I find that it can be quite time consuming to create something "from scratch" as they say. You have to decide what to draw, always a problem for me -nothing seems inspiring enough to get me started and then there is the layout to sort out.. And you only wanted something quick to do for an hour or so.

Why not brush up on your drawing skills with a Master teacher.

Find yourself an image of some work you really love and aspire to. Easy, now we have the Internet. You can check out my Museum links page and do some searches in there for your favorite artist.

A couple of points to keep in mind when choosing your image:

• Choose something that you really love and will want to continue till it's finished.
• Simple enough to finish in one or two sittings.
• Maybe it is in a style you would particularly like to incorporate more into your own work i.e.
  • Loose and free flowing.
  • Tight and realistic.

 

Remember, this is an opportunity for you to experiment with another style of drawing. You can learn a lot from studying other artists’ drawings or paintings, particularly from the Old Masters.
By the way, this was a standard form of instruction in the Art Academies (Ateliers) for centuries.

A word about "Copying": I am not saying you should pass any of this work as your own.
It is simply a great way of learning about the many aspects of drawing and improving some areas you might be a little weak on.

Choose a black and white drawing. Concentrate on the different tones, and values of the image.

So, draw the black shadows, then fill in the dark grays, and finally the light grays, leaving the white of the paper as your highlight.

Choose a drawing/painting/pastel that uses colors you wouldn't normally put together. Maybe they are really bright and bold, or a restricted palette of colors

-Nice and loose with big brush work and restricted colors anyone?

Consider marble statues. These are smoother and thus the shadows are easier to see (if you squint your eyes a bit) and much simpler to start with than a live person and they can stay still for a really long time too! Which is always helpful.

Try cropping some part of a favorite painting.
It took months for some of the Masters to paint their work so keep it small, remembering that you are practising techniques, styles, color combinations or even brush strokes and you will pick up lots of skills, and finish your work without spending days or weeks at it.