Willem de Kooning
Drawing Guide

Below you’ll find prompts inspired by his various approaches to drawing—from working with his eyes closed to transforming familiar imagery in unexpected and often humorous ways.

Challenge Your Hand

Though he was a trained artist, de Kooning wasn’t always interested in following the rules. Rather, he saw drawing as a process of discovery. To loosen up his mind and hand, he often created challenges for himself like the ones below.

Draw with your eyes closed.
Switch to your nondominant hand and see where it takes you.

Capture a Glimpse

“A glimpse of something, an encounter, you know, like a flash …” This is how de Kooning described the fleeting images, such as the view from the window of a moving car, that he tried to capture in his art. To create a sense of immediacy, he manipulated ordinary materials in unexpected ways. Brushing, erasing, rubbing, smudging, and spraying with fixative could set his lines in motion.

Can you capture a fleeting image? Try using your pencil, eraser, and fingers to create a sense of movement and energy.

Find a Motif

De Kooning filled his drawings and paintings to the brim with recurring shapes, fragments, and even feelings. He said, “I can keep putting more and more things in—drama, anger, pain, love, a figure, a horse, my ideas about space.”

Can you spot some of these recurring motifs in Itinerant Chapel and other works by de Kooning? Try drawing them yourself.

A face • A body • A window • A table

Make Us Laugh

De Kooning adored cartoons and once confessed, “I have a lot of cartoonist in me.” Like a caricaturist, he stretched and twisted features into wide grins, bulging eyes, and even dancing shoes.

Can you convey a sense of humor in your own drawings?
Try sketching a figure in an exaggerated pose or drawing a line that looks like it’s laughing.

Reuse

When beginning a new drawing, de Kooning often looked to his own body of work for inspiration. Once an existing form or figure captured his attention, he would copy and transfer it onto a new surface.

Find a form or figure in one of your previous drawings and re-create it. Then use it as the basis for a new drawing. Consider rotating the paper: How does this change the way you see the possibilities for the composition?

Want to draw with us at the museum?

Join us for an on-site art-making program!

Weekday Studio
Thursdays, Jun 8, Jul 16, and Aug 20 | 5:30–7:30
Explore playful approaches to creating abstract compositions.

Drop-In Sketching
Thursdays, Aug 6, Sept 3, and Oct 1 | 12:00–2:00
Try out de Kooning–inspired materials and methods while sketching in the galleries.

Room to Draw
Ongoing, Wed–Mon, 11:00–3:00
Families are invited to drop by our always-free Ryan Learning Center for this immersive art-making experience.

Share your drawings with us!

Tag @artinstitutechi on Instagram, and we may include your work in an upcoming post.

All quotations by Willem de Kooning © 2026 Estate of Lisa de Kooning.

SPONSORS

Willem de Kooning Drawing is made possible through the lead support of The Willem de Kooning Foundation.

Major support is provided by the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, The Regenstein Foundation Fund, and the Maureen & Edward Byron Smith, Jr. Exhibition Endowment Fund. 

Additional support is provided by the Lewis and Susan Manilow Fund and the Allan McNab Endowed Fund.

Members of the Luminary Trust provide annual leadership support for the museum’s operations, including exhibition development, conservation and collection care, and educational programming. The Luminary Trust includes an anonymous donor, Karen Gray-Krehbiel and John Krehbiel, Jr., Kenneth C. Griffin, the Harris Family Foundation in memory of Bette and Neison Harris, Josef and Margot Lakonishok, Liz and Eric Lefkofsky, Ann and Samuel M. Mencoff, Sylvia Neil and Dan Fischel, Cari and Michael J. Sacks, and the Earl and Brenda Shapiro Foundation.

Topics

• Exhibitions
• Contemporary Art
• Prints and Drawings