joke: Choose a joke and draw the picture or pictures that go along with it. You do
not have to make up the joke, and you won't be graded on how funny it is. However if it does
make me laugh you can receive up to 3 points extra credit! Create your own drawings and do
not copy another artist's ideas. Remember that all material must be school appropriate and
cannot be derogatory to a group of people.
8. Organization Logo: Choose an organization, club, or group from our school and create a new
logo for it. Be creative! Logos are simple and should look good with only one or two colors.
The typography and placement of your letters are a big part of your design. Think about what
kind of lettering would “go” with your group’s theme. Example: cursive letters would not
make sense for a football team logo.
9. What’s in Your Head?: Draw the inside of your own head. What are you like? Are you:
Colorful? Plain? Accurate? Disorganized? Soft? Sharp? Poetic? Focused? Musical? Funny?
Dependable? Flighty? Spacey? Numerical? Cautious? Organized? Fashionable? Rigid?
Bright? Dull? Speedy? Mysterious? Exotic? Electric? Your drawing does not have to include
your head! This can be abstract or not have objects.
10. Machine Impossible: Create a machine that has never been invented before. What do you
wish your machine would do for you? Make your bed? Fix your lunch? Serve you candy?
Include a power supply. Is it powered by solar, electric, hamster, or hydro energy? Arrange
the elements of your imaginary machine in an interesting composition and fill the page.
11. Candy Bar: Draw a candy bar named after you! If you had a candy bar named after you, what
would it look like, what would it be called and what kind of candy would it be? Show great
detail in the creation of a logo and the label of your bar. Add as much packaging details as
possible. Examples: weight, price, ingredients, etc. Be creative! Add color! Fill the page!
Show your personality!
12. Make It Fit: Choose a phrase, saying, book title, line of a song, poem, or a quote, and draw
the letters to fit the whole page. Make letters bigger and smaller, slanted, round, whatever it
takes to fill the spaces creatively using the letter shapes as a design. Stretch or shrink the
letters to fill the negative spaces between letters and words. Color in or around the letters.
Include a border, picture or other graphic element if you like. Make the lettering "fit" the
main idea!
13. Line and Shading: There are seven basic strokes used to shade. Break your sketchbook page
into at least 5 different sections/shapes. Use a minimum of five different types of strokes to
shade from black to white in those areas. Try to go from light to dark in the sections. The
areas can be any shape; they do not have to be rectangles.
14. Related Phrase: Illustrate a two-word phrase using drawings of objects related to its meaning.
Fill up the space! Add color! Shade for 3-D effects! Use your imagination! Remember to
center by placing the middle letters in the middle of the page. Examples: hair brush, race car,
field goal, wild cat, hot dog.
15. Fears and Phobias: Pick a phobia and dedicate a page in your sketchbook to a design about it.
Be creative and use humor if you like. Include what phobia it is into your design.
16. Continuous Line Face: Draw a face using lines that go all the way across the page from the left
side to the right side without stopping. They can wander, double back, repeat, echo, curve,
and change direction but they can't stop before they get to the other side. Use your
imagination. Exaggeration is good. Draw a whole face and make it big on the page! Use
color!
17. 2-D and 3-D Arrows: Create a full page composition using a combination of 3-dimensional and
2-dimensional arrows. Think up an interesting color scheme and fill the shapes with colored
pencil. Use overlapping to break up the spaces into interesting positive and negative shapes.
18. Bouncing off the Walls: choose an object (sphere, box, pyramid, apple, teddy bear, balloon,
etc.) Picture the object bouncing off walls. They could be bounding in outer space or you can
imagine the effects of gravity on your object. As an object bounces up it loses speed (shapes
spread apart) and as it comes back down it speeds up again (shapes close & overlap). Think
ahead on where you want the paths to go.
19. Aliens Invade!: Aliens invade but you are the only human on earth who has met them! It is
up to you to tell their story! Make a full page, color composition and tell the world the news
that everyone is waiting breathlessly to hear. Try to include: What do they look like? What
can they do? Where are they from? What language do they speak? Why are they here?
What are their names? How did they get here?
20. Facial Features: Draw three eyes, three noses, and three mouths from observation. Draw as
much detail as possible and use shading and value when needed. Draw from real life
observation not from a picture. Use a mirror or a model. Remember that if your model
moves even an inch it will change the drawing so stay still!
21. Vehicle Design: Draw or design a vehicle. This can be a car, spaceship, airplane, boat,
motorcycle, bicycle or anything you want. Include details and fill the page.
22. Spiraling Spheres: Overlap circles (or other shapes) of graduated sizes, moving from largest to
smallest. Draw the largest shape first to create an illusion of movement toward you from the
surface of the page. Fill the page with various sized trails. Shade one end of the spiral trail
gradually darker, one end lighter to enhance the illusion of movement and depth.
23. It’s All In The Name: Start at any place on your page. Draw the first letter (from your name)
with an outline shape (lower case letters are the most interesting.) Before you draw the
second letter, turn it, so that it creates interesting negative shapes. Let the letters touch each
other. Fill your page, adding and turning letters, and creating interesting shapes between
them.
24. Pencil Shading: Fill the page with overlapping shapes that run off the page on all sides. Fill
each positive and negative space with smooth pencil gradations (from light to dark). Shade in
one direction only, and then shade the shape that is next to it (positive or negative) in the
opposite direction. Shade from light to dark to avoid uneven transitions.
25. A Picture Tells A Thousand Words: Illustrate an excerpt from a poem, book, or story. Pick
something that uses strong imagery. Draw how you visualize it in your head when you read it.
Be creative; it does not have to be realistic.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Paradise
Draw what you think your own personal paradise would be. Make it
personal, everyone’s will be different. It can be a real place or something
you came up with on your own. Push yourself to think deeper! Is it you
sitting at the side of a waterfall reading your favorite book? Is it a room
made out of candy like Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? Is it a giant arena
filled with paint filled balloons? A place with no brothers or sisters? Or
maybe it is a place where teachers do your homework!




Be creative!
Draw as much detail as possible!
Fill the whole page
Try to make you place look 3D.
Use a Foreground, Middle Ground, and Background.
Foreground: objects that appear closer to the viewer,
most often larger than those that are behind.
Middle ground: objects that appear between the
foreground and the background.
Background: objects that appear farthest from the viewer,
most often smaller than those that are in front.
 What is going on in your paradise?
 Who is there?
 What does it look like, smell like, taste like, sound like?
Sketchbook Assignment #
Extra Extra Read All About Me!
Create a newspaper page all about you! Design the arrangement of the
front page; name the newspaper; write headlines; sketch the photos or ads;
add captions to "photos." Use color and fill the page. It doesn't have to look
like a newspaper (maybe a magazine layout instead). You do not need to
write stories, use lines or shading to indicate the areas of type. Be inventive!
The lettering is part of the look in page design!






Be creative!
Fill the whole page
You do not have to write the articles
It can be about the “real” you
It can be about the “fantasy” you
It can be about the “future” you
Sketchbook Assignment #
Letter-People
Make a six letter word (or more) out of people. Your word can have repeat
letters (like: Betty B.) but you can't use repeat letter people. Each letter is a
new solution. Fill the whole page and plan it first so the drawings will all fit!




Be creative!
Color in all of your people
Make sure you fill the whole page
Can include objects with the people
Sketchbook Assignment #
Create Your Own Cartoon Strip
Design and draw your own cartoon strip.
Do not copy another artist! Invent these images yourself! Use color, fill the
page. Create your own unique character or characters.




Be creative!
Use as many frames as you need to tell your “story.”
You can include words, lettering, and voice or thought bubbles.
If you don't have a cartoon strip idea, you can draw “A Day in Your
Life” in cartoon format.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Create Your Own Amusement Park Ride
Create an amusement park ride for a theme park. First pick a theme for your
park and build from there. What kind of ride would it be? Is it a roller
coaster completely underwater or a merry-go-round with zombies?
 Be creative!
 Use the whole page
 Can be draw close up, far away, or even as if you were on the ride!
Sketchbook Assignment #
Illustrate a Joke
Choose a joke and draw the picture or pictures that go along with it. You do
not have to make up the joke, and you won't be graded on how funny it is.
However if it does make me laugh you can receive up to 3 points extra
credit! Create your own drawings and do not copy another artist's ideas.
Remember that all material must be school appropriate and cannot be
derogatory to a group of people.
What do ducks eat?
Quackers!
Sketchbook Assignment #
Organization Logo
Choose an organization, club, or group from our school and create a new
logo for it. Be creative! Don’t be surprised if your design is adopted as their
new logo! Your logo should be at least 4” x 4”. Logos are simple and should
look good with only one or two colors. The typography and placement of
your letters are a big part of your design. Think about what kind of lettering
would “go” with your group’s theme. Example: cursive letters would not
make sense for a football team logo.
Create a logo for:
 A Club
 Organization
 A Teacher
 The Principal
 A Personal Logo For Your Self
 The Art Room
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Typography
Sketchbook Assignment #
What’s in Your Head?
Draw the inside of your own head. What are you like? Are you: Colorful?
Plain? Accurate? Disorganized? Soft? Sharp? Poetic? Focused? Musical?
Funny? Dependable? Flighty? Spacey? Numerical? Cautious? Organized?
Fashionable? Rigid? Bright? Dull? Speedy? Mysterious? Exotic? Electric?
Your drawing does not have to include your head!
This can be abstract or not have objects.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Machine Impossible
Create a machine that has never been invented before. What do you wish
your machine would do for you? Make your bed? Fix your lunch? Serve you
candy? Include a power supply. Is it powered by solar, electric, hamster, or
hydro energy? Arrange the elements of your imaginary machine in an
interesting composition and fill the page.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Candy Bar
Draw a candy bar named after you! If you had a candy bar named after you,
what would it look like, what would it be called and what kind of candy
would it be? Show great detail in the creation of a logo and the label of your
bar. Add as much packaging details as possible. Examples: weight, price,
ingredients, etc. Be creative! Add color! Fill the page! Show your
personality!
Sketchbook Assignment #
Make It Fit
Choose a phrase, saying, book title, line of a song, poem, or a quote, and
draw the letters to fit the whole page. Make letters bigger and smaller,
slanted, round, whatever it takes to fill the spaces creatively using the letter
shapes as a design. Stretch or shrink the letters to fill the negative spaces
between letters and words. Color in or around the letters. Include a border,
picture or other graphic element if you like.
Make the lettering "fit" the main idea!
Be inventive!!! Stretch, shrink, and alter the shapes!
Sketchbook Assignment #
Line and Shading
There are seven basic strokes used to shade. Break your sketchbook page
into at least 5 different sections/shapes. Use a minimum of five different
types of strokes to shade from black to white in those areas. Fill the page.
Try to go from light to dark in the sections. The areas can be any shape; they
do not have to be rectangles.
How to create Value using lines
1. Contour Lines: Contour lines are
marks that precisely follow the
curves and planes of an object.
2. Hatching: Parallel lines are straight
marks that extend in the same
direction. Sketched free-hand, the
lines need not have ruler straight
perfection.
3. Crosshatching: Crosshatching
consists of two or more sets of
contour or parallel lines that are
stroked in different directions and
intersect.
4. Stippling: Stippling is a grouping of
dots.
5. Scribble: A scribble line is a free
flowing (but controlled) mark that
loops and twists in a sketchy
manner.
6. Wavy Lines: Wavy lines are drawn
side by side in a repetitive pattern
7. Crisscross Lines: Crisscross lines
flow with the contour of an object
and are arranged in a staggered,
randomly crossing manner.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Related Phrase
Illustrate a two-word phrase using drawings of objects related to its
meaning. Fill up the space! Add color! Shade for 3-D effects! Use your
imagination! Remember to center by placing the middle letters in the
middle of the page.
Examples:
--- tool shed --- race car --- field goal ----- wild cat --- bike path ----- high jump --- hot dog ------ mind meld --- chemistry lab ------- musical instrument ----
Sketchbook Assignment #
Fears and Phobias
After looking at the list of fears and phobias on the back of this page I'm sure
you came across quite a few that seemed just a bit silly to you. Choose the
most outrageous phobia from the list and dedicate a page in your
sketchbook to a design about the silliest phobia you found.
Include what the phobia is and the definition of the phobia into your design.
Feel free to incorporate text, images, etc, anything that will:
1)Assist you in creating an awesome design which moves our eyes
purposefully throughout the space.
2)Best represents the silliest phobia.
Phobias are the most common mental disorder in the U.S. While not comprehensive, this phobia
list offers a glimpse of the many phobias that can have a serious impact on an individual's life.
Achluophobia - Fear of darkness.
Glossophobia - Fear of speaking in public.
Acrophobia - Fear of heights.
Gynophobia - Fear of women.
Aerophobia - Fear of flying.
Heliophobia - Fear of the sun.
Agliophobia - Fear of pain.
Hemophobia - Fear of blood.
Agoraphobia - Fear of open spaces or
Herpetophobia - Fear of reptiles.
crowds.
Hydrophobia - Fear of water.
Aichmophobia - Fear of needles or pointed
Hypochonria - Fear of illness.
objects.
Iatrophobia - Fear of doctors.
Amaxophobia - Fear of riding in a car.
Insectophobia - Fear of insects.
Androphobia - Fear of men.
Koinoniphobia - Fear of rooms.
Anginophobia - Fear of angina or choking.
Leukophobia - Fear of the color white.
Anthrophobia - Fear of flowers.
Lilapsophobia - Fear of tornadoes and
Anthropophobia - Fear of people or society.
hurricanes.
Aphenphosmphobia - Fear of being touched.
Lockiophobia - Fear of childbirth.
Arachnophobia - Fear of spiders.
Mageirocophobia - Fear of cooking.
Arithmophobia - Fear of numbers.
Megalophobia - Fear of large things.
Astraphobia - Fear of thunder and lightning.
Melanophobia - Fear of the color black.
Ataxophobia - Fear of disorder or untidiness.
Microphobia - Fear of small things.
Atelophobia - Fear of imperfection.
Mysophobia - Fear of dirt and germs.
Atychiphobia - Fear of failure.
Necrophobia - Fear of death or dead things.
Autophobia - Fear of being alone.
Noctiphobia - Fear of the night.
Bacteriophobia - Fear of bacteria.
Nosocomephobia - Fear of hospitals.
Barophobia - Fear of gravity.
Nyctophobia - Fear of the dark.
Bathmophobia - Fear of stairs or steep
Obesophobia - Fear of gaining weight.
slopes.
Ombrophobia - Fear of rain.
Batrachophobia - Fear of amphibians.
Ophidiophobia - Fear of snakes.
Belonephobia - Fear of pins and needles.
Ornithophobia - Fear of birds.
Bibliophobia - Fear of books.
Papyrophobia - Fear of paper.
Botanophobia - Fear of plants.
Pathophobia - Fear of disease.
Cacophobia - Fear of ugliness.
Pedophobia - Fear of children.
Catagelophobia - Fear of being ridiculed.
Philophobia - Fear of love.
Catoptrophobia - Fear of mirrors.
Podophobia - Fear of feet.
Chionophobia - Fear of snow.
Porphyrophobia - Fear of the color purple.
Chromophobia - Fear of colors.
Pteridophobia - Fear of ferns.
Chronomentrophobia - Fear of clocks.
Pteromerhanophobia - Fear of flying.
Claustrophobia - Fear of confined spaces.
Pyrophobia - Fear of fire.
Coulrophobia - Fear of clowns.
Scolionophobia - Fear of school.
Cyberphobia - Fear of computers.
Selenophobia - Fear of the moon.
Cynophobia - Fear of dogs.
Somniphobia - Fear of sleep.
Dendrophobia - Fear of trees.
Tachophobia - Fear of speed.
Dentophobia - Fear of dentists.
Technophobia - Fear of technology.
Domatophobia - Fear of houses.
Tonitrophobia - Fear of thunder.
Dystychiphobia - Fear of accidents.
Trypanophobia - Fear of needles / injections.
Ecophobia - Fear of the home.
Verminophobia - Fear of germs.
Elurophobia - Fear of cats.
Wiccaphobia - Fear of witches and
Entomophobia - Fear of insects.
witchcraft.
Ephebiphobia - Fear of teenagers.
Xenophobia - Fear of strangers or foreigners.
Equinophobia - Fear of horses.
Zoophobia - Fear of animals.
Gamophobia - Fear of marriage.
Genuphobia - Fear of knees.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Continuous Line Face
Draw a face using lines that go all the way across the page from the left side
to the right side without stopping. They can wander, double back, repeat,
echo, curve, and change direction but they can't stop before they get to the
other side. Use your imagination. Exaggeration is good. Do a whole face
and make it big on the page! Use color! Fill the page!
Sketchbook Assignment #
2-D and 3-D Arrows
Create a full page composition using a combination of 3-dimensional and 2dimensional arrows. Think up an interesting color scheme and fill the shapes
with colored pencil. Use overlapping to break up the spaces into interesting
positive and negative shapes.
Vocabulary:
Positive Space: Space in an artwork that is positive, filled with something,
such as lines, designs, color, or shapes. The opposite of negative space.
Negative Space: Empty space in an artwork, a void.
Example: Negative space between the shapes (the positive spaces) forms a
square
Sketchbook Assignment #
Bouncing Off The Walls
Choose an object. (Sphere, box, pyramid, apple, teddy bear, balloon, etc.)
Picture the object bouncing off walls. They could be bounding in outer space
rooms or you can imagine the effects of gravity on your object.
 (As an object bounces up it loses speed (shapes spread apart) and as it
comes back down it speeds up again (shapes close & overlap).
 Remember the goal is to create an interesting full page design, so think
ahead on where you want the paths to go. Paths can cross each other
and overlap.
 Include 2 stationary objects/shapes on your page that your moving
objects can bounce off of. An example would be a chair in the middle of a
room. Position them to help construct bounce paths.
 The more complex the more interesting. To get realistic "bounces,"
objects bound away at the same angle at which they hit the wall.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Aliens Invade!
Aliens invade but you are the only human on earth who has met them! It is
up to you to tell their story! Make a full page, color composition and tell the
world the news that everyone is waiting breathlessly to hear:
Try to include:
What do they look like?
What can they do?
Where are they from?
What language do they speak?
Why are they here?
What are their names?
How did they get here?
It is ok to include words, descriptions, or labels with your drawings. Make
them attractive, as part of your page layout. Plan the whole page of your
color composition-- You can include backgrounds and you can use more than
1 picture - like snapshots, Be Creative
Oh No!
Earth has been
INVADED!!!
Sketchbook Assignment #
Facial Features
Draw three eyes, three noses, and three mouths from observation. Draw as
much detail as possible and use shading and value when needed. Draw from
real life observation—not from a picture. Use a mirror or a model.
Remember that if your model moves even an inch it will
change the drawing so stay still!
Sketchbook Assignment #
Vehicle Design
Draw or design a vehicle. This can be a car, spaceship, airplane, boat,
motorcycle, bicycle or anything you want. Include details and fill the page.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Spiraling Spheres
Overlap circles (or other shapes) of graduated sizes, moving from largest to
smallest. Draw the largest shape first to create an illusion of movement
toward you from the surface of the page. Fill the page with various sized
trails. Shade one end of the spiral trail gradually darker, one end lighter to
enhance the illusion of movement and depth.
 You can choose your colors.
 You can create an interesting background.
 The object shapes don't have to be circles!
 You can overlap any shapes you want to invent!
 You can mix them up, too!
Sketchbook Assignment #
It’s All In The Name
Start at any place on your page. Draw the first letter (from your name) with
an outline shape (lower case letters are the most interesting.) Before you
draw the second letter, turn it, so that it creates interesting negative shapes.
Let the letters touch each other. Fill your page, adding and turning letters,
and creating interesting shapes between them.
Vocabulary:
Positive Space: Space in an artwork that is positive, filled with something,
such as lines, designs, color, or shapes. The opposite of negative space.
Negative Space: Empty space in an artwork, a void.
 Example: Negative space between the shapes (the positive spaces)
forms a square.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Pencil Shading
Fill the page with overlapping shapes that run off the page on all sides. Fill
each positive and negative space with smooth pencil gradations (from light
to dark). Shade in one direction only... then shade the shape that is next to it
(positive or negative) in the opposite direction.
Shade from light to dark to avoid uneven transitions.
Vocabulary:
Value: Describes the lightness and darkness of color.
Space: Refers to the distances or area between, around, above, or within
things.
Positive Space: Space in an artwork that is positive, filled with something,
such as lines, designs, color, or shapes. The opposite of negative space.
Negative Space: Empty space in an artwork, a void.
 Example: Negative space between the shapes (the positive spaces)
forms a square.
Sketchbook Assignment #
Emotion Illustration
Illustrate an emotion in any way you see fit. It could be realistic, abstract, or
both. You may use any medium you would like. You could draw a realistic
drawing, create a collage, add words, or draw only line, shape, and color.
The sky is the limit, be Creative!
This would be an example of melancholy or sadness.
Pablo Picasso: The Old Guitarist, 1903
Sketchbook Assignment #
A Picture Tells A Thousand Words
Illustrate an excerpt from a poem, book, or story. Pick something that uses
strong imagery. Draw how you visualize it in your head when you read it.
Be creative; it does not have to be realistic.
Hold fast to dreams
for if dreams die
Life is a broken-winged bird
that cannot fly.
Hold fast to dreams
For when dreams go
Life is a barren field
Frozen with snow.
- Langston Hughes
Sketchbook Pre-Assessment
Name: _________________________
Period: _________
Date: __________
Grade: 5 (can be adapted to any grade level)
1.
Why do artists use sketchbooks?
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2.
What is your favorite part of your drawing? What artistic decisions did you make that
made it successful?
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3.
What is one thing you could improve or do differently in your drawing? How would
this make it better?
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4.
Using the following art vocabulary, describe how you used at least three in your
drawing?
Form, Line, Shape, Color, Texture, Space, Value, Balance, Emphasis, Movement,
Pattern, Repetition, Proportion, Rhythm, Variety, Unity, Focal Point, Overlapping,
Negative Space, Positive Space, Geometric Shape, Organic Shape, Contrast,
Composition, Perspective.
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Sketchbook Post Assessment
Name: _________________________
Period: _________
Date: __________
Grade: 5 (can be adapted to any grade level)
1. Why do artists use sketchbooks?
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2. What is one of your favorite sketchbook pages? What artistic decisions did you make
that made it successful?
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3.
What is one thing you could improve or do differently in your sketchbook? How
would this make it better?
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4.
Using the following art vocabulary, pick one sketchbook page and describe how you
used at least three in your drawing?
Form, Line, Shape, Color, Texture, Space, Value, Balance, Emphasis, Movement,
Pattern, Repetition, Proportion, Rhythm, Variety, Unity, Focal Point, Overlapping,
Negative Space, Positive Space, Geometric Shape, Organic Shape, Contrast,
Composition, Perspective.
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References
Adams, S. (1996). The DK Visual Timeline of the 20th Century. New York: DK Pub..
Dempsey, A. (2002). Art in the Modern Era: A Guide to Styles, Schools & Movements 1860
to the Present. New York: Harry N. Abrams.
Some sketchbook assignments were used with permission of the University of Houston
Learning, Design and Technology Program (2013) http://coe.uh.edu/