ColourFun
For Z

Chaos: 12 drawing ideas

Ideas for the 12 chaos drawings: three each in pencil, black fineliner, coloured pencil and markers. Each idea says what to draw, how to do it in that medium, and which design elements and principles it uses. Each one also links to the chaos image that inspired it. Every idea comes with an example drawing you can copy, which builds up step by step. Press Regenerate for a new idea and Lock the ones you want to keep.

The brief

Project 1: Wordscapes · Chaos drawings

  • 12 drawings that represent chaos, each in a box of about 10 × 10 cm.
  • 3 in pencil (any grades: 4H, 2H, H, HB, 2B, 4B…), 3 in black ink fineliner, 3 in colour pencil, 3 in coloured markers.
  • Any design elements and principles, but reference them to show they have been considered.

Using the ideas

  • Each idea is a starting point: change it, combine two, or swap in your own subject.
  • Try for a mix of literal chaos (a storm, a crowd) and conceptual chaos (a mind unravelling, order breaking).
  • Write the element and principle beside each drawing, as you did on the image sheets.
PencilValue: light grades (H) for pale areas, soft grades (B) for darks, a putty rubber to lift highlights.
FinelinerNo erasing: build tone with hatching, cross-hatching and stippling, and vary pen sizes (0.05–0.8).
Colour pencilLayer light to dark, burnish with white, and use warm against cool colours.
MarkersFlat, bold colour: plan light colours first, blend while wet, and outline last.

Your 12 ideas

Print

A4 portrait. The drawing sheets have the 12 boxes at 9.5 × 9.5 cm (four to a page, so they fit inside a printer’s margins), each labelled with its medium, idea, element and principle. The reference drawings print the example drawings in the same boxes, to copy from. The ideas list prints all 12 ideas with full instructions. Print at 100% / actual size.