Not too long ago I checked out an interesting book from the library. It’s called Drawing Lab for Mixed-Media Artists: 52 Creative Exercises to Make Drawing Fun and it’s by Carla Sonheim.

One of the projects involved taking photos of sidewalk cracks and using the images as inspiration for drawings. Well, the idea appealed to me. I took a few photos and gave it a try. Here’s what I did: I used the same photo but turned it in all four directions, and made four drawings. Take a look. First, the photo rotated through the directions (I used north, east, south, and west to designate them).

Then the sketches – look for the N, E, S, or W to figure out the corresponding photo:

Give this a try. I have realized that I’m not limited to sidewalk cracks – how about tree branch patterns in shadow? scattered stones? tree roots? food on your plate?