What should I draw?
A drawing prompt generator for kids. Easy ideas for little hands, silly mash-ups like “a penguin baking a cake on the moon”, and challenges for when they want something harder.
Drawing prompt generator
Draw
a snail
Or pick one of these
- a cake for your birthday
- a house with a red door
- a lion with a huge mane
- the funniest face you can
- a castle
Drawing ideas for every age
Easy (ages 3 and up): one thing to draw, like a happy sun, a snail or a cake for your birthday. Good for little hands and short attention spans.
Silly (ages 5 and up): a mash-up of a character, something they're doing and somewhere they are. “A hedgehog knitting a scarf in a hot air balloon” gets them thinking before the pencil even moves.
Challenge (ages 7 and up): a silly idea plus a twist, like “using only circles”, “with your eyes closed” or “in under one minute”.
How to draw together
The best thing a grown-up can do is sit down and draw the same prompt. You don't need to be good at it. Children copy what we do, so if you laugh at your wobbly penguin, they'll worry less about theirs.
- Ask about it, don't judge it. “Tell me about your dragon” opens a story. “That's lovely” closes the conversation.
- Let it turn into something else. If the cat becomes a monster halfway through, that's imagination, not a mistake.
- Keep the drawings. A folder of “what should I draw” pictures is a brilliant record of how they grow.
Questions parents ask
What should I draw when I'm bored?
Tap “New ideas” until one makes you smile. Silly prompts are the quickest way out of a blank page.
What are easy things for kids to draw?
Simple shapes they already know: suns, houses, fish, flowers, balloons, snails and smiley faces. The easy prompts are all things like that.
Why is drawing good for kids?
Holding a crayon and making it go where they want builds the small hand muscles they'll later use for writing. Drawing also gives them a way to tell you about ideas and feelings they don't have the words for yet.