Check out the Guardian's Guide to Drawing. It is a wonderful compilation of exercises and thoughts on drawing. 

Highlights from last week's session, drawing downtown.

Nothing makes me want to get drawing more then watching this video of Stephen Wiltshire complete an 18 ft drawing of New York City based on a single twenty-minute helicopter ride. Seeing all those flowing confident marks build into an incredibly complex and accurate cityscape is hugely fascinating and inspiring.    

Drawing at the Antigonish Landing. #drawtogether

For some motivation and inspiration here are some ideas to keep you drawing:

1. Find the quietest place you can and draw there. See if your drawing can capture a sense of quiet.

2. Find a noisy or populated place and draw there. Can you drawing capture the chaos?

3. Draw something growing from a crack in the pavement, patio stone, or sidewalk.

4. Draw an animal. Do you have a pet? A bird feeder? Know someone with a fish? Complete 6 quick gesture drawings while you observe a majestic creature. 

5. Draw your feet in the grass, sand, or mud.

6. Find a good shadow from a tree, car, person etc. and draw it.

7. Draw something with your non-dominant hand - your sink full of dishes, your mailbox, your shoe etc.

8. Draw the view from across the street from your house or work.

9. Find a work of art somewhere in town and sketch it. You could choose something from the art gallery, library, or find a mural, graffiti, or hand painted sign. 

10. Find a sad looking  tree and try to capture its posture.  What makes it sad?

11. Find a small interesting stone at the beach. Maybe take it home and give it some dramatic lighting from a lamp before you draw.

12. Find a clothes line or a pile of laundry and do a 15 minute contour drawing. 

13. Draw a vegetable

14. Draw a mushroom or bit of moss.

15. Draw the smallest flower you can find.

16. Have a friend sit for you so you can draw them. Return the favour.

17. Sit outside after dark and try to capture a scene in low light.

18. Draw your morning cup or coffee or tea. Spill some on your paper so you know it is real.

19. Draw a garden box or planter in town.

20. Draw a bridge.

21. Draw a Statue.

22. Draw a bug - detailed deceased or live gestural ... you decide.

23. Draw a messy place.

24. Draw a tidy place.

25. Draw an unmowed place, or the tallest grass you can find.

26. Draw a store front.

27. Draw an alleyway.

28. Draw some scaffolding, a ladder, or something runged. 

29. Draw a boat - this could be a canoe, a sail boat, a rubber dingy, paper boat, any kind of floating vessel. 

30. Draw a steeple or top of a building against the sky. 

Check out the article in the Highland Heart Here