How to use the Art Prompts Drawing Challenge App

This is a quick introduction with ideas on how to use the Art Prompts App.

The rules of the game are fairly simple :

Art Prompts Rules

But here are a few ideas on how you can use the App….

Just Draw

Don’t know what to draw? Just pick one of the simple challenges, like “Random Objects” or “Random Animals”. Find a few good reference photos (or real life objects / animals if you can find them ). Then do one or more of these :

  1. Try to draw from the reference as precisely as you can.
  2. Try to identify the basic shapes of the animal / object.
  3. Try to draw it from a different perspective than the reference.

Quick Sketch

  1. Pick any of the challenges in the Art Prompts App.
  2. Set a timer for 5-10 minutes.
  3. Create an interpretation of the challenge before the time runs out.

This is a great way to get rid of creative block. There are no time for hesitation, or to listen to that inner critique :-)

This is also a fun game to play with a group of friends. When the time is up, you share your creations, laugh, and wonder at the state of each other’s minds :-)

Creative Drawing Exercise

Do you want to exercise your creativity a bit more? Try this…

  1. Pick any of the challenges in the Art Prompts App (but the more complex ones are more fun!)
  2. Do a few quick sketches of the individual animals & objects involved in the challenge. Just to familiarize yourself with them. If the challenge for example involves a frog. Try to make a few quick frog sketches from different angels. If you already have been drawing hundreds of frogs previously, you can of course skip this step :-). But many challenges will most likely involve animals and objects, that you have never tried to sketch before.
  3. Use references when sketching. Use google image search, Pinterest, etc. or of course real life. Even seasoned professional artists do this every day! Try to simplify the animal or objects down to basic shapes that you already know how to draw. Circles, squares, triangles, balls, boxes, pyramids, cylinders. This will help you to draw them when you are reimagining the animals or objects in entirely new ways.
  4. Brainstorm a few ways to interpret the challenge - what could be fun? What could be an unusual way to do it? Try to come up with a story or a world where the odd things in the challenge makes sense. Maybe you see it as an illustration to a children’s book of strange fairytales. Or a humorous poster. Or perhaps a surreal artwork?
  5. Quick sketch at least 3 different small ‘thumbnail’ sketches on how to solve the challenge. Also think about creative compositions, perspective etc.?
  6. Now create your drawing. Take all the time you want, and remember to have fun! 😀