Sometimes I spent more time thinking about what to draw than drawing itself. It can be challenging to come up with new ideas. The key is to draw things that interest you, as you will be more likely to stick with them, and before you know it, those skills will come. You’ll even start developing your own style, which is fantastic! Whether you want to draw in a traditional or digital way, here are 5 easy drawing ideas when you don’t know what to draw with tips and resources to jumpstart your creative journey regardless of your drawing experience level.
These easy-to-draw subjects will help you explore basic techniques and build your confidence as an artist. Now grab your tools and start!
5 Easy Drawing Ideas
Easy Drawing Ideas : Landscape
Mountains
Drawing a mountain is a simple and easy. It can be a great visual tool for creating landscapes that suggest vast distances. Beside, learning how to draw mountains is a great way to learn how to implement lights and shadows into your drawings.
For inspiration, look at a photo you have taken during your vacations or you can also find all kind of commercial-free photos on Unplash. Once you have your reference for the drawing, start by the biggest shapes in the landscape. Then, refine it with contour lines and smaller elements—like rocks and plants in the background.
Take note that there are so many different ways to draw mountains. Try to draw from different points of view, from the sky, over high mountains, next to a lake, under a bridge etc.
Skies
The sky is so important in a landscape illustration. Artists use the density of cloud formation to set the overall mood of the drawing and implement light.
Start looking up at the sky at different timing of the day and observe cloud formations. Take photos of them, and you will be amazed at what you will start to see!
Plants
Flowers/Cactus
Nature has long provided artists with inspiration for drawing. Plants are one of the most gratifying things to draw because they are so varied in shape, color, and size. Pick a flower or cactus to sketch, and focus on lightly outlining its basic shape before adding further detail.
Again, you can find a lot of reference photos online, but I believe you don’t even need to. Just go outside and draw the first plant you see.
Note that there isn’t straight lines in nature and there are million of ways to draw trees. Feel free to draw however you want!
Trees
One of my favorite things to draw is trees, as it is hard to go wrong because there are so many types and ways to portray trees. Whether it’s a simplified triangle turned into a pine tree or a circle over a simple linear trunk, trees can be drawn by artists of all levels.
Their non-linear, organic shapes also make them a very forgiving subject matter if you’re not entirely confident with your skills yet.
Learn how to observe, look at the differents shapes and structures, look at the different foliages. Experiment by drawing textures of leaves and trunk of a variety of trees.
Study the tree’s branches and overall shape to capture it in detail. Each tree has its way of branching, so start by outlining its basic shapes and filling them in.
5 Easy Drawing Ideas
Basic Shapes With Basic Rules
Easy Facade Drawing
Draw the exterior wall or face of a building, usually involving design elements like windows or doors. There are so many architecture style. Try drawing different kind of facade, old buildings, churches, mosques or new sky scrapper facades.
This does not need to be real, this can also be fantastic places as fairy-tale castles etc. Use your imagination!
Small things that surrounds you
Look around you. You can actually draw anything you see. That can be :
- Food. What did you eat for lunch?
- Small objects. This can be pens, books, towel etc.
- Furnitures, like table, chair etc.
- The room you are in, either you are at home, or in a cafe, maybe in the plane, or in the train.
- Animals. Your pet?
- People. Maybe yourself?
- Scene from a movie or animation.
- Your favorite fairy-tale.
5 Easy Drawing Ideas
Some Tips
- Try different media. Try charcoal, pastels, pens, markers, crayons, watercolors etc. Experiment and mix media to discover what produces your best drawings.
- Draw daily. Find the time of day in which you have the most creative energy. Keep a sketchbook with you wherever you go. After some time, it will settle in as routine.
- Look at other artists’ drawings and sketches, the details, the use of colors, shadings etc. Learn from them. Get inspired.
- Don’t give up just because you didn’t like the result. Some days it works, some days it doesn’t. It takes some time to learn a skill and to develop it.
- just because you didn’t like the result. Some days it work, some days it doesn’t. It takes some time to learn a skill and to develop it.
Let me know if you try these 5 easy drawing ideas. If you have any questions feel free to ask me. I also share a lot of illustrations on my Instagram, and if you still have time, check out my other posts!