Who doesn't love bugs!

You are of course welcome to study the topic however you see fit, but consider looking at this one as an entomologist would. Many pitfalls occur in art because we believe we already know what we are drawing and therefor miss important details. Look at the segments and anatomy, look at the positioning of the legs, carefully look at proportions, try to see exactly what the range of motion is, etc.

Look at your subject in such a way that you will say "oh, I never noticed that!" at least once.

This will be more of a creative study. Pick two (or more, I'm not your boss) animals and combine them in some way. Be the genetic engineer you always wished you were!

Consider going to a random animal generator and combining the first two that pop up. Alternatively, combine it with a random plant for an additional challenge.

Excuse the stereotypical study topic, but it is still an important one. And with the massive variety of textures to choose from, there has to be at least one you haven't looked at closely yet.

For this particular topic I'm going to steal an idea from something I saw on cgcookie, and suggest that you draw your texture on a specific shape; be it a cube, a cone, a sphere, or something more complex such as a chair, a candle holder, a mug, or whatever. Please see this example.

Some texture examples:

• Feathers
• Meat
• Bark
• Fruit Peel
• Stone
• Embroidery
• Skin

Sometimes a reflection is simple(ish) as seen in most household mirrors. Other times it comes back wonky or otherwise deformed, like with water or a circus mirror. Either way, lets do our best to study reflections from a variety of sources. If you would like a bonus challenge, try to repeat the exercise with the same reflective surface but from a different perspective, taking note how things change in the process.

Some examples:

• Mirrors (normal or circus)
• Phone/Television Screen
• Water (puddle or lake)
• Polished Metal

Occasionally nature will surprise us with something remarkably... mathematically precise. Lets look at where we can find spirals as they appear in the natural world!

If you feel inclined, do some research about why these spirals exist and/or what benefit they have to the subject.

Some examples:

• Pinecones
• Shells
• Hurricanes
• Galaxies

Next time you are watching your favorite movie (or show, anime, music video, whatever!) take a moment to think about why the director chose to frame a shot the way they did. Pause during a visually stunning moment (or don't, I'm not a cop) and study/draw the still.

Ask yourself why do you like it - is it the colors? The emotion of the characters? The grandeur of the landscape? The placement of objects? The camera angle? The use of near/far or thick/thin or dark/light, etc? All of the above?

More specifically, lets figure out how to draw things that are easily confused or difficult to draw in an identifiable way. Try to draw both subjects in a way that they could be identified from each other, and point out where the differences are.

Examples:

• Animals (Turtle/Tortoise, Rabbit/Hare, Butterfly/Moth)
• Automobiles (Muscle/Sports)
• People (Genders, Ethnicity)
• Plants (Poison Ivy/Poison Oak, Lucky Bamboo/Real Bamboo)
• Rocks, Minerals, and Gemstones (Quartz/Any Other Gemstone)

From Mesoamerica to Mesopotamia, many artifacts were left behind from old civilizations - statues, jewelry, pottery, weapons, idols, etc.

You can study these items in their dilapidated state, or try to imagine what they may have looked like brand new!

Bonus points (digital high-five?) to anyone who goes to a museum for this study.

Walrus, polar bears, foxes, reindeer, whatever!

Try to use this opportunity to draw from real life instead of a photo... if you don't mind your food getting cold.

The previous thread was archived due to age, please post here what you would like to study.

Moooooooooooooooooo

Antelope, horses, sheep, giraffe, buffalo, deer, pigs, camels, etc.