Get Rid of Your Lockdown Boredom Through Drawing
When you must stay at home for extended periods of time, you will sometimes feel like you’re running out of things to do. For the first few weeks, you might be entertained by movie marathons on your streaming service, bingeing YouTube videos, or spending hours on video calls with your friends. If you are looking for other things to do when you’re bored, however, then maybe you can explore drawing.
If you’re already into art and have dabbled in figure drawing or doodling, now is the time to bring out the old sketchpad and make a few pictures while you’re cooped up indoors. If you’ve already gotten into drawing but find yourself struggling, then don’t fret. The first rule is that you do not have to worry about being great.
Anyone can draw for fun; you do not have to produce something for art galleries. The point of drawing or doodling is for you to keep yourself entertained. Whether you’re a newbie or have completed a few sketchbooks in your time, here are a few prompts and ideas on what you could sketch today:
1. Start simple with abstract shapes
If a blank page is intimidating for you, begin with a simple task like drawing different shapes. You can make your shapes as abstract and multifaceted as you want, just let your pen move around and see how many sides you can make before closing a shape.
For people who would like to warm up before starting, you can scribble freely on a piece of scrap paper. Random intersecting lines, repeating shapes—just let your hand flow freely and don’t plan it out too much.
When you’re done scribbling, you can look closely at the shapes you created and see if you’d accidentally made a figure. Perhaps there’s a whale, or a unicorn, or a cupcake somewhere in that tangled bunch! Do this for a few hours and say goodbye to boredom.
2. Practice shading
The reason why pictures look three-dimensional is that artists know which areas to make darker through shading. If you would like to make realistic drawings, you would need to master light and shade in art.
Draw a bunch of shapes or items like cups, circles, books, or other similar objects with easy lines, and practice sketching a gradient on them. You can check online for inspiration, or use a flashlight and an object in your home.
To switch things up a bit, or if you’re up for a challenge, you can use dots when shading. This is a technique that plenty of artists use, and the technique even has a name in the fine arts—pointillism. It is especially gratifying to complete a picture made entirely of dots. Try it and see for yourself.
3. Try out calligraphy
Calligraphy or the art of handwriting has enjoyed a surge in popularity recently, and it’s easy to see why: you get to make art and write a beautiful message at the same time.
There are different types of calligraphy, all of which have various tools and techniques, but one you can start off with is faux calligraphy. All you need to do is write out a message in script, double the lines and fill it in. You can do this with any type of pen!
4. Draw inspiration from a book
If you are looking for more of a challenge, then you can draw a fictional scenario. Open any book, preferably in fantasy or science fiction, and draw something described in it. You can also design a utopia, or a fictional world map. If geography is not your thing, you can get inspiration from nature. Find photos of flora and fauna and try to recreate them in the best way possible.
5. Make a comic strip
For those with a funny bone, a comic strip is a natural choice. You can easily come up with setups and punchlines about staying at home or make comics that are both entertaining and informative. The best part about drawing this is that your characters need not be designed intricately, as all you need is an original script and comic timing
Conclusion
Staying at home does not need to be mind-numbingly boring. Trying out new hobbies, like drawing, can help you expand your skillset while keeping yourself amused.
If you’re looking for things to do when you’re bored, visit us online at Bored A Lot today. Our website has plenty of ideas to help you break out of the lockdown blues today!
