In today’s post I am exploring easy drawing ideas.
Before I expound upon this list of ideas for you to try, I need to lay down a pre-emptive challenge for you to think about. We all want “easy” in pretty much every area of our lives. My curiosity always gets the better of me when my community asks me for easy drawing ideas. What is an easy drawing idea? Easy drawing ideas are surely only ever based on the standard you feel you are at?
I want to find out why you are searching for this term. (Don’t worry, there is a long list of easy drawing ideas for you to try to your heart’s content below) I would be failing as an educator if I did not also want to provide you with a roadmap for drawing and getting the most out of any drawing item list.
You see, these lists abound on the internet. Simply posting a list of ideas may not actually make it any easier for you to draw!
The message I teach and preach is that everyone can draw. They just need to be shown how. Every drawing idea will penultimately become easy once you know how. The easy drawing idea is as good a starting place as any but it is only a part of how you are likely to improve and commit to drawing.
So, tell me;
- Are you new to drawing or a beginner and want something easy to start with?
- Do you want quick ideas which can, at times, be synonymous with easy?
- Do you get stuck working out what you want to draw? Does not having drawing ideas actually prevent you getting going with drawing?
I’m going to be outlining how to approach succeeding with your list of easy drawing ideas by providing you with a basic set of “tools” for you to think about and then apply as you draw. My only request is that you pay attention to the points I raise and use them as you draw your list.
Table of Contents
How to Start Your Easy Drawing!
Every drawing has a start, middle and ending. Where and how you start your drawing will have an impact on the entire thing. I’m assuming that you have the right equipment for drawing. (If you want to know what mine is, check out my post on my materials here.)
Wouldn’t it help to understand some basic drawing basics when starting to draw? I’ve listed a few concepts for you to consider but to also support your drawing.
Start with the whole first. When you are new to drawing you might tend to start drawing it “piecemeal”
With your image in front of you, ensure that you are able to draw it onto your paper proportionately. You can achieve this in a variety of ways. The first is to get the entire contour of the drawing onto your paper as quickly as possible. This ensures you will not run out of space or fall off the paper. You also train your eye to observe the edges of your object / subject in order to get the whole onto the page first. Contour drawing is the first step to any drawing and the foundation to succeeding. Read more about where to start to learn to draw in my recent post on contours.
Drawing something with ease is also about how confident you feel whilst drawing. Confidence comes through practice. The list I have provided for you could be defined as easy as it is predominantly based on making simple lines on a page. After all, that is all that drawing is…lines and marks on a page. Our confidence in how we get those lines on paper is what makes a drawing easy or difficult.
Mark and Line Making
Alongside your easy drawing have a go at practicing the habit of mark making. Read more about what mark making is and how to practice it here! It can teach you so much about starting to draw from how you hold your pencil through to the confidence with which you make a mark on the page.
Don’t underestimate this seemingly simplistic exercise. You will develop your own way of making marks on the page as your drawing skill evolves. Your mark making technique is as unique as a set of fingerprints. It will later define your creative style on paper.
From the examples and list that I have included you can see how a simple set of lines and marks can define a drawing.
I’ve purposely, for example, included a full page of easy drawing just focusing on straight lines. The pencils, paintbrushes and pens in my pencil case lined up in a row, some wild grass, bull rushes and thistles ( a combination of lines and marks,) as well as a set of 3 knives – straight lines at their best, and last but not least a hammer with its straight and curved lines. Look how simple yet effective these types of drawings can be. Start with images like this to build your confidence in marking the page with a line.
When you are thinking about easy drawing ideas aim to start with simple line drawings.
Get creative with how you choose to arrange your page too!
Doodle?
An additional easy drawing idea is most definitely doodling. Its definition is “an art that you do when your mind is elsewhere.” Sometimes being subconscious with our creative intention can support us build a technical knowledge that evolves the more we practice. Let’s face it, we’ve all done it. Doodling can also act as a step change in our understanding of a particular process.
My Easy Drawing Ideas List
I have pre-qualified the following ideas list to correspond to understanding basic drawing principles. Believe it or not the below list focuses predominantly on the use of consistent lines.
Take a look at my sketchbook pages that I’ve included as part of this post;
- Keys. (Great to practice whilst using blind and gesture contour drawing! I cover all of this in my Back to Basics Course!)
- Sunglasses or glasses. (Make sure you capture the reflection and attempt the angle at which they lie.)
- Buttons. Lots of them as well as the glass jar they live in. Practicing circles and ellipses are a great way to boost beginner technique. Scatter buttons across your pages.
- Kitchen utensils. Spoons, ladles, whisks, spatulas. All great for shape. Perhaps even draw the container that they all sit within.
- Shoes. Aerial view of a flip flop if you are a beginner so you are looking straight on. Tilt the shoe at an angle if you are more advanced to practice perspective.
- Flowers and their stems. Limitless ideas with the number of different varieties and types you can choose from. Keep the drawings simple.
- Apple. Check out my free filmed tutorial on how to draw and paint an apple here!
- Avocado. And vegetables in general. This is a great easy drawing idea which you can bring to life with some colour. Two simple lines on a page!
- Bottle opener. Opt for interesting shaped objects.
- The front doors in your local neighbourhood or street where you live. Rectangular in shape these are easy to capture with the ability to embellish with unique features.
- The view out of every window in your home. This one will keep you busy and create a memoir of your home! Or windows from the outside.
- Your junk drawer. Pull out a variety of knick knack or items in that draw we throw everything into. Every house has one!
- Nail clippers. Paper clips. Cables. Clothes pegs. Bulldog clips.
- The washing line. A long thin line from which is attached a multitude of colourful clothes.
- The contents of your pencil case.
- Cutlery. Knives and forks and Spoons.
- Your hands. Check out my blog post on how to draw hands!
- Your feet in different positions. Create a series of pages just dedicated to your feet!
- The contents of your cupboards.
- Your meals in the day. Breakfast, lunch and dinner.
- Houseplants.
- Trees.
- A camera.
- The patterns on tiles, floors, curtains or sofas and their cushions!
- Leaves
- A box of matches
- Clock or watch
- A glass bottle
- Teacups, coffee cups and teapots.
- A shelf of books.
However, you want to start, just start! All of the above list can be as easy or as difficult as you want to make it. My final few words on this topic are that you must aim to keep things as simple as you can for yourself by not complicating what you are seeing. Forget about the more complicated technical areas such as tone or perspective. Just focus on a simple version of the object you see.
…And please do let me know how you get on!
You can join Emily’s Notebook Community to receive updates and access to further drawing resources. Make sure to sign up to the community!
If you’re interested in learning to draw and fill countless sketchbooks why not consider joining me on the Sketch from Scratch to Sketchbook in 10 Weeks and Beyond course!
