I invite you to play at the new challenge I call The 1 Minute Sketching Challenge! 
It’s fun to sketch. I have just tried today and I can already see how it will help me improve my skills.

I warmly invite you to make a try. Post your sketches on Instagram and tag me @thedesignsketchbook #1minutesketchingchallenge! 

The rule is simple.

Take a piece of paper, and sketch something in 1 minute!
That’s all!

Preparation

I started to cut some A5 format paper – just by dividing A4 paper by 4.
To me, it’s a perfect format to take notes and doodle.

It’s up to you to draw with reference picture or not – with ideas in mind or not – with multiple angles or not – existing thing or not… It’s flexible.

Pen recommendation

For this exercise, use a pen with low pen pressure, and that gives bold lines.
Below is the pen I have:

• the ZIG Clean color f from KURETAKE
• the UNI-BALL Ultrafine 0.38 | UM-151 Black from MITSHUBISHI

Note: Any gel pen will do. They give smooth and contrasting lines.

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9 benefits of the sketching challenge

• 1 Think Fast
• 2 Draw from memory
• 3 Reveal your sketching weakness
• 4 Get rid of perfection tendency
• 5 Discover new shapes
• 6 Kill time
• 7 Increase in productivity
• 8 Get relax about failure
• 9 Have fun!

This challenge pushes you to:

1 THINK FAST

Get ideas fast and gather new forms instantaneously. Train your neurons at getting the connection of ideas faster.

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2 DRAW FROM MEMORY

You do not have much time to look at reference pictures. If you do, you need to “snapshot” what you see as fast as you can.
It’s a technique I use when I sketch while watching a movie without pressing “pause” (Sketch thinking like Google)

3 REVEAL YOUR SKETCHING WEAKNESS

If you are making mistakes you usually do not do. It may mean you did not integrate a certain technique deeply. You’ll know you can work more on this point till you apply it intuitively. 

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4 GET RID OF PERFECTION TENDENCY

No time for hesitation. Just draw!

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5 DISCOVER NEW SHAPES

Do you know about the Happy accident? That exercise is great for provoking them!

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6 KILL TIME 

Play at this game anywhere anytime. When you take the subway for let’s say about 20 minutes. You basically have time to come out with 20 of them! After a while, scan and gather them on a board with a nice composition.  You will add hundreds of sketches in your portfolio. 

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7 INCREASE PRODUCTIVITY

As a designer, you have to jump from an idea to another fast. It’s not really good to spend too much time on one idea during the initial stage of a project. You rather multiply your ideas, then later on make a selection of the top one.
Spend more time on ideas that deserve to be pushed forward.

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8 GET RELAX ABOUT FAILURE

A sketch fail? It’s ok, let’s go to the next one!

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9 HAVE FUN!

At school, sketching becomes homework. At work, it becomes work. Haha.
Don’t forget to have fun!

Gentle warning:

If you really want to draw faster,
Don’t try to accelerate your hand movement, at least not at the start.
Work on how you can think faster and drop your ideas earlier. Think like a chess player. 

Sketching with super fast movement is actually bad if you take it as a long term habit. There is an equal pleasure to draw slow as drawing fast. It’s just a different mindset. Mix both!

To get dynamic lines, you do NOT have to draw with a fast movement of hand/arm. As long as your movement is regular, it’s fine. 

If you really want to improve your drawing speed, take your time at practice with focus. So you will deeply understand the concept, the techniques. Drawing slow is a good way to keep your concentration high for long drawing sessions.

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Play with multiple players!

If you want to play with your friend, give you a “random theme”. Each of you says one word, combine them and you have your sketching subject!

Example:
Robert says: Rabbit
Sandra says: Mug
Here we go! You guys have to draw anything related to Rabbit – Mug!

I actually used to play at this game when I was a student with my friend and artist David Vong. We did that online through Skype sessions.

Feel free to post your 1-minute challenge in pictures or videos and tag me on Instagram! @thedesignsketchbook  #1minutesketchingchallenge