Holiday Art Prompts
Australia has banned kids under 16 from holding social media accounts, and while this is not working 100% I’m sure, with the timing of the ban right before the long summer holidays, that there is a need for some holiday activities. So for those artistically-minded teens and tweens, I thought I should provide a few art prompts. There’s only so many times you can boredom-clean your room without going insane.
Of course, Substack is also subject to age verification, so I will also be posting these to my website blog.
AND there’s no requirement that you be an Aussie teen to do the prompts! Everyone is welcome!
#1: DRAW LIKE A MEDIEVAL ARTIST
What you need: Some way of looking up medieval art (your phone, a computer, a library book…) some form of paper (a sketchbook, loose printer paper, the back of a to do list…) or other way to draw (such as an iPad with Procreate) and some form of writing implement. You can stick to pencil, up the challenge with just a pen, or bust out your coloured pencils or textas. Up to you!I get it, sometimes drawing is hard! Sometimes you think you can’t draw as well as you want, or what you are drawing doesn’t look like what you see in your head. This happens to me too, and I draw for a living!
So my favourite thing to do is look at some medieval animals to cheer myself up and remind myself that at least I know how many feet a bat has.
Tempted to think this artist once got a bat caught in his hair but still… a surfeit of feet!
Horse’s legs too long? Stick a vanquished soldier in front, no one’ll notice…👀
Common or exotic, there’s a medieval animal to make you smile and/or question everything, and SO many ways to use them as art prompts:
OPTION 1: COPY!
Medieval artists won’t mind if you use them as a ‘master study’ and it’s a lot more fun copying wonky animals than trying to replicate Rembrandt.
I don’t know what this is but I kinda want one…
Can we all agree that the snail is unlikely to be a good replacement for an actual falcon?
How many toes do fish and cats have? Asking for a friend…
Bonus Points: Work at night, by candlelight, pretending it’s 1125 and you’re really behind deadline with this illuminated manuscript.
Do it with Friends: Do a Google search for some medieval animals, pick your favourites, copy and compare.
Challenge Round: If you’re by yourself, set a timer and finish before it goes off. If you’re drawing with a friend, have a race to see who wins. Best out of three?
OPTION 2: BE INSPIRED!
Try drawing your pets or your favourite animals in the medieval style.
Here I have drawn my dog, Myrna. She’s a long girl but not THIS long!
Challenge Round: try to draw your pets or favourite animals *without looking at them*.
OPTION 3: BATTLE STATIONS!
Medieval artists LOVED drawing animals randomly fighting. Find the least battle-worthy animal you can and kit it out to FIGHT.
No arms? No problem!
Do it with Friends: get your friends to also draw a medieval battle animal and then you can put them all together and have a whole battlefield of weirdness.
Challenge Round: If you want to go down a wormhole, research weird medieval weapons for your weird medieval animals. Trebuchet? Halberd? Bardiche?
OPTION 4: EXOTIC ANIMAL TELEPHONE
The weirdest medieval animals are the exotic ones that the artists had never seen. They were going off descriptions from someone who met someone, who had met someone who had (possibly) seen an elephant.
Stealing this image from one of my workshop presentations. Why type more than I have to?
So, here are some descriptions of animals. I’m not going to tell you what they are, this is all you get.
A half-horse half serpent with a body like pattered fabric and four horns
A bald donkey that carries mountains upon its back
A raven with a beak of many colours
An eel with four legs on its body and six legs on its head
Do it with friends: Get a friend to send you a description of an animal. They can’t tell you what it is, and they can only describe it using really boring other animals. See if you end up drawing anything similar to what the real animal looks like! It’s like Pictionary but YOU don’t know what you’re drawing!
So there we have it! Four different ways to use medieval animals to make us feel better about our own drawing, give us a laugh, loosen up our drawing muscles and get some marks on paper. The only way to get better at drawing is to do it, but conscious improvement can come later, medieval animals are all about the WEIRD. Perfectionism can stay outside (and if you’re in Australia right now, it will probably die of heat exhaustion and serve it right).
If you do any of these prompts and want to let me know, I’d love to hear about it!