Not every UFO report that comes to MUFON comes with a photo -- yet we all know that a picture is worth a thousand words. Because it's important to form a visual image of the objects that witnesses report, Field Investigators must often attempt to render depictions of the UFO descriptions.

The following exercise will present 5 verbal descriptions of objects reported to MUFON as UFOs. Using the descriptions, sketch your best guess of what you think the object looked like. When you're done, click the "Reveal UFO" button to see an actual witness photo of each object. Compare your sketch to the photo and gauge your UFO sketching skills!

"I was driving down the road with my children when my daughters spotted these bright lights in the sky. The lights were bright white, and there were 6 of them... they appeared to be lined up in formation as if lighting up 2 sides of an isoceles triangle. The middle light on the right side had a smaller red light just beneath it, which for some reason made me think it was a solid craft and not several in formation. It was very dark at night so I couldn't see any details except for the lights on the edges of the craft. I have no idea how big it was or how far away it was from us - but I do know that the lighting configuration does not fit with any conventional aircraft that I am aware of."

"We live on a farm in the country and something was setting off my driveway sensor for several nights. One night recently I found that the thing setting off the sensor was some sort of translucent flying column of bright white light. It is long and round, like a cigar, but flies in a vertical position. It appears to be illuminated from the inside, and a little past midpoint of the craft, a portion of the object about a third of the total length of the craft is slightly dimmer, as if a few of those "inside lights" have gone out. The top tip of the craft, however, is bright and appears to have working lights. I have no idea what could have made this light, I do have a wildlife camera though, and I'm attempting to capture images of the object. It appears to be rather small, probably no more than 4 or 5 feet tall in my best estimate. I'm not sure if it could be piloted by a being or not."

"I was sitting on the couch one afternoon and saw something out of the corner of my eye through the front screen door. It was odd so I got up and said to my husband, "what is that?". We both went to the front porch and watched for a minute. The object that we saw was about 1000 feet up but must have been pretty large, because we could make out some of the detail with the naked eye. It looked to be leaf or football shaped, dull green in color, but with pink lights shining from its underside. It appeared to have some kind of short thin tail coming from the back of it."

"I was driving down the road when my sister noticed an object in the sky. It was a light grey colored object, and metallic looking. It was broad daylight, so it was easy to see the sun reflecting off the edges. From our view, it appeared to be shaped like an oval or jelly bean. The edges of it looked darker and more defined than the center... in fact, the center in a way looked sort of transparent, but it was definitely a solid object. Neither one of us noticed any lights on the object or any other colors besides light metallic gray. It looked to be about 15,000 miles up and I estimate the size of the entire object to be at least as big as a football field. I think that covers all the details I can remember."

"I saw a strange object in the southern sky on Sunday 5/10/09 at approximately 7:30 PM. The flight was not consistent with any aircraft I'm familiar with. It was slow and methodical, and in the distance. It appeared to be 2000-4000 feet in altitude, approximately as large as a 2 story house, and appeared to change shape either by rotating or turning over somehow. The object was dull black and had a 4 sided diamond or pyramid shape. One side had a short "spike" coming out of it. I have no idea how this thing stayed in the air."

If your sketches aren't quite as accurate as you thought they would be, don't worry -- it is VERY hard to produce accurate sketches based on statements by witnesses who aren't used to having to describe strange phenomena. Professional sketch artists train for years to do this, so don't expect your drawings to become perfect overnight!

An easy way to keep practicing sketching is to check the public MUFON CMS Database for new reports with photo evidence that come in. If you find one, read the witness description and sketch a quick drawing of what you think the object looks like before peeking at the picture. Over time, you'll find that you have a better feel for some of the most common terms and phrases witnesses use to describe their sightings, and you'll be able to put that to use when compiling an artist's depiction of the object they saw.