100 Drawing Ideas for when You can't Think of Anything (2024)

It happens to the best of us. You're ready to spend a nice, cosy day in, you sit down for some relaxing drawing (or painting, or sculpting) but your mind goes completely blank.

It can be so annoying when you finally have some spare time to spend on the arts, but you just can't seem to think of a subject.

No worries, I've got you covered. Here is a list of 100 drawing prompts if ever you feel like being creative, but no idea will pop into your head.

You can find a free one-page summary of this article to print out at home on my Buy Me a Coffee page.

• Something moving in the wind

• What you think music looks like

• Something that’s less than 5 days old

• Something that’s more than 100 years old

• An object as if it were alive

• Something outdoors in three different kinds of weather

• A fairy tale character

• Five different things that can fly

• Something exaggerated

• Something you’d see on a deserted island

• Something fluffy

• Make a simplified copy of a famous piece of art

• A tool used by cavemen

• A wilted plant

• Something ugly

• Something soft

• Something with a strong smell

• Something sharp

• Something you only find in space

• Your favourite piece of clothing

• An interesting window

• A silly face

• An item that’s distinctive African

• Something you’ve never seen in real life

• A sunrise

• Something found in space

• Your favourite food

• The house you'd love to own

• Something huge

• Something tiny

• Something worth more than £10,000 but smaller than a car

• Something yellow

• A giraffe (badly) dressed like a lion

• Something noisy

• A uniform

• Something calming

• Something scary

• A coloured glass bottle in the light

• People playing a game

• Something annoying

• Something that is typical for your country

• Something medieval

• A beauty pageant for office stationery

• An item from your favourite book

• Something made of wood

• Something made of metal

• What your hands would look like if your fingers were twigs

• A cat that looks like he's up to no good

• An octopus riding a bicycle

• Something to take travelling

• Something you once lost

• The crossover between a rose and a frog

• A reason why you would or wouldn't want to move to a different country

• The current ‘World's Ugliest Dog’

• A funny hat

• The packaging of something

• Three things in your fridge

• Three drinks in the wrong glasses

• Something dirty

• Three kinds of beard/moustache

• What freedom looks like

• An animal running

• Something outside at night

• A vegetable doing an office job

• A wedding hedgehog

• A company logo for a bakery

• A company logo for a law firm

• Five different animals from behind

• Something you'd find in a museum

• An item of clothing that's not worn anymore in our time and age

• Something above you

• A distorted reflection of something

• A dangerous animal as if it were a cute pet

• A cute pet as if it were a dangerous animal

• A staircase

• A really good camping spot

• A necklace that an owl would simply adore

• An elephant living under water

• A scene describing your favourite motivational quote

• An object from your childhood

• Something that's part of another thing

• A goth tomato

• Something dangerous

• A house in the worst possible location (and how you could make it work, anyway)

• An astronaut riding a chicken

• A camouflaged sailboat

• Your teeth

• An abstract version of stress

• An abstract version of joy

• A map of your house/apartment

• A skeleton

• Three tools of the trade

• A person pursuing a hobby

• Your bed before you make it in the morning

• A historical building

• An object you use every day (from memory)

• Something broken

• Something fixed

• A cactus/alarm clock mashup

• The silhouettes of the houses in your street