Good drawing prompts do one job: they get you past the blank page. A prompt gives you a subject and a small problem to solve, so you spend your energy drawing and not deciding. This page has 74 of them.
The first five sections are loose art prompts you can use in any order. The last section is a 30-day list of daily drawing prompts that builds from things in your room to things in your head.
Drawing prompts for beginners
- Draw a fruit, then draw it again after one bite
- Draw your front door from across the street
- Draw a chair using exactly twelve straight lines
- Draw the same leaf in three different sizes
- Draw a glass of water with a straw bending at the surface
- Draw your phone charger tied in a loose knot
- Draw a plain house, then add one thing that makes it yours
- Draw a ball of yarn and the cat that found it
- Draw a spoon with your upside-down reflection in it
- Draw your favorite snack inside its opened wrapper
Story prompts
Each one is a single frame from a story. You decide the rest.
- Draw the moment right after a vase hits the floor
- Draw a letter that arrived fifty years late and who opened it
- Draw the last customer in a diner at closing time
- Draw a lost glove and the place it ended up
- Draw two strangers reaching for the same book
- Draw what the lighthouse saw during the storm
- Draw a birthday party where the guest of honor is missing
- Draw the first footprints on a snowed-in street
- Draw a suitcase packed by someone leaving in a hurry
- Draw the view from a tent on the morning after rain
Creative art prompts with a twist
These limit how you draw, which is often more useful than what you draw.
- Draw your street using only dots, no lines
- Draw a portrait where the face is hidden but the mood is clear
- Draw the word quiet without drawing a person
- Draw one object as if it weighed a thousand pounds
- Draw a memory in the three colors you remember it in
- Draw the sound of a slammed door
- Draw a landscape that fits inside a keyhole shape
- Draw something heavy floating and something light sinking
- Draw the same tree at dawn, noon and dusk in three boxes
- Draw your week as seven small weather icons
Character drawing prompts
For more, see OC drawing ideas.
- Draw a villain doing an everyday chore badly
- Draw a shopkeeper who sells one very strange item
- Draw a character from behind so the outfit tells the story
- Draw a traveler and the three things they never leave without
- Draw two rivals stuck under one small awning in the rain
- Draw a royal who would much rather be a gardener
- Draw a detective whose clue board makes no sense
- Draw a hero whose only power is perfect parallel parking
Funny and silly drawing prompts
- Draw a dinosaur trying to make a bed with short arms
- Draw a penguin at a job interview in the tropics
- Draw a ghost who is afraid of the dark
- Draw a snail being handed a speeding ticket
- Draw a shark at the dentist, nervous for once
- Draw a superhero whose cape is caught in a car door
Daily drawing prompts: a 30-day list
Days 1 to 7 are things near you, 8 to 14 are outdoors, 15 to 21 are people, and 22 to 30 come from imagination.
- The oldest pair of shoes you own
- Everything on your nightstand right now
- Your breakfast before the first bite
- A plant in your home, pot and all
- The messiest drawer in the house
- Your reflection in a dark screen
- A corner of your room at night
- A tree you pass every single day
- The front of your favorite local shop
- A bird on a wire or a fence
- The clouds right now, in five minutes
- A parked car seen from a low angle
- A street sign and its long shadow
- A stranger's dog, sketched from memory
- A friend's face seen from the side
- Someone sitting and looking at a phone
- Your own feet, crossed at the ankles
- A pair of hands around a warm mug
- A person walking away, seen from behind
- A self-portrait with an exaggerated expression
- A crowd drawn as a row of simple shapes
- A house for a very small animal
- A vehicle that runs on something silly
- A monster that is scared of you
- A map of a place you made up
- A new constellation and the story behind it
- An outfit for someone from the far future
- A plant that grows something impossible
- Your favorite drawing this month, redrawn better
- A cover for the sketchbook you just filled
How to use the 30-day list
- Same time, same place. Tie the drawing to something you already do every day, like your first coffee. Ten minutes is enough.
- Date every page. On day 30, flip back to day 1. Seeing the change is what makes people start a second month.
- Missed a day? Don't double up. Just do today's prompt. Catching up turns a habit into homework.
- Stuck on a prompt? Trade it for any prompt from the first five sections and move on.
Prompts for characters
If the character prompts were your favorite part, try building one out fully. The OC Generator rolls a name, personality and backstory you can treat as a drawing prompt, and OC prompts has more for a character you already have.
Prefer chance? Use the dice tables in the what to draw generator, or browse the main drawing ideas list.
FAQ
What are good drawing prompts for beginners?
Prompts with one object and one small twist: a fruit before and after a bite, a chair in twelve lines, a leaf in three sizes. They are easy to start and still teach you to observe.
How do daily drawing prompts help?
They remove the decision. When the subject is already chosen, the only thing left is to draw for ten minutes, and ten minutes a day adds up faster than one long session a week.
What is the difference between art prompts and drawing prompts?
People use the two terms for the same thing. Art prompts are sometimes broader, like a mood or a limit on colors, and can be used for painting or collage as well as drawing.
Where can I get a random drawing prompt?
Number the prompts on this page and pick by dice or by the minutes on a clock. For endless combinations, the what to draw generator builds a prompt from three dice rolls.
