110+ Super Easy Drawing Ideas for Beginner Artists

Whether you're bored in class and need something to doodle in the margins of your notebook, or you want to level up as an artist and need some simple ideas for things to sketch, we've got you covered! Keep reading for more than a hundred cool and beginner-friendly drawing prompts, with tips from professional artists. Plus, find awesome and weird ideas for styles to draw in to help you hone your craft even more. Remember us when you're a famous artist!

Cool Ideas for Stuff to Draw

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An illustration of different cool things to draw.

A cool thing to draw is anything that stretches your imagination, technique, or that you just find fun! Here are some ideas to inspire you if you’re feeling stuck:

Cute prompts: Sentient boba, a turtle with a colorful shell, Dracula as a toddler
Weird prompts: A Pop Tart lifting weights, an octopus with spoons for legs
Funny prompts: Batman doing yoga, pants running with no one in them
Cool characters to draw: SpongeBob SquarePants, Goku, Bugs Bunny
Cool animals to draw: Tarantula, squid, shark, jaguar

Section 1 of 7:

Cool & Easy Things to Draw

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These prompts are super cool…but still beginner-friendly. "Anyone can learn to draw," professional artist Kelly Medford stresses.^{[1]
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Kelly Medford
Professional Artist

Expert Interview} She explains that you just need patience and time! These totally awesome and simple drawing ideas are a great place to begin:
- A rocket ship
- A moon and star
- A baby seal
- A twisty vine
- A dinosaur
- A piece of toast
- A candle
- A mushroom
- A bunny
- Hearts and stars
- A pencil
- A pumpkin
- An apple
- A tulip
- A ghost
- A butterfly
- A tooth
- A mirror
- A TV
- A cactus
Meet the wikiHow Experts

Kelly Medford is an American painter based in Rome, Italy. She studied classical painting, drawing and printmaking both in the U.S. and in Italy.

Claire Wentzel is an award-winning artist and strategic creative consultant. Her business, Red Rose Studios, is based in Las Vegas, Nevada, where she also serves on the Clark County Public Art Committee.

Jeanine Hattas Wilson is a professional painter and artist with over 20 years of experience creating, overseeing, designing, and painting murals.

Eric Gibbons is an art educator with over 35 years of teaching experience. He’s also the creator of ArtEdGuru™, a platform supporting art educators.

Section 2 of 7:

Cool & Cute Things to Draw

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What's cuter or cooler than a baby elephant…wearing sunglasses? Can't decide between a totes adorbs doodle and a wicked-cool one? Why not combine the two with these kawaii but cool ideas?
- Sentient boba
- A turtle with a colorful shell
- A baby elephant wearing sunglasses
- A cow with stars and hearts for spots
- A bustling city, but make it rainbow-colored
- A starfish sunbathing
- Dracula as a toddler
- A peacock riding a skateboard
- A leprechaun riding a motorcycle
- An onion with a combover
- A panda in a leather jacket
- A bumblebee drinking coffee
- A cat painting its fingernails
- A bunny and a tiger holding hands
- Boss Baby
- For more adorable drawing prompts, check out 180+ Cute and Easy Things to Draw.

Section 3 of 7:

Cool & Weird Things to Draw

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The best art makes people ask, "Why?" And these bizarre and random drawing prompts are guaranteed to elicit that very question from anyone you show your beautiful, surreal, brilliant, and unhinged doodle to! Medford says it's important to "make drawing fun; otherwise, you will quit if it feels like a chore."^{[2]
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Kelly Medford
Professional Artist

Expert Interview} So have fun with these wacky prompts:
- A koala bear with a doughnut on its head
- Frankenstein dressed as Batman
- A Pop Tart lifting weights
- An octopus with spoons for legs
- A pair of shoes made out of flowers
- A clown sneezing out butterflies
- A banana slipping on banana peels
- A cabin on top of a cloud
- A bicycle riding a bicycle
- A person with fruit for hair
- An elf jumping on a trampoline
- Your own version of Mount Rushmore
- A a pencil sharpener eating something other than a pencil
- A super scary Valentine’s Day card
- A flamingo doing ballet
- Yourself, with doughnuts for eyes
- A walrus in a beach chair
- A basketball player dunking a chicken
- A rainstorm of sprinkles
- A cowboy in Antarctica riding a polar bear
- A cheeseburger wearing a dress

Section 4 of 7:

Cool & Funny Things to Draw

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Crack yourself up with these drawing prompts. "Cool" and "funny" often go hand in hand, and nowhere is that more evident than in these silly, awesome, and completely creative drawing ideas:
- A silly meme, like the Spider-Man pointing meme or Mike Wazowski with Sully's face
- A squirrel shopping at the grocery store
- A banana with 8 legs
- A dragon wearing a superhero cape
- Pants running with nobody in them
- A pencil drawing a person
- Anthropomorphic (that is, having the qualities of a human) socks
- A flower wearing underwear
- Two clouds getting married
- Batman doing yoga
- A llama on vacation
- A person with an emoji for a face
- A monkey with a beard
- Your enemy, covered in snot
- For more funny drawing prompts, check out 215 Funny, Simple, & Silly Things to Draw.

Section 5 of 7:

Cool Characters to Draw

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Try sketching popular cartoon characters like SpongeBob or Bugs Bunny. Medford says one of the best ways to get better at drawing is by copying art you love. "Learn how [the artists] make marks and approach something. You can even take tracing paper and go over their drawings from a printout. This practice is invaluable for learning different approaches to drawing and will [help] you get better in leaps and bounds."^{[3]
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Kelly Medford
Professional Artist

Expert Interview} Why not pick one of these classic and beloved fictional characters to doodle?
- SpongeBob SquarePants
- Patrick Star
- Squidward Tentacles
- Bugs Bunny
- Mickey Mouse
- Hey Arnold
- Donald Duck
- Goku from Dragon Ball Z
- Hello Kitty
- Pikachu
- Dora the Explorer
- Batman
- Winnie the Pooh
- Mario
- Baby Yoda
- Sonic the Hedgehog
- The Minions from Despicable Me
- Tweety Bird
- Spider-Man

Section 6 of 7:

Cool Animals to Draw

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You can illustrate a whole zoo of these totally awesome animals. All animals are cool, but some animals are cooler than others. (But, TBH, any animal can be cool if you draw it wearing sunglasses. 😎)
- Gorilla
- Tarantula
- Cat
- Gecko
- Shark
- Black widow
- Angler fish
- Axolotl
- Narwhal
- Octopus
- Jaguars
- Angel fish
- Wasp
- Kangaroo
- Giraffe
- Eagle
- Buzzard
- Lemur
- Zebra
- Squid
- Snail
- Python
- Centipede
- Owl
- Electric eel

Section 7 of 7:

Cool Drawing Experiments

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Hone your technique by experimenting with weird and fun methods. For example, you could draw one thing in a continuous line without ever lifting your pencil. Or maybe you could draw something and color it in all the "wrong" colors. You never know where your curiosity and creativity can take you! Check out these ideas for ways to experiment:
- Continuous line drawings: Draw something without ever lifting your pencil from the page.
- Wrong color paintings: Draw a picture, and then paint or color it in using unexpected or "wrong" colors (e.g., a purple sky or a green dog).
- Exquisite corpse: Complete part of a drawing (like a human head), then fold the paper to conceal what you've drawn, and pass it to a friend to add on to the picture without seeing what you've already made. Then, have them pass it on to another friend, and so on. The result is a fun Frankenstein's monster of doodles!^{[4]
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- Blind drawing: Position your pencil against the paper, ready to draw. Then, close your eyes and try your best to draw something without looking at the paper.
- The same thing over and over: Award-winning artist and strategic creative consultant Claire Wentzel says that if you want to get better at drawing, you have to practice drawing the same thing again and again. "The more times you do it, the better at it you will become."^{[5]
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  Claire Wentzel
  Award-Winning Artist and Strategic Creative Consultant
  
  Expert Interview} Pick one object—say, a coffee mug, or your cat—and draw it repeatedly. See how you improve with time!
- Your favorite photo: Art educator Eric Gibbons says, “Last year I went to Japan and took lots of photographs, then drew things from those images. See if you can find cool things while on vacation or traveling and draw those.”^{[6]
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  Eric Gibbons
  Art Educator
  
  Expert Interview}
- Simultaneous portraits: Get a buddy and have them sit directly across from you with their own drawing pad and pencil. Draw one another at the exact same time.
EXPERT TIP

Jeanine Hattas Wilson
Professional Painter
Jeanine Hattas Wilson is a Professional Painter and the President of Hattas Public Murals, Inc. With nearly 20 years of experience, Jeanine specializes in creating, overseeing, designing, and painting murals. Jeanine holds a BA in Advertising from Marquette University and a Studio Painting Minor from The Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design. She has studied at The Atelier Artien in Paris, France, Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art, and under renowned artists such as Robert Liberace, Michael Siegel, and William Cochran. To date, Hattas Public Murals has painted nearly 5,000 commissioned works of art in homes and commercial and public spaces.

Jeanine Hattas Wilson
Professional Painter

Don't try to lock yourself into a specific style. Go on a journey and develop a style. Don't try to come up with a gimmick and then stick with it. Really let yourself be taken on a journey so that you're growing.