Drawing Ideas for Beginners

Sometimes it’s hard to know what to draw, so today I’m sharing a list of drawing ideas and inspirations to help give your own ideas a kick start!

Use them as a prompt list for a rainy day, or go through one by one to practise your skills on things you might not normally draw.

Pencil drawing in a sketchbook of leaves

Plants + Leaves

You’ll see plants and flowers a lot in my illustrations because they’re simple to draw, they’re so pretty and they’re fun to experiment with.

Try these drawing ideas:

  • Ferns

  • Sunflowers

  • Daffodils

  • Palm trees

  • Succulents

  • Different leaf types

Pencil drawings in a sketchbook of dogs and cats

Animals

I draw quite a lot of cats. I don’t own a cat but I think they have an attitude and I like that about them! Pick an animal and give them a personality, an outfit, or put them in a scene.

Try these drawing ideas:

  • Cat

  • Dog

  • Fox

  • Goldfish

  • Llama

  • Butterfly

  • Snail

People

I used to find people quite hard to draw, but since I’ve settled into a bit of a style and spent some time practising coming up with little characters I feel much better about it!

Try these drawing ideas:

  • Person with a hat

  • Person out for a walk

  • Person cuddling a dog

  • Person eating ice cream

  • Person caught in the rain

Food

Although I love food it’s something I don’t draw very often and should start practising to get out of my comfort zone a bit.

Try these drawing ideas:

  • Spaghetti

  • Tea

  • Cake

  • Ice Cream

  • Fruit

  • Macarons

Environments

I like using whole settings as a prompt because sometimes just picking an environment can bring a bunch of ideas with it for characters and situations.

Try these drawing ideas:

  • Woodlands

  • Desert

  • Ocean

  • Outer space

  • Beach

  • Jungle

Once you’ve tried out some of these, try having a brainstorming session and write down your own list of drawing ideas and prompts for when you’re feeling stuck. Or if you need more ideas then check out my other blog post for 8 more drawing ideas!

When you’re after some more inspiration, come and draw along with me over on YouTube where I share real-time and time-lapse videos of some of my illustrations. Come along to watch for inspiration or draw your own illustration alongside me!

 
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Mimi Purnell

Hello, I’m Mimi, and I’m a digital illustrator helping other creatives follow their dreams of becoming an artist.

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