Cycle, sketch and repeat

If you love drawing or cycling or both, then here’s an idea. Head out on a cycle ride, with your sketch book and pencil and just go cycling.

All you need to do

Find a picturesque route along a river, through the hills or even an urban street to cycle down. Find a nice place to stop and do a quick sketch! If you draw rough shapes then you can add more detail when you get back from your trip.

Here is what we did:

Along the way we picked up any plastic drinks items that had been discarded by the side of the lovely looking cycle track. Turns out it wasn’t as tidy as it looked. If you do your bit like we did and pick up any plastic litter you see, it would make a big difference.

6 reasons to cycle and draw

• Drawing is a fun and relaxing break
• Doing sketches encourages you to observe your environment
• To draw, you don’t need much, only a pencil and a notepad so it is a really cheap activity – but a fun one!
• Cycling makes you feel good and just a short break outside can give you all the good in the world
• You can see new places on a bike, and in a different way. You can travel further too so you can see even more!
• Cycling gets you outside which does you a lot of good because of the fresh air you get and fresh air always puts you in a better mood.

Oh and before I go, something that helped me be creative with my drawing was a book by the children’s laureate Chris Riddell. He is one of my favourite authors and is an amazing artist too. He has a book out called doodle a day which is a book with a drawing/colouring/painting activity for every day of the year!

By Ella