What to Do When You Don’t Know What to Draw

As an artist how many times have you thought, “I don’t know what to draw” and then just not drawn anything? I think we all have.

It’s a wasted opportunity.

Many of the folks who claim to not know what to draw are the same people who complain that they aren’t getting any better at drawing. If you ever want to grow out of amateur status you have to put the time in practicing and that means a LOT of drawing.

All of the interesting subject matters are not going to conveniently show up at your door or in your inbox.

Running out of ideas is no excuse for not drawing. (Photo Credit: 123RF.com Image ID: 42219223 Copyright: ra2studio)

Not knowing what to draw is a lame excuse. Why?

That’s a pretty bold statement. But it’s the truth.

We live in a day and age where information and images surround us all day, every day. Sources of inspiration are literally right at our fingertips. Technology certainly isn’t the only answer but it is a huge one. Let’s take a look at what’s available.

5 Sources for what to draw when you don’t know what to draw.

1. Household items.

   Take a look around your house. Pick a room. Any room. Even the bathroom. Pick an item and draw it. Your gym shoes in the corner, a table lamp, or your nightstand. Refrigerator, toaster, salt and pepper shakers, your coffee mug. Toothbrush and tube of toothpaste, razor, the toilet. Pick something. Anything! Just draw it. A simple 5-10 minute sketch is all it takes.

2. People.

   If you’re the sketch on the go type, draw quick sketches of people on the bus or in a coffee shop. If you want more of a life drawing vibe, there are websites like croquis.cafe where you can select models in a variety of poses for the small membership fee of $36/year. There’s even a timed feature (30 seconds – 10 minutes) to simulate what you’d experience in a live art class.

Another great website is line of action which is the same idea, but you have humans and animals, also with the timed feature.

3. Urban sketching.

   Go outside or look out your window. Sketch what you see. Flowers, trees, other buildings, cars, bicycles, mopeds, etc. If you’re stuck at home or short on time, you can always go to window-swap which is a site where people from all around the world point their cameras out of their windows for you. (You can also contribute by doing the same!)

4. Reference photos.

   There are literally gazillions. Search Google, Instagram, Pinterest, or sites like Pixabayfor subjects you like. Cats, skyscrapers, bridges, flowers, motorcycles, you name it. Find the image you like and draw it! My only bit of advice would be to make a notation of where you got the image from if you’re going to post your drawing online. It’s always good practice to acknowledge them in your posts. It (usually) prevents them from getting upset that you swiped their image, plus you’re giving their account a bit of a shout out. All you have to do is mention in your post something to the effect of, “Hey, saw this cool image from @account-name and had to draw it.” Simple. Who knows? They might even do you a solid and repost it for you.

5. Drawing prompts.

   This is great for when you don’t know what to draw but still want to use your creativity and imagination rather than just using a reference photo. You can find lists of prompts everywhere. Just Google “drawing prompts.” One of the most popular is Inktober, which started off being just in the month of October, but now has weekly prompts throughout the year. You can make up your own list of words and do a random draw. Or you can check out my free Idea Generator, which combines three words randomly drawn from three separate jars. Click here to see how it works and for the free download.

So there you have it. Five sources for an endless stream of ideas for you for when you don’t know what to draw. There really is no excuse. Anybody who wants to be an expert in their field does that thing every day, even when they don’t want to. And, if drawing is really something that is important to you, then you’ll do whatever it takes, right?

The saying goes (in a nutshell) that anything worth having becomes a priority. In other words, if it’s important to you, you’ll find a way. Yes, we all have our moments when we just don’t want to, but if it’s a priority, you’ll manage to do it regardless, even if it’s just a five minute sketch.

Further Reading

Creativity Hub

Planning for Creativity

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