Lifestyle illustrator: Illustrating everyday objects
My sketchbooks (and possibly even more so, my notebooks, as I HAVE TO doodle while planning, listening and so on) are full of quick little sketches of mugs (lots of mugs, to be honest) and lamps, and pens and scissors. (They’re also full of flowers and weird and quirky faces and folk-art style kinda symmetrical patterns. I should maybe do a whole blog posts on sketchbook, notebook and random post-it doodles.)
If in doubt, just draw what’s in front of you. To I almost always have a huge list of ideas of things I want to draw or sketches I’ve done that can be worked up to final – not to mention actual client work with specific things to draw. But there are still times when I’ll sit in a café or on a park bench and pull out my sketchbook and not know what to draw, but want to draw something. And there is literally ALWAYS something there to draw, so we can never really have the excuse of not knowing what to draw, can we?
I think I probably claim a lot of things are my favourite thing to draw, but I definitely have an overriding joy of documenting the everyday. That can be documenting emotions and scenes, but it is often just capturing the handful of things I can see on a shelf or the random collection of junk sitting in the corner, or the bits and pieces sat on top of the cupboard… Oh!! I knew there was a reason to be a cluttered, not overly tidy person! Because I do think it’s generally far more interesting to draw a busy and cluttered space than a clear and clean shelf with nothing askew at all.
Sketchbook glimpses of everyday objects
Here are a handful of sketches and doodles of everyday objects from flicking through some of my sketchbooks and notebooks and the piles of post-its on my desk (yes, it’s a messy cluttered desk, obviously… even when I tidy it, it will still be pretty cluttered).
Drawing challenges
I do (start, at least) a lot of drawing challenges, whether ones I make up for myself, ones that stem from a class or membership I’m part of, or just big global Instagram challenges. I’ve found I’m most happy to do ones that last around a month, as I get bored if I try to go up to 100 days. Quick-draw daily challenges are great for a bunch of things – practising something you’re rusty at drawing, leaning into a new style direction, or just flexing your muscles in a different way to the client work you’re working on.
Last year, I did a lot of A to Z challenges, including an A to Z of Everyday Life, and an A to Z of Household Objects (didn’t finish that one because I had client work that required some long hours).
I also did around a month where I drew a particular subject matter on different days of the week (and one day was objects).
Illustrating everyday objects within scenes
The sketching and doodling and the drawing challenges all feed into final illustrations, whether personal work or client work. Including those little details in room illustrations, like a glass of water, pair of glasses or inhaler, or putting stuff on shelves in the background of illustrations of people interacting or doing things, makes all the difference, I think. And the inclusion of everyday objects can make illustrations more relatable and also tell a story.
Here are a few where you can see a variety of everyday objects.
List of things to draw
It’s really handy to have a list somewhere (on your phone is probably easiest?) of everyday objects to draw, so you’re not always limited to what’s in front of you. Most of them you should probably be able to draw from memory, but you can always look up some references if you need to. Here’s a short list of ideas you can use if you like – or come up with your own list. There are 31, so you can use if for a month-long challenge if you want to.
31 everyday objects to draw
And here they are in text, so you can copy and paste them if you like.
- Mug
- Teaspoon
- Bar of soap
- Shampoo bottle
- Whisk
- Kettle
- Pair of scissors
- Headphones
- Mobile phone
- Sketchbook
- Sandal
- Broom
- Trowel
- Clothes peg
- Washing powder (or liquid or sheets)
- Microwave
- Watering can
- Toilet brush
- Hairbrush
- Toothbrush
- Washing-up brush
- Pencil sharpener
- Lanyard
- Teapot
- House key
- Spanner
- Measuring tape
- Bottle of sanitiser
- Face mask
- Nail varnish
- Purse
Lifestyle illustrator: Illustrating people
Drawing people used to be something I shied away from, concentrating more on flowers and objects. Because drawing people feels like something that requires more responsibility – representing the diversity of human life and somehow giving as many people as possible an image that they can relate to in some way. Because, well, it’s hard and takes practice and a lot of observation.
But now? Drawing people really is one of my favourite things. While I do still default to drawing women of probably around my own age, I have started drawing more men and I am working on including a variety of body shapes, as well as continuing to ensure I draw a diversity of ethnicity (and not just by changing skin colour and keeping everything the same). And I love continuing to grow in how I draw people – finding new ways to stylise, drawing more postures, drawing people moving more, digging deeper with clothes and they sit…
Illustrating women
I think it’s safe to say that I draw a lot of women. My defaults if I’m not sure what to draw are a stylised flower of some kind or a woman (and usually that woman will be white and of a similar age and build to me, because really my default is an unconscious self-portrait (and I love flowers).
Illustrating groups of people
Thankfully I get asked to draw a variety of people, and I also set myself briefs to ensure I don’t just draw women. Illustrating groups of people or drawing scenes with quite a few people in, are great fun, and it’s good to get the opportunity to draw a wider diversity of people.
Illustrating scenes with people in
I enjoy illustrating scenes, though obviously they can take quite a long time, because adding in all the little details is great fun. And, as with illustrating groups, you can look to include some diversity and see how far you can escape stereotypes.
Illustrating children
I definitely tend to draw more adults than children, but I love getting the opportunity to draw more and find it fascinating how the proportions change with age, as well how much diversity you can get in a single small class of children, even just in terms of height and body shape.
Illustrating teenagers
Illustrating teenagers and tweens is fun, because they’re closer to adults, and therefore fairly similar in proportions, but they often have fun clothes or accessories to include! Plus, they are all freaking amazing! (Not just saying that because mine are that age. Nope.)
Illustrating men
Yeah. I definitely need to draw more men! Other than within groups I have barely any drawings of men. I have this guy, who is supposed to represent the patriarchy. My dad who I drew for his birthday this year. This random dude (found this in my ‘daily drawing’ files and don’t know if it’s supposed to be anyone in particular).
Hope you’ve enjoyed looking at this selection of illustrated people. If you have a project that includes illustrating people, and you like my style, do get in touch! And if you’re an illustrator, I’d love to know if you have particular types of people you prefer to illustrate and if you challenge yourself to draw the ones that you don’t default to.