My sketchbook project for 2015 has been going like gangbusters, guys. I’m so excited to report that it’s really been fueling my creativity. Ideas for client projects seem to flow faster and easier; if you’re a work at home mom like me, you know how important being efficient in the office is!

I wanted to share a few sketchbook ideas for my fellow artists and doodlers out there – if you don’t call yourself an artist, I challenge you to give some of these ideas a try the next time you’re on hold during a phone call. Even the so called worst artists out there enjoy a good doodle session from time to time!

If you’re not into doodling ever, these exercises will be even more of a challenge for you. That’s a good thing. Get some paper, grab a pencil, and step outside of your comfort zone with me.

Take a basic geometric shape like a diamond, and draw it over and over again. Big diamonds, little diamonds. Diamonds inside of diamonds. Fill each one as many different ways as you can think of. If you run out of ideas, and you have to repeat something, play with scale – make the duplicate diamond bigger or smaller than the original one.

Repeat the same basic element over and over, but turn it different directions and hit with different colors.

This is one of my favorite pieces from my sketchbook recently, because it’s chock full of bright pops of color. Translate this into some sketchbook ideas of your own by busting out a fresh new color palette, and challenge yourself to touch upon the chevron stripes trend without making a page full of zig zags.

I’ve been really interested in patterns, lines, and geometric shapes recently. There’s something really cool and inviting about these hard edged shapes executed in a very hand drawn, sketchy way.

This hand drawn pattern full of chevrons and triangles would look so cool as a huge stripe printed across a tshirt.

Get a little more freeform, and try doodling something that’s not quite so regimented. No rules, no right or wrong, just organic flowy shapes that you gotta piece together like a puzzle on your paper.

Or take something organic like a flower petal, and draw it over and over and over again.

Do you have any great sketchbook ideas for someone looking for inspiration?

Share your doodle staters in the comments – we’d love to try them out in our own sketchbook!