61 Things to Draw When Bored (Easy, Fun and Quick)

Here are 61 things to draw when bored, whether you're stuck in a waiting room, half listening to a lecture or just out of things to scroll. All you need is a pen and the back of whatever paper is nearby.

The list is sorted by time. If you only have two minutes, stay in the first section. If the afternoon is empty, skip to the end.

Easy things to draw when bored (2 minutes)

1. A paper airplane with a dotted loop behind it
2. A lightbulb with a tiny plant growing inside
3. A ladder leaning against the edge of your page
4. A row of five cacti, each a different shape
5. A cup of pens where one pen is a carrot
6. A melting clock dripping off the corner of a table
7. A fishbowl with a castle and no fish
8. A sock with a hole and a toe peeking through
9. A kite stuck in the top line of your notebook
10. A matchbox opened to show a tiny bed inside
11. A row of bottles, each one holding a different weather
12. A snail leaving a trail that spells a word

What to draw when bored at your desk

Look up. Everything in front of you is a subject.

13. Your own free hand, resting flat on the table
14. The tangle of cables behind your screen
15. Your water bottle with the room reflected in it
16. The stapler seen from directly above
17. A crumpled sticky note and the shadow under it
18. The view through your window, frame included
19. Your shoe from the angle you see it under the desk
20. The pile on your chair that should be in the closet
21. A desk lamp and the exact shape of its pool of light
22. The last thing you ate, drawn from memory
23. Your keyboard with only your most-used keys filled in
24. The inside of your bag without tidying it first

Fun drawing games to play alone

25. Draw a face without lifting the pen from the paper
26. Draw your pet or a friend with your other hand
27. Close your eyes and draw a house, then fix it with eyes open
28. Scribble a loose shape and turn it into a creature
29. Fill a page with circles and make each one a different planet
30. Draw an object while looking only at it, never at the paper
31. Split a square into nine boxes and fill each with a pattern
32. Draw one line per minute until the page is a city
33. Turn every letter of your name into an animal
34. Draw the same cat ten times, a little angrier each time
35. Trace a coin six times and make six different emoji faces
36. Start in a corner and grow one vine across the whole page

Cool things to draw when bored (10 minutes)

37. A shipping container turned into a tiny home
38. A vending machine that sells potions
39. A skyscraper with one floor that is a jungle
40. A robot whose chest opens to show a fish tank
41. A pirate ship sailing in a bathtub
42. A pair of boots with a small village living inside
43. A hand holding a snow globe of your town
44. A camper van parked on the back of a whale
45. A castle balanced on top of a mushroom
46. A backpack unzipped to reveal a galaxy
47. A moth with tiny windows drawn on its wings
48. A chess piece knight that is a real, annoyed horse

Longer ideas for an empty afternoon

49. A floor plan of your dream apartment with every room labeled
50. A cross-section of an anthill with ants doing human jobs
51. A full page of imaginary postage stamps from a made-up country
52. The life of one coin told in six comic panels
53. A menu for a restaurant run entirely by cats
54. A field guide page for a bird you invented
55. The street you grew up on, drawn only from memory
56. A board game path with twenty illustrated squares
57. A shelf of twelve potion bottles with handwritten labels
58. An alphabet where each letter is a small building
59. A family tree for a family of garden gnomes
60. A subway map for a city that sits on clouds
61. A two-page spread of everything in your fridge

How to make it less boring

Boredom drawing works best with a rule, because a rule gives you something to push against.

• Race a timer. Set two minutes per drawing and do five in a row. Don't erase.
• Fill the page. Keep adding small drawings until no white space is bigger than a coin.
• Link them. Make each new drawing touch the last one, so the page slowly becomes a single scene.

When a doodle turns into a character

The annoyed chess horse or the robot with a fish tank might deserve a name. Type the idea into the Random Character Generator or the Character Creator and get a full portrait and backstory to keep drawing from.

Still bored? Try random things to draw, doodle ideas or funny things to draw.

FAQ

What should I draw when I'm bored and have no ideas?

Draw the object closest to your hand. A pen, a mug or your own shoe is enough to get moving, and once the pen is moving the next idea usually shows up.

What are easy things to draw when bored in class?

Small margin drawings that don't need erasing: a row of cacti, a paper airplane with a dotted trail, a vine growing along the edge of the page, or patterns inside a grid of small boxes.

What can I draw when I'm bored with just a pen?

Anything on this list. Pen is actually helpful because you can't erase, so you keep going. Try one-line faces, pattern grids or a city built one line at a time.

How do I make drawing fun when I'm bored?

Turn it into a game with one rule: a two-minute timer, your non-dominant hand, or no lifting the pen. The rule matters more than the subject.