18 Easy drawing ideas for beginners – Start with these basic techniques

Here are my 18 Easy drawing ideas for beginners who want to start to draw right now. Just relax and give it a go! If you are a complete beginner and want to learn how to draw, this is the perfect place to start.

Post Update: I have now added more ideas! But I will keep the post as 11, just because it’s my favorite number!

Easy Drawing Ideas

But, for now, check out the following drawing ideas to get you started with some basic drawing techniques. It is important to relax while learning how to draw and have fun! So the best way is to start drawing easy things first.

You will need some basic materials like a pencil, rubber, and paper!!!

You can also draw with a pen! Use what you have at hand. The more important it is to start, and then you can add new materials, start trying new mediums and see which one you like the most.

Cool drawing ideas to get you started

Extra materials at your choice: colour pencils, watercolour, acrylics, brushes, graphites, craft knife, pens, felt-pens, pencil sharpener, sandpaper etc.

I have selected loads of cute and easy things to draw.  Just looking at them, don’t you get inspired to try?

Doodles Drawing Ideas

What is doodling?

Doodling is a form of drawing where you draw without thinking about what you are drawing. This is where the creative process starts.

Do you know that moment when you are on the phone and start playing around with your pen or participating in a boring meeting and your focus starts to go somewhere else? Did you catch yourself making funny drawings in the agenda papers? Well, this the moment when you are doodling.

It is fascinating to discover what is your doodling mystery. Yep, I call it mystery because each one of us has our own doodling ready to be discovered. Mine, for example, are cubes.

Strange isn’t’ it? Well, I start drawing one square then they suddenly became a bunch of squares together. See below:

Do you know your doodling mystery? You can’t force to discover your doodling mystery; it needs to come from the time of “no thinking” when you are completely distracted and relaxed. However, you can practice doodling as a form of relaxation. Just think of easy things to draw and let your pencil do the work, don’t think too hard.

That’s why drawing is a form of stress relief as you let your mind wander and forget about worries and bills to pay. Read more here.

Abstract Line People Drawing – Continuous Drawing

Have you tried drawing without taking the pencil/pen from the paper until you finish?

Try this:

canva

Now, using the same line method come up with some of your own easy things to draw. Remember to keep it simple.

Drawing houses

If you are more inclined to draw straight lines, you will like to draw houses and buildings. Why not try these ideas below.

1. Line Leaves

Lines are the principle of any drawing. But just drawing lines can be a bit boring so let’s practice in a fun way.

Try practicing these techniques to improve your drawing skills in general:

• To get started, you can use tracing paper on the screen or print the image.
• Switch between looking at the image and the paper you are using to draw
• Try drawing without looking at the paper. Keep your eyes in the image and let your hand draw what you see.
• Try coming up with new drawing ideas

See more info about “draw what you see” technique in my other post. Click here.

When you start to learn something new, you will need to have no criticism to let your mind open to new things.

If you are trying from beginning to make it perfect, it won’t work! This is because you are not relaxed as you are trying hard, making your hand draw your mind “think” is correct.

There is no just “one” way to draw! Remember: You are learning, so mistakes are acceptable! Well, in fact, I don’t think there is right or wrong with drawing and art.

Of course, there are techniques to learn to improve your drawing skills like body proportions and other stuff to make the “perfect drawing ever”, however art is art! which means be creative and create your own style as so many famous artists that did not follow the norms.

If you want to draw real leaves, you can start to practice with the examples below:

If you want to learn the standard methods as proportions and perspective, read my other post here.

In my view, it is beneficial to learn about proportions, perspective and how to use different mediums so you can use with your own style of drawing later on.

2. Simple Food

Drawing circles and shapes are essential basic skill for beginners. Practice by drawing this delicious food below.

You can use colour pencils for these!

Simple drawing ideas – Food

3. People Easy drawing ideas for beginners

Well, drawing people is the ultimate goal for many. It is not impossible. The secret is practice, practice, practice. There is no other way!

These are simple and easy ways to draw people and which you can color in as well. The simplest way to learn drawing the human body that looks professional is learning the body’s proportions, but this is another lesson.

Here, we are just having fun and getting our hands moving and used to the movements. Try to draw this couple below.

Drawing – People

4. Cat Faces

I couldn’t let the cats out of this post… Just love them. If you want easy things to draw try these. Cats are fun to draw.

Here you can use charcoal, different types of graffiti or shading techniques.

Cats faces

5. How to Draw Birds – Easy drawing ideas for beginners

Drawing birds is easier than you think. See below simples birds to practice.

Remember: “draw what you see”. Concentrate on the lines.

Birds are easy things to draw

Now, challenge yourself:

I love to draw birds. See my drawing below; I used watercolour pencils (but did not add water)

6. Draw Sea Animals

Draw a fish, a crab, an octopus and a whale could not be easier. Let’s get into work!

7. How to Draw Elephants

What about drawing these lovely elephants? These are definitely easy drawing ideas for beginners.

8. Draw a Landscape

Use these landscape drawings easy drawing ideas to make your own version

9. Draw a Tree

10. How to Draw Cactus

11. Draw an Island – simple drawings

12 – Botanical Drawing – Step by Step drawing tutorials

I love botanical drawing, so I wanted to include this book as a suggestion. Step by step drawing is one of the best ways to start getting used to drawing.

Line Drawing

Here are some straightforward things to draw for beginners:

Cactus & Succulent Edition –   200 Step-by-Step Illustrations eBook drawing tutorial PDF Download – Click here to get yours from Etsy

This simple drawing method is perfect for beginners.

Easy step by step botanical pencil drawing

 13- How to Draw for Kids

kids drawing and crafts book

To teach your children to learn how to draw, this art tutorial book is a good place to start: “The Grown Up’s Guide to Making Art with Kids” by Lee Foster-Wilson, Children’s Art, How to Draw, Crafting.

This book contains lots of drawing and painting projects and many other creative craft projects to create.

It is a beautiful way to go back to childhood memories and let your mind relax while drawing, painting and creating.

Relaxing and enjoying the moment is the first step you need to learn to draw what you see.

Of, course, you can share the activity with the kids, but who said you could not do this on your own? Remember, creativity needs “no rules”!

With guided practice pages, colourful artwork and drawing ideas and lessons, you will embark on a calming journey to express yourself through art.

Teach your kids how to draw a bird, a car, a person, just let their imagination take over.

Grab yours here from BonbiForest Etsy Shop.

14-How to Draw Flowers

how to draw flowers

Who does not like flowers? Why not start by learning how to them?

This lovely book by Angelea Van Dam will teach you how to draw beautiful flowers.

This drawing tutorial teaches you how to draw flowers Step-by-step from beginning to end. All easy techniques to learn how to draw petals, leaves, stems, daisies, daffodils, dahlias, mums, roses, peonies, and more. You will discover easy ways to draw with amazing results.

Easy Flowers drawing tutorial

In this cool drawing book, you will find useful and engaging interactive exercises, and you will make your papers look like a garden in bloom. Get this amazing book full of step by step tutorials here from FoxChapelPub on Etsy.

15-Manga Drawing Kit

how to draw manga kit

Drawing manga is so much fun. Maybe not the easiest things to draw but give them a go anyway. It’s all about practice and as they say, practice makes perfect!

I love the big eyes and all the emotions you can create with these beautiful drawings. Manga may not be easy to draw for complete beginners at first, but you will see results over time with practice.

This Manga cool drawing set has everything you need. It also includes learning guides and all the items below:

16 -Animal Line Drawing

Animal line drawing step by step

Want to draw a bird, insects, a fish, or any other animal? This paperback book has all with 150+ Step-by-Step Animals.

As you are looking for easy ideas to draw?  These drawing books are certainly the way to go to improve your skills!

You will find plenty of drawing ideas to practice your skills.

Grab yours here at Etsy.

17- Blank Comic Sketchbook with Comic Art Drawing Tutorials – Easy drawing ideas for beginners

how to draw comics

What about creating your own comics? Cartoon and comics are easy drawing ideas for beginners.

This amazing sketchbook contains lots of cool drawing templates and Lessons & Tutorials on How to Draw Comics.

It is perfect for pencils, pens, colored pencils, crayons and markers, so choose your favorite medium and start to have fun!

From Etsy. Click here.

18- Light and Shade –

Learn how to use light and shade is a more complex drawing technique.

It is important to learn how to use light and shade as the next step of your studies if you want to add perspective, represent mood and volume to your drawings.

Some artists using darker over lighter and some artists use more light over dark. It is a matter of choice. The crucial point here is to understand where the light comes from so you can work on the shadows.

There are lots of techniques to use to represent shadows in drawings. One is cross-hatching.

If you enjoy coloring, check out my PDF coloring book on my Etsy Shop, click here.

These drawing ideas for beginners are for you to use for practicing and to build up your drawing skills. They are a great way to learn how to draw while relaxing and having fun at the same time. I will be adding new things to draw every few weeks, so be sure to come back to see what’s new.

More cool drawing ideas coming soon.

To complement this post I highly recommend checking out my post > Tips for Sketching Drawing Exercises for beginners

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