50 Fun, Easy Things to Draw When Bored or Looking for Ideas

Fun and Easy Things to Draw When Bored

Drawing is a great creative outlet that can keep you entertained when you're bored. With some simple supplies and a little bit of practice, anyone can learn how to draw fun doodles, sketches, and illustrations. In this comprehensive guide, we'll cover tons of things to draw for beginners and experienced artists alike.

Doodling Shapes and Patterns

One of the simplest ways to start drawing is to doodle abstract shapes and lines. You can use curvy, straight, zig-zagged, or dotted lines to create interesting textures and patterns. Try combining circles, squares, triangles, diamonds, or other geometric shapes. You can make mandalas, zentangles, tiles, borders, frames, and more. Let your imagination run wild!

Pointillism, the technique of using small dots to create an image, is another great option for mindless doodling. Grab a pen and start stippling away. See what images emerge on the page. You can also shade basic sketches using dots and hatching.

Everyday Objects

Draw things you see around you every day. Common household items like flowers in a vase, fruits in a bowl, plants, lamps, candles, and curtains make for great drawing subjects. You can arrange a few items nicely to create an interesting still life scene. Or opt for drawing singular items like a bouquet of flowers or a piece of fruit.

Kitchen tools like utensils, pots and pans, and ingredients can also inspire cool drawings. Focus on the shapes, textures, shadows, and highlights of each item. Drape some fabric like a tablecloth or towel and see how it looks on the page. Simple everyday objects become great drawing tools.

Doodling Letters and Words

Drawing the alphabet and hand lettering words are terrific ways to pass the time while also improving your penmanship skills. Start doodling the letters of the alphabet one by one, working on consistent sizing and spacing. Once you've mastered single letters, spell out full words and phrases in fun fonts and styles.

You can also draw words related to your hobbies, lyrics from your favorite songs, motivational mantras, or anything else that inspires you. Lettering looks great paired with decorations like borders, banners, flourishes, flowers, and shapes. See where your creativity takes you and enjoy perfecting your unique lettering style.

Nature Scenes

From majestic mountains to delicate flowers, the natural world offers endless drawing ideas. Consider recreating landscapes you've seen in your own life or depicting beautiful scenery from your imagination. Lakes, streams, waterfalls, trees of all kinds, rolling hills, and animals in their natural habitats are just some of nature's inspirational gifts.

For plant life, you can draw wreaths, garlands, flower crowns, or floral patterns. Press actual flowers and leaves and trace their natural shapes. Mix and match your favorite elements to make stunning nature drawings.

Architecture Sketches

Urban architecture provides loads of sketching inspiration too. Practice drawing buildings you see in your neighborhood, city, or community. Pay attention to details like doors, windows, chimneys, staircases, and rooflines. Look for interesting shapes, shadows, textures, and patterns to capture.

Drawing floor plans and interior rooms are also great architecture exercises. Think about how you can show perspective in your sketches to add depth and dimension. Have fun mapping out dream houses or whimsical castles.

Floral Motifs

Flower doodling provides infinite options for easy drawings. Roses, daisies, tulips, daffodils, orchids, and other popular flowers make gorgeous subjects. You can draw them individually or in bouquets. Add details like stems, leaves, and vases to complete your floral sketches.

Patterns using vines, wreaths, garlands, mandalas, and repeating flower designs are also very pretty. Practice drawing symmetrical flower shapes and arrangements. Botanical drawings have deeply relaxing and meditative effects.

Cute Animals

From pets to wildlife, animals make charming drawing options. For beginners, start with basic shapes to capture their form. Circles make great heads, ovals work for bodies, and sticks can be legs and tails. You can refine details as you practice more.

Some classic animal doodles include cats, dogs, bunnies, birds, fish, raccoons, turtles, frogs, bears, deer, elephants, and so many more. Young kids will love your drawings of cute cartoon creatures. Animate your animals by putting them in fun poses.

Eye-Catching Lettering

Drawing interesting letter forms provides endless entertainment. You can hand draw letters in every size and shape imaginable. Use thick and thin lines to add variety. Incorporate swirling flourishes, floral accents, banners, and other decorative touches.

Display inspiring words in different fonts. Try sketching in all caps, small caps, script, and a mix of print and cursive. Use creative lettering for art journal covers, bookmarks, invitations, cards, gift tags, and more. It's also relaxing to doodle favorite lyrics.

Zentangles

Zentangles are therapeutic, meditative abstract doodles that anyone can draw. They involve repeating simple patterns of lines, shapes, curves, and motifs. You don't need artistic skill. Draw structured tangles or let your pen wander freely. Combine dots, strings, orbs, squiggles, and strokes.

As you draw these repetitive patterns, you'll feel focused, calm, and centered. Start with a basic shape like a square, circle, triangle, or border. Fill it with your tangles. You can also draw entire abstract tile-like patterns. Zentangles counter stress and anxiety.

Cartoon Characters

Bring simple cartoons, anime drawings, comics, and other characters to life with your drawing skills. Use circles, lines, squiggles, rectangles, triangles, ovals, and curves to form their bodies, faces, and features. Look up images of your favorite characters for inspiration.

You can draw dreamy Disney princesses, silly Spongebob Squarepants, wise anime mentors, powerful superheroes, scary villains, and more. Put your characters into fun, action-packed scenes. Comic strip panels make your drawings tell stories.

Optical Illusions

Fool the eye and boggle the mind with cool optical illusion drawings! The key is to use perspective to make objects appear distorted, overlapping, warped, or vanishing. Circles, dots, arrows, concentric rings, and 3D cubes work well.

You can find guides for many optical illusion tricks online. Themes include floating impossible objects, perspective lettering, hypnotic spirals, and more. M.C. Escher is the master of illusion drawing inspiration. Challenge yourself with these mind-bending exercises.

Tips for Improving Your Drawing Skills

With regular practice, you'll quickly improve your drawing and doodling abilities. Here are some useful tips for taking your skills to the next level:

• Invest in quality drawing tools like pencils, erasers, sharpeners, pens, markers, and paper.
• Learn basic techniques like shading, perspective, proportions, line quality, textures, and composition.
• Use references and models to draw accurately from life.
• Start with simple shapes and build up details slowly.
• Practice figure drawing people, animals, faces, hands, and feet.
• Mix and match drawing mediums like colored pencils, pastels, charcoal, ink, graphite, and more.
• Keep a daily drawing journal to see your progress over time.
• Watch tutorials and how-to-draw books/videos to pick up new skills.
• Join a drawing community or class to share tips and ideas.

Recommended Drawing Supplies

You don't need fancy supplies to enjoy doodling, but having quality tools helps. Here are some must-have basics for drawing:

• Drawing pencils - HB, 2B, 4B, 6B, etc. Allow for thick/thin lines.
• Colored pencils - Prismacolor, Arteza, and more. Vibrant hues.
• Pens - Ballpoint, gel, felt tip, brush, fineliner, and artist pens.
• Paper - Sketchbooks, drawing pads, mixed media paper.
• Blending tools - Tortillons, blending stumps, tissue, cotton swabs.
• Erasers - Kneaded, Tuff Stuff, vinyl, etc. For fixing mistakes.
• Sharpeners - Manual and electric for drawing pencils.
• Rulers & stencils - For lines, curves, circles, parallel drawing.

Invest in good tools that feel comfortable when drawing. Upgrading from dollar store supplies to artist-grade materials makes a huge difference. Enjoy exploring new mediums too.

Draw Anywhere, Anytime

Now that you've got tons of easy things to draw for beginners and experts alike, it's time grab your favorite supplies and start making art! Drawing is a portable hobby you can do just about anywhere. Doodle at home, school, work, on vacation, on the go, and wherever inspiration strikes.

Keep a sketchbook handy so you can capture ideas whenever they pop into your head. Let drawing provide a mindful escape from stress and boredom. Remember, you don't need to create perfect masterpieces. The goal is simply to enjoy yourself, practice, and see what emerges on the page.

From simple scribbles to elaborate illustrations, drawing engages your imagination and relieves mental clutter. It trains visual literacy and dexterity. Relax, have fun, and continue challenging yourself to learn. The world is your endless source of artistic inspiration. Now, get doodling!

FAQs

What are some good starter supplies for drawing?

Great starter drawing supplies include drawing pencils (HB, 2B, 4B), colored pencils, pens, sketch paper or a sketchbook, erasers, and sharpeners. Invest in artist-grade materials for the best results.

How can I learn to draw better?

Practice regularly, use references and tutorials, start simply and build up detail, learn techniques like shading and perspective, take a class, and draw from life to improve your drawing skills.

Where can I find inspiration for what to draw?

Look around you at everyday objects, nature scenes outdoors, architecture, household items, flowers, animals, and more. Draw what you love! Art tutorials also offer tons of easy drawing ideas.