Lifestyle illustrator: Illustrating everyday objects

My sketchbooks (and possibly even more so, my notebooks, as I HAVE TO doodle while planning, listening and so on) are full of quick little sketches of mugs (lots of mugs, to be honest) and lamps, and pens and scissors. (They’re also full of flowers and weird and quirky faces and folk-art style kinda symmetrical patterns. I should maybe do a whole blog posts on sketchbook, notebook and random post-it doodles.)

If in doubt, just draw what’s in front of you. To I almost always have a huge list of ideas of things I want to draw or sketches I’ve done that can be worked up to final – not to mention actual client work with specific things to draw. But there are still times when I’ll sit in a café or on a park bench and pull out my sketchbook and not know what to draw, but want to draw something. And there is literally ALWAYS something there to draw, so we can never really have the excuse of not knowing what to draw, can we?

I think I probably claim a lot of things are my favourite thing to draw, but I definitely have an overriding joy of documenting the everyday. That can be documenting emotions and scenes, but it is often just capturing the handful of things I can see on a shelf or the random collection of junk sitting in the corner, or the bits and pieces sat on top of the cupboard… Oh!! I knew there was a reason to be a cluttered, not overly tidy person! Because I do think it’s generally far more interesting to draw a busy and cluttered space than a clear and clean shelf with nothing askew at all.

Sketchbook glimpses of everyday objects

Here are a handful of sketches and doodles of everyday objects from flicking through some of my sketchbooks and notebooks and the piles of post-its on my desk (yes, it’s a messy cluttered desk, obviously… even when I tidy it, it will still be pretty cluttered).

Drawing challenges

I do (start, at least) a lot of drawing challenges, whether ones I make up for myself, ones that stem from a class or membership I’m part of, or just big global Instagram challenges. I’ve found I’m most happy to do ones that last around a month, as I get bored if I try to go up to 100 days. Quick-draw daily challenges are great for a bunch of things – practising something you’re rusty at drawing, leaning into a new style direction, or just flexing your muscles in a different way to the client work you’re working on.

Last year, I did a lot of A to Z challenges, including an A to Z of Everyday Life, and an A to Z of Household Objects (didn’t finish that one because I had client work that required some long hours).

I also did around a month where I drew a particular subject matter on different days of the week (and one day was objects).

Illustrating everyday objects within scenes

The sketching and doodling and the drawing challenges all feed into final illustrations, whether personal work or client work. Including those little details in room illustrations, like a glass of water, pair of glasses or inhaler, or putting stuff on shelves in the background of illustrations of people interacting or doing things, makes all the difference, I think. And the inclusion of everyday objects can make illustrations more relatable and also tell a story.

Here are a few where you can see a variety of everyday objects.

List of things to draw

It’s really handy to have a list somewhere (on your phone is probably easiest?) of everyday objects to draw, so you’re not always limited to what’s in front of you. Most of them you should probably be able to draw from memory, but you can always look up some references if you need to. Here’s a short list of ideas you can use if you like – or come up with your own list. There are 31, so you can use if for a month-long challenge if you want to.

31 everyday objects to draw

And here they are in text, so you can copy and paste them if you like.

1. Mug
2. Teaspoon
3. Bar of soap
4. Shampoo bottle
5. Whisk
6. Kettle
7. Pair of scissors
8. Headphones
9. Mobile phone
10. Sketchbook
11. Sandal
12. Broom
13. Trowel
14. Clothes peg
15. Washing powder (or liquid or sheets)
16. Microwave
17. Watering can
18. Toilet brush
19. Hairbrush
20. Toothbrush
21. Washing-up brush
22. Pencil sharpener
23. Lanyard
24. Teapot
25. House key
26. Spanner
27. Measuring tape
28. Bottle of sanitiser
29. Face mask
30. Nail varnish
31. Purse