Why buy sketchbooks when you can make them?
Get a heavy duty stapler that can go through 100 or more sheets like this one. Fill it with free school copy paper, but focus on a nice cover. Wrap cardboard, chipboard, or flawboard with a nice watercolor paper, fold it over your sketchbook pages, and staple them all together. It's personal and will be treasured for many years. More lessons HERE too. THIS POST will show you how to make a super-simple sketchbook for free (If you have access to school copy paper).
Get a heavy duty stapler that can go through 100 or more sheets like this one. Fill it with free school copy paper, but focus on a nice cover. Wrap cardboard, chipboard, or flawboard with a nice watercolor paper, fold it over your sketchbook pages, and staple them all together. It's personal and will be treasured for many years. More lessons HERE too. THIS POST will show you how to make a super-simple sketchbook for free (If you have access to school copy paper).
Sketchbooks:
Whether you assign regular sketchbook assignments or need something to give kids when they finish too early, this a list of some of my favorite sketch book prompts.
If you would like a resource you can get any of these books, cut the spine, and each page has a prompt at the bottom and space to draw. I put them in the "I'm Done" bin, and students know to go there and select an assignment. They turn it in with their current project as proof of being actively engaged during class time.
I have a few sketchbooks here you can check out:
The Nearly Empty Coloring Book (Best for classroom use)
The Inspirational Sketchbook (Incorporates Writing & Research)
Prompts:
Draw a wall with windows, and details of what is nearby like bookshelves, chairs, etc. Then draw something completely crazy in the window!
Trace your hand and draw what might be inside if you were an awesome robot.
Paste down half a face from a magazine. Choose an attractive model. Finish the other half of the face as if they were an alien.
Draw a design you think would make a cool tattoo for you. Remember that tattoos are often symbols of things important to the person wearing it.
Draw the imaginary thing that lives under your bed.
What might a flower look like on an alien planet?
Design a new perfume bottle for either a great smell, or something very bad. Include a label.
Willy Wonka remade whole room out of candy, can you draw the room you are sitting in or your bedroom as if it was all made out of candy?
Draw yourself in a mirror but DO NOT look at the paper while you do it.
Draw what it looks like sitting in the front of your car, make it look normal, but put something crazy in the mirrors.
Take 2 unrelated objects and create a mixed image of this new object. (Like scissors and a bird)
Draw part of the room, but do it as if you were a bug. What would it look like?
Draw an object that makes noise. Draw what you imagine that noise might look like if it could be seen.
Draw two objects side by side that should never be put together.
Draw a soft object with a steel skin, screws, rivets, and bolts.
Draw a cute animal as if it were Frankenstein’s pet.
Draw an animal you consider unappealing, as cute.
Draw an object from observation but re-arrange its parts in an unexpected way.
Draw an advertisement for a product you would not like but make it seem cool. (Toilet Plunger?)
Draw two objects side by side but change their scale. For example, you might have a giant ant next to a tiny teacup.
Take a common object and draw it as if it was a skeleton. What would the skeleton of a banana look like?
Draw a mysterious doorway.
Do a drawing of an object you have or have nearby, but make it look like its melting.
Draw a landscape with a house, car, or man-made object in it. Give the man-made object natural textures like leaves and grass, and give the natural elements mechanical textures found in the object.
Draw someone eating, and illustrate the background behind them. Use expressive colors, textures, and shapes that you feel would describe the flavor.
20 additional prompts and a PDF handout you can use with your students is HERE.
Also: Caricatures - Cartooning - By Nate Kap: Create your own WiLd Caricature of a friend, neighbor, or family member in Nate Kap's wild style. (contains some how-to videos and a few artistic nude studies)
Whether you assign regular sketchbook assignments or need something to give kids when they finish too early, this a list of some of my favorite sketch book prompts.
If you would like a resource you can get any of these books, cut the spine, and each page has a prompt at the bottom and space to draw. I put them in the "I'm Done" bin, and students know to go there and select an assignment. They turn it in with their current project as proof of being actively engaged during class time.
I have a few sketchbooks here you can check out:
The Nearly Empty Coloring Book (Best for classroom use)
The Inspirational Sketchbook (Incorporates Writing & Research)
Prompts:
Draw a wall with windows, and details of what is nearby like bookshelves, chairs, etc. Then draw something completely crazy in the window!
Trace your hand and draw what might be inside if you were an awesome robot.
Paste down half a face from a magazine. Choose an attractive model. Finish the other half of the face as if they were an alien.
Draw a design you think would make a cool tattoo for you. Remember that tattoos are often symbols of things important to the person wearing it.
Draw the imaginary thing that lives under your bed.
What might a flower look like on an alien planet?
Design a new perfume bottle for either a great smell, or something very bad. Include a label.
Willy Wonka remade whole room out of candy, can you draw the room you are sitting in or your bedroom as if it was all made out of candy?
Draw yourself in a mirror but DO NOT look at the paper while you do it.
Draw what it looks like sitting in the front of your car, make it look normal, but put something crazy in the mirrors.
Take 2 unrelated objects and create a mixed image of this new object. (Like scissors and a bird)
Draw part of the room, but do it as if you were a bug. What would it look like?
Draw an object that makes noise. Draw what you imagine that noise might look like if it could be seen.
Draw two objects side by side that should never be put together.
Draw a soft object with a steel skin, screws, rivets, and bolts.
Draw a cute animal as if it were Frankenstein’s pet.
Draw an animal you consider unappealing, as cute.
Draw an object from observation but re-arrange its parts in an unexpected way.
Draw an advertisement for a product you would not like but make it seem cool. (Toilet Plunger?)
Draw two objects side by side but change their scale. For example, you might have a giant ant next to a tiny teacup.
Take a common object and draw it as if it was a skeleton. What would the skeleton of a banana look like?
Draw a mysterious doorway.
Do a drawing of an object you have or have nearby, but make it look like its melting.
Draw a landscape with a house, car, or man-made object in it. Give the man-made object natural textures like leaves and grass, and give the natural elements mechanical textures found in the object.
Draw someone eating, and illustrate the background behind them. Use expressive colors, textures, and shapes that you feel would describe the flavor.
20 additional prompts and a PDF handout you can use with your students is HERE.
Also: Caricatures - Cartooning - By Nate Kap: Create your own WiLd Caricature of a friend, neighbor, or family member in Nate Kap's wild style. (contains some how-to videos and a few artistic nude studies)
Another option is to get a few (or all) of these classical sketchbooks. They contain the stories we all know but include blank pages for students to draw on within the book. The elementary level books have 16 point font and some text in bold to suggest imagery. They are all printed on standard copy paper size pages, so you can cut the binding and put it through a copier if you prefer. They all come with copy rights. You can find links to these books HERE.
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