Ideas and inspo for what to draw next

WikiOcelotSeeker760
01/19/25 7:43pm
Hi wikiHow! I've been staring at this blank page in my sketchbook for what feels like forever, and I just can't think of anything that I want to draw. I'm usually so full of ideas for what I want to draw, but I'm having a little trouble feeling creative recently. Does anyone have any suggestions for what I should draw next?
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Expert Comments

wikiHow Expert
Kelly Medford
Professional Artist
01/20/25 1:18pm
Try copying drawings and paintings that you love from artists past and present. Learn how they make marks and approach something. You can even take tracing paper and go over their drawings from a printout. This practice in invaluable for learning different approaches to drawing and can improve your drawing in leaps and bounds.

Don’t just draw what you think you “should” be drawing, either—draw whatever makes you happy! Doodle, scribble, make shapes on scrap pieces of paper, spy on people in the park and try to draw them as they talk, eat or sunbathe. Make drawing fun, otherwise, you will quit if it feels like a chore.

I would also advise you to draw something every day and take your time to really study how things actually are. One challenging thing about drawing can be to draw things as they actually are rather than how we think they are. That might sound silly, but learning to draw is really about learning to see .

Study something each day and draw it until you can get it as close as you can to the thing you are looking at. It can be helpful to spend time doing blind contour drawings every single day and go slowly when observing what it is you are drawing. Do not worry about the results of the drawing— this is training your eye to slow down and to work in tandem with your hand. This is a very good way to sharpen your observation skills.

Use a mirror when drawing and every once in a while stop and look at your drawing and the thing you are drawing both in the mirror. Leonardo DaVinci did this and recommended it and it really works to see your drawing in a new way and mistakes jump out at you quickly.
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Reader Comments

WikiGladeReader229
01/22/25 9:30am
Ugh, artist block can be the worst! Hopefully you can get some inspo from this lists :)

- Go for a walk and stop when you see something you want to draw
- Look around your room or house and draw something near you
- Use a random word generator to get inspiration
- Put your playlist on shuffle and get inspiration from the song that plays
- Draw your favorite character or a character from a show/movie/game that you like
- Draw one of your OCs or create a new one
- Open Instagram and use another artist's work as a reference
- Go back to basics and sketch shapes
- Practice your anatomy. Try standing in front of a mirror and using yourself as a reference
- Scroll through your camera roll until you see a pic you want to sketch
- Redraw an old sketch
- Turn your reference upside down so you focus on drawing what's in front of you
- Make random scribbles on your paper and make them into a drawing
- Look up "drawing challenges" and pick one that looks interesting to you
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WikiDolphinWhisperer571
01/23/25 4:23pm
There are lots of things to draw! You can draw poses, eyes, hands, shapes, flowers, mushrooms, trees, landscapes, leaves, fruit, vegetables, animals, fantastical creatures, a self-portrait, things around you, characters, textures, clothes/outfits, buildings, and more. If those categories aren't inspiring you, you can also think of a genre or vibe of thing that you want to draw and go from there. Like the other day I wanted to draw something cozy so I sketched a cat snoozing by a warm fireplace.
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Mia.ZPTCAPCUT
01/31/25 4:52pm
Hiii! Maybe you can draw yourself or someone else. Even a pet! (or maybe you can try a new artstyle.)
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Toad_with_a_tophat
02/03/25 6:28pm
You could draw whatever you feel. If you're feeling angry, use different mediums to show that in a drawing. You could rip the page, go crazy with it. I like to draw stuff with pockets and flaps and stuff. I also like to recycle trash in my sketchbook. A bottle cap, a gum wrapper, bits of newspaper and plastic. Draw on it, or use it for other purposes, its not about perfection, just fun! you can also draw on pages of a book. (I would go out and buy a scrap book first, unless you don't care about your books.) I feel like this can be a bit uncomfortable (it made me uncomfortable, but you got this!)
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