If you find yourself asking what should I draw today? Then look no further as our list of drawing ideas has more than enough drawing inspiration for any budding artist.
One thing is for certain staring at a blank piece of paper is not very inspirational.
So;
What to draw?
Start with some everyday objects.
If you are stuck for some cool easy drawings then fear not the answers are more than likely lying around beside you.
Check out our list of sketching ideas that are sure to get the creative juices flowing:
Drawing Ideas
1. An Eye
The human eye is one of the most interesting things that you could possibly draw.
As something to draw the eye can take a bit of time to master that is why practice is key, practice, practice, practice!
You can draw a picture of an eye from a photo or if you really want to up your sketching game your own eye from a mirror.
2. Your Favorite Coffee Mug
Sketching your favorite mug can be a great exercise as it can be rotated and drawn from multiple angles and sides.
Although the rim and general body will be similar regardless of it’s orientation you will forced to draw the handle from multiple angles.
Doing so is a can really hone your drawing technique and force you to really look at the handle and its proportions to the mug.
3. An Open Book
Books are one of the best things to draw. Although simple enough to create a decent drawing.
Creating a truly brilliant one takes time and practice as the getting the open pages just right and the shape of all of the pages as they spread out from the spine can take a very steady hand to master.
4. Your Hand
Hands are one of the hardest things to master. For many beginners even getting the proportions of all of the individual fingers relative to each other, and to the hand and thumb is quite difficult.
Hands come in many shapes, sizes and proportions.
You will also have tackle the contours of the skin, veins, and the natural fold lines in the skin.
You can change the position of the hand to fully open, partially closed or a full fist for added variety.
Hands are something you will always have in front of you so they can be sketched just about anywhere.
5. Light Fittings
A lamp on a side table or lamp fitting hanging from the ceiling take your pick, Master one that is switched on is very different to one that is off as the types of shadow it casts will vary greatly.
6. Old Pair Of Shoes
Old shoes tell a story and your picture of them can too. Everyone has a few old pairs lying around at the bottom of their closets.
Sneakers and stilettos are very different shapes so mixing up the types of shoes that you sketch can really keep things interesting.
7. The First Thing You See
Drawing the first object you see can be a great exercise especially if you are trying to do the drawing a day challenge.
You can do this exercise almost anywhere, a park, coffee house, or in your own home.
8. A Feather
The simple shape and outline of a feather is an easy thing to draw but once you try to really get the detail down you’ll see just how complex an object a single feather is.
Just like drawing hair it is all of the individual strands that make drawing feathers tricky.
9. Your Favorite Pet
What could be a better drawing idea to make than your beloved pet, whether that’s a cat, dog, or goldfish all bets have some sense of personality about them and capturing that personalty on paper is a wonderful thing to do.
You can work from photo or real life, however it might be easier to use a photo unless your dog or cat is sleeping or likes to sit perfectly still for a few hours.
10. A Hat
Hats come in lots of shapes and sizes and make a great object to draw.
My personal favorite is a sun hat with a ribbon tied around it.
11. Drawing of a Bee
Bees have a very distinctive shape and you can draw them in a cartoon like style or in detail.
Like the image above you can also try to draw them using long sharp pencil strokes.
12. A Long Hallway
If you happen to have a long hallway in your house then go ahead and make good use of it as they are an excellent way to study perspective.
If you don’t have one at home then places like municipal galleries or old public buildings can have very long detailed rooms that can make a great drawing.
13. Street Scene
Street scenes can be bustling with detail and also mean you need to get a handle on proportion, straight lines, and perspective all at the same time.
Cities and large towns have an almost endless supply of great scenes to draw in your sketchbook.
14. An Ice Cream Cone
The classic ice cream cone makes a great study, however chances are it will have melted before you get to sketch it.
This is one drawing idea that is best done from a photo.
15. Different Hair Styles
Hair can be tricky to master.
One of the easiest ways to start out drawing hair is to try and capture short, straight hair styles first and then work your way up to longer wavy or curly styles as the are the hardest to get right.
16. Spiral Sea Shell
Sea shells are a marvel of the natural world and the types of spiral shapes that they make ca be very interesting drawings.
Try and get to your local beach and hunt out as may different sizes and shapes as possible.
You can then draw them individually or all as one big group in a pile.
17. Old Photos
Old photos are a window into the past. You can try to capture that with pencil and paper.
People, places, parties and parties make some of the best drawing ideas.
Looking at old photos is also a great trip down memory lane.
18. Memory of a Past Event
Drawing from memory is one of the most difficult skills to master. A fun test is to try and draw a past event or people from old photos before you look at the photo and then compare it.
You might be surprised by how much you remember something looking a certain way only for a photo of it to be completely different.
19. Wine Bottle
The classic drawing of a wine bottle has been done a million times. They come in different shapes and size but it is usually the labels that set them apart.
Drawing the label as it curves away from you around the side of the bottle is one of the more tricky aspects to master when sketching like this.
20. Hedgehog
Hedgehogs are super fun to draw especially if you really try to get the directions of all of the individual spines just right.
You can draw them in a realistic manner or in a cartoon like manner, either way hedgehogs are super cute!
21. Draw Some Flowers
With so shapes and wonderful patterns and colors flowers are always high on a list of ideas for sketches.
If you are lucky enough to have a garden filled with flowers then get out there and start sketching.
Drawing ‘en plein air‘ is quite different from indoors as you will have to contend with the changes in light.
If you don’t have a garden then a freshly bought or picked bunch of flowers in a vase makes an excellent study, and it will also brighten up your house.
22. Wooden Chair
A wooden chair may well be one of the first items you will see in a book of drawing exercises as they make a great object to study particularly if there is a lot of detail in the back of the chair.
The legs are normally what present the biggest problem for a lot of beginners as they need to be in perfect proportion but also the exact same shape only viewed from a different angle.
23. Caricature
Caricatures of your own or a friend or family members face can be a lot of fun.
The key is to exaggerate their features and really draw what makes them ‘them’.
24. Clown Face
If you are looking for a really simple sketching idea then a clown face is a really good option as you can start out real simple and create the face with a lot of circular shapes.
As time goes by you and you begin to master your drawing abilities you can start to really bring the clowns face to life.
25. Glass Water Bottle
Glass is hard to draw really well. While a wine bottle is normally green glass a water bottle is usually clear and this can mea all shorts of wonderful reflections and shadows to master.
Observing light and how it affects the objects you draw is a crucial skill to master and a clear glass bottle although simple is in fact rather complex when you really want to capture it accurately.
26. Portrait of a Friend
Drawing a portrait of your friend is one way to get you to really look long and hard at their face.
Chances are you have never really done that!
All of the bumps, contours, changes in skin tone, their hair line, size and shape of their nose, lips, and the color of their eyes all seem slightly different when you put them under a microscope.
A high quality photograph is one of the best ways to practice before you decide to do a live sitting.
27. Hourglass
If you have mastered the art of drawing glass then the next step up is an hourglass.
Once the sand starts flowing from the top to the bottom it will really make you concentrate.
A fun little exercise is to turn the hourglass over and then quickly sketch it, you must stop once all the sand has fallen into the bottom.
This is a time based drawing exercise and if you do them regularly you will be amazed at just how quickly you can draw when under pressure.
Drawing quickly is a great skill to master as it makes making preparatory sketches for paintings so much quicker and more efficient.
28. Your Foot
Just like sketching your hand the foot is quite a complex object to get right. Feet come in many different shapes and sizes and yours is the best one to practice drawing on.
29. Bananas
The humble banana or any piece of fruit for that matter is one of the most commonly drawn objects in the world of art.
Banana’s have a great shape and several types of contours on them. You can draw them as single items or better yet sketching a bunch of them together. The are one of the best drawing ideas for beginners.