200 themes

Theme Generator Art

Press the button for one theme and three angles to take, enough to start a series, a term project or a portfolio.

Theme Generator Art

All 200

One object, every hourTry: the same mug from dawn to midnight; its shadow as a clock hand; the light turning warm.

Next step Turn it into a 30-day challenge

All 200 themes

Identity 25

Belonging to two places Try: a suitcase that never unpacks; two skylines joined; food from there cooked here.
Body as landscape Try: a shoulder as a hill range; knuckles as ridges; a back under raking light.
The clothes that make the person Try: a uniform off duty; one outfit at three ages; a wardrobe with nobody in it.
The collector Try: a shelf of one obsession; the first item beside the newest; what the collection leaves out.
The face I make when nobody watches Try: deep concentration; boredom on a bus; the second after laughing.
Glasses, braces and hearing aids Try: the view with and without the lens; the case on a bedside table; the first day wearing them.
Growing out of things Try: shoes lined up by size; a height chart on a door frame; a bike now too small.
Hair as a statement Try: the cut you regretted; braiding as a family ritual; faces in a barbershop mirror.
Hands that tell a trade Try: a baker's forearms; a mechanic's nails; a pianist's stretch.
Inherited features Try: one nose across four faces; hands of three generations; the trait you hoped to skip.

Show all 200 themes (190 more)

Identity, continued

Labels other people gave me Try: name tags crossed out; a school report re-illustrated; a label worn as armour.
Left-handed in a right-handed world Try: scissors that fight back; ink smudged along a palm; a desk arranged backwards.
Masks and the faces under them Try: the work face; a mask half off; a wall of masks nobody wore.
Mother tongue, second tongue Try: words with no translation; a kitchen where two languages meet; handwriting in both scripts.
My handwriting Try: one sentence at six, sixteen and now; a signature enlarged to a landscape; notes to self.
Names and what they carry Try: your name as architecture; where a nickname came from; one signature across a lifetime.
The person my room says I am Try: the shelf arranged for visitors; the drawer nobody sees; the bed as a map of habits.
Roles I play in one day Try: child, friend, worker, stranger; one figure in four lights; a row of hats by the door.
Scars, freckles and marks Try: a map of one forearm; the story behind a knee; freckles joined like constellations.
Self-portrait without a face Try: the contents of your bag; your desk exactly as you left it; your hands at work.
The sitter's chair Try: one chair with a new sitter each time; the empty chair after; what each chose to hold.
Things I carry everywhere Try: pocket contents as still life; the history of a key ring; a phone as a worn object.
Twins, doubles and look-alikes Try: the same pose ten years apart; a reflection that disagrees; siblings dressed alike.
Where my food comes from Try: a grandmother's recipe card; one lunchbox among others; spices kept in old jars.
Who I am on a screen and off it Try: the cropped photo and the room round it; a face lit by a phone at 2 am; two desks.

Place 25

A map of my daily route Try: landmarks only you would mark; the route in winter dark; the shortcut.
Back gardens seen from a train Try: fence after fence; trampolines and sheds; one lit window.
Bridges and underpasses Try: the underside; the river through the railings; people crossing at rush hour.
Car parks at the edge of things Try: painted arrows worn away; one trolley far from home; puddles holding the sky.
Construction sites Try: scaffolding as a grid; a building's skeleton at dusk; hoardings and their peepholes.
The corner shop Try: the window display over a year; the counter from the shopkeeper's side; handwritten signs.
Edges of town Try: where the pavement ends; the last streetlight; allotments against warehouses.
Inside buses and trains Try: the seat fabric pattern; reflections in a night window; hands on rails.
The kitchen table Try: after breakfast; used as a desk; set for someone who is late.
Launderettes and other shared rooms Try: a row of drums mid-spin; strangers not talking; the lost sock board.
Libraries Try: the quiet desk; spines as a colour field; the returned-books trolley.
Places built for cars Try: a multi-storey at night; petrol station light; the verge between carriageways.
The playground Try: equipment as sculpture; seen from a child's height; in rain with nobody there.
Rented rooms Try: identical furniture made personal; the view you did not choose; a bag half unpacked.
Rooftops and what lives there Try: aerials and water tanks; a pigeon's view of the street; washing lines.
Rooms after the party Try: chairs pushed back; paper cups in morning light; one balloon on the ceiling.
School after hours Try: corridors without children; chairs up on desks; the field under floodlights.
Small shrines of daily life Try: a fridge door; a mantelpiece; the dashboard of a car.
Stairwells Try: looking straight down the well; the landing where neighbours meet; light through frosted glass.
The street I grew up on Try: drawn from memory, then from life; the one house that changed; the view from kerb height.
Street markets Try: stacked crates before opening; one stall's colour scheme; the ground after closing.
Thresholds and doorways Try: shoes left at the door; a view through three rooms; the front step as a stage.
The view from one window Try: the same view at four hours; in four seasons; what the frame cuts off.
Waiting rooms Try: chairs bolted in rows; the clock everyone checks; a plant nobody waters.
Where the land gives up Try: groynes and sea walls; a caravan park in winter; the tideline as a drawn line.

Memory 25

A grandparent's front room Try: patterned carpet; ornaments on every surface; the chair that was theirs.
A house I can no longer visit Try: the floor plan from memory; one room in exact detail; the garden as recall bends it.
Anniversaries Try: the same table each year; a ringed calendar; a cake from above, candle count rising.
Bedtime Try: landing light under the door; shapes the wardrobe made; the book read until it fell apart.
Buildings that were knocked down Try: the gap in the street; a ghost sign on the next wall; the site before and after.
Childhood toys, retired Try: worn patches where it was held; lined up for a last portrait; the toy in an adult room.
Family recipes Try: the stained card; hands repeating a fold; one dish on three generations of tables.
First day Try: the uniform a size too big; the gate from a small height; the lunch you still remember.
Forgetting Try: a portrait erased in stages; a list with gaps; a street where some houses are blank.
Hand-me-downs Try: a coat's third owner; name labels overwritten; the elbow patch.
Holiday snapshots redrawn Try: the frame extended past its edge; the dull photo made monumental; everyone's eyes shut.
Home videos on pause Try: motion blur as the subject; the date stamp; a face turned half away.
Inherited objects Try: a drawer of someone else's tools; one object at three ages; hands using what they were left.
The last day of summer Try: long shadows on a pitch; a packed bag by the door; sand still in a shoe.
Letters and postcards Try: handwriting as image; the stamp and postmark; the reply never sent.
Maps drawn from memory Try: your first neighbourhood; the route to a friend's house; scale bent by importance.
Memory palace Try: a building whose rooms hold one memory each; the corridor between; a locked room.
Photographs I am not in Try: the scene redrawn with you added; the photographer's shadow; the back of the print.
The school photo Try: rows of faces simplified; the one who blinked; the backdrop with nobody in front.
Smells that bring a place back Try: cut grass; a grandmother's hallway; chlorine and wet towels, each drawn as a place.
Songs that hold a year Try: the room where you first heard it; a cassette as a relic; the car journey.
Souvenirs Try: a shelf of objects from elsewhere; a trip reduced to one ticket; the snow globe and the real street.
Things I misremember Try: two versions of one event side by side; a colour that was never there; a door too many.
Things kept for no reason Try: ticket stubs; a dead phone; keys to locks you cannot name.
What the attic keeps Try: boxes labelled in an old hand; a toy under dust; light from one skylight.

Nature and decay 25

Abandoned greenhouses Try: glass broken by branches; pots still in rows; a vine through the frame.
The allotment in winter Try: bean poles bare; netting and frost; one robin on a fork handle.
Bones, shells and empty homes Try: a snail shell's spiral; a nest after the season; a crab's cast-off case.
The compost heap Try: layers in cross-section; steam on a cold morning; worms among the peelings.
Driftwood and sea glass Try: edges softened; grain raised by salt; a collection sorted by colour.
Drought and flood Try: cracked mud in tiles; a bench standing in water; the tide mark on a wall.
Erosion Try: a cliff path that stops; steps worn into dips; a statue's softened face.
Fallen trees Try: the root plate on end; fungi moving in; saplings in the new gap of light.
Feathers and moult Try: one feather drawn a metre long; a scatter on a lawn; barbs zipped and unzipped.
Fruit over a fortnight Try: the same bowl every two days; mould as pattern; the last pear.
Ice and thaw Try: contour lines in a frozen puddle; icicles through one day; grass coming through snow.
Insects at work Try: the paper of a wasp nest; leaves cut into lace; a web rebuilt every morning.
Light through leaves Try: dappled ground; one leaf held to the sun; the canopy seen lying down.
Moss, lichen and slow growth Try: lichen mapped on a headstone; a roof going green; one stone at macro scale.
Peeling paint Try: layers as a timeline; a door's colour history; flakes as an abstract composition.
Reclaimed by water Try: a rowing boat sunk to its rim; the last posts of a pier; reflections of what is left.
Rust Try: a gate hinge close up; colour studies in orange and blue-grey; machinery going back to the field.
Seed heads and skeleton leaves Try: structure after the flesh has gone; backlit veins; one teasel at three scales.
Storm damage Try: a snapped umbrella; a fence laid flat; the sky an hour before.
Things that grow on other things Try: barnacles on a hull; mistletoe in bare branches; bracket fungus like shelves.
Urban wildlife Try: a fox under a streetlight; gulls on a bin; a heron in a canal.
Weeds winning Try: a dandelion through tarmac; ivy taking a wall; buddleia on a chimney.
What the tide leaves behind Try: the strandline as still life; one wave-worn object; footprints filling with water.
Wilting flowers Try: one bouquet from day one to day ten; petals on the table; the vase water.
Wood grain and tree rings Try: a stump as a calendar; knots as eyes; a plank's figure enlarged.

Time 25

Ageing faces Try: one person at three ages; parent and child at the same age; wrinkles as map lines.
Before and after Try: a haircut; a meal; a room on moving day.
Birthdays in a row Try: candles counted upward; the same pose each year; wrapping paper as pattern.
Calendars and diaries Try: a month of doodled margins; days crossed out; one empty page.
Clocks and how we keep time Try: a wall of stopped clocks; a sundial's shadow; the oven clock blinking.
The commute Try: the same faces daily; the view that scrolls past; the walk from station to door.
Deadlines Try: a desk at 1 am; the pile that shrinks; the clock in the corner of the screen.
Everyone who sat in this chair today Try: overlapped ghost figures; the worn spot; the chair alone at closing time.
Four seasons of one tree Try: one fixed viewpoint; one branch close up; the ground beneath it.
Growing Try: a bean in a jar, daily; a puppy, monthly; one child's drawings across years.
Melting Try: an ice lolly in stages; a candle down to a stub; a snowman on day three.
The moment just after Try: a dropped plate; confetti settling; the door still swinging.
The moment just before Try: a diver on the board; a cat about to jump; a finger over the doorbell.
Motion in a still image Try: a dancer's arm in five positions; a dog shaking dry; traffic as streaks of light.
Night shift Try: a bakery at 4 am; a hospital corridor; one lit cab in a dark yard.
Old technology Try: a rotary phone; a box of dead cables; a cracked screen as a landscape.
One object, every hour Try: the same mug from dawn to midnight; its shadow as a clock hand; the light turning warm.
Queues and waiting Try: postures of patience; a queue from above; the person at the front.
Rituals that repeat Try: morning tea; lacing boots; locking up.
Rush hour and the dead of night Try: one junction at 8 am and 3 am; one platform twice; shutters up and down.
Shadows through a day Try: a fence's shadow swinging round; a lamp post as a sundial; noon with none.
Sunday evening Try: the ironing; homework on the table; light going at the window.
Things that take a century Try: a stone step worn hollow; an oak's girth; a river moving its bend.
Things that take a second Try: a match struck; a glass tipping; a blink.
Tide tables Try: one beach at high and low water; boats aground and afloat; harbour steps counted.

Conflict 25

Arguments at the dinner table Try: the empty chair; hands gripping cutlery; two people and one serving dish.
Borders and fences Try: a hedge dispute; a ruled line on a map against the land it crosses; a gate bolted on both sides.
Competition Try: the start line; the face of second place; trophies gathering dust.
The crowd and the one who stands out Try: facing the other way; a red coat in grey; the gap round a busker.
Fragile against heavy Try: an egg beside a vice; glass on concrete; a feather on an anvil.
Growing apart Try: two trees leaning away; photos with a widening gap; a shared desk divided.
The inner critic Try: a self-portrait with the critic as a second figure; a page of crossings-out; the critic shrunk.
Light against dark Try: one lit window in a block; a torch in woods; a screen in a dark room.
Machines against hands Try: a loom and a needle; a self-checkout; a potter's thumbprint.
Nature against the built world Try: roots lifting paving; a flooded underpass; a nest in a traffic light.
Noise against quiet Try: headphones on a bus; a library beside a building site; a baby asleep at a party.
Old against new Try: a glass tower behind a terrace; a letter beside a phone; a horse at a pedestrian crossing.
Order and chaos Try: one tidy shelf in a messy room; a grid breaking up; a flock turning.
Predator and prey Try: a cat at the window and the bird outside; a heron over a pond; a spider waiting.
Pressure Try: straps of an overfull bag; a kettle about to boil; a bridge under load.
Protest and placards Try: hand-lettered signs; feet on a march; the square afterwards.
Rivalry Try: two teams' kit on one washing line; siblings on a sofa; chess pieces mid-game.
Rules and the people who bend them Try: a path worn across a lawn; a sign and what happens under it; a fence with a gap.
Silence after a quarrel Try: two mugs in two rooms; a door ajar; opposite ends of one sofa.
Stage fright Try: the curtain from behind; hands at a lectern; an audience as one dark shape.
Truth and rumour Try: a whisper passing down a row; one story drawn three ways; a headline beside the scene.
Tug of war Try: the rope at the centre mark; heels dug in; the moment the line gives.
Wanting two things at once Try: a figure at a fork in the path; a suitcase half packed; two tickets.
Weather against people Try: umbrellas inside out; a tent in wind; sandbags at a door.
Work against rest Try: a laptop on the bed; a uniform over a chair; lunch eaten standing.

The everyday 25

The bag I take every day Try: emptied and arranged; the layer at the bottom; straps under strain.
Bags and packaging Try: crumpled forms under a lamp; a bag caught in a tree; boxes flattened for collection.
The bathroom shelf Try: bottles as a skyline; toothbrushes as a family portrait; a steamed mirror.
Beds, made and unmade Try: folds as landscape; the dent in a pillow; corners tucked tight.
Bins and recycling Try: a week's packaging sorted by colour; the collection lorry; an overflowing street bin.
Breakfast Try: the same breakfast for a week; crumbs and rings left behind; seen from directly above.
Cables and chargers Try: knots as line drawing; the socket behind the sofa; the nest under a desk.
Chairs Try: every chair in the house; the chair with clothes on; the gaps a chair makes.
Cleaning Try: a mop's arc drying on a floor; dust in a sunbeam; gloves hung over a tap.
The contents of a fridge Try: shelf by shelf; the door open at midnight; one item past its best.
Cups and mugs Try: the favourite and why; a cupboard of mismatches; tea rings on paper.
Houseplants Try: the survivor; roots in a glass of water; one leaf's week of turning to the light.
The junk drawer Try: everything laid out in a grid; one mystery object; the tangle as found.
Keys, coins and receipts Try: pocket contents each evening; a receipt as a diary; one coin enlarged.
Laundry Try: a line in wind; the basket as still life; folded piles like rock strata.
Packed lunches Try: a box and its compartments; foil unwrapped; the same lunch on five desks.
Post and parcels Try: cardboard and tape; a doormat's daily catch; handwriting against printed labels.
Screens at rest Try: black mirrors holding a room; fingerprints under raking light; a phone face down.
Shoes by the door Try: a household told in footwear; one pair's wear pattern; laces.
The sofa Try: cushions after people leave; what is down the back; a family arranged along it.
The supermarket Try: strangers' trolleys; an aisle in one-point perspective; the checkout belt as a frieze.
Switches, handles and taps Try: the things hands touch most; wear round a light switch; brass gone dull.
Tools in the shed Try: painted outlines where tools hang; handles worn pale; jars of sorted screws.
Washing up Try: suds and reflections; the drying rack as architecture; hands in rubber gloves.
Windowsills Try: what ends up there; dead flies and sunlight; plants leaning at the glass.

Myth 25

Constellations redrawn Try: new figures in old stars; your own sky map; a myth for a passing satellite.
Creation stories Try: a world from an egg; from a spoken word; from clay on a wheel.
Fairy tale, wrong century Try: a glass slipper at a bus stop; the tower as a tower block; breadcrumbs on a pavement.
Giants Try: asleep as a range of hills; a giant's dropped glove; us from their eye level.
The great flood Try: an ark of what you would save; water at the second floor; the first dry ground.
Guardians and gargoyles Try: what watches your building; a gargoyle's day; downpipes as beasts.
The hero's journey on a school day Try: the call of the alarm clock; the threshold at the gate; the return with a signed slip.
Household spirits Try: the thing that hides your socks; a bowl of milk by the door; a face in the wood grain.
Icarus now Try: wax wings in a hobby shop; feathers in a car park; the father watching from the ground.
Invented folklore for your street Try: a festival that never existed; its costume; its cake.
The labyrinth Try: a maze of corridors you know; the thread; the centre, empty.
Local legends Try: the story of your nearest hill or pond; the witness; the spot as it looks today.
Medusa's gaze Try: a garden of statues; the mirrored shield; a portrait that avoids her eyes.
Modern gods of small things Try: the god of lost keys; a shrine to the router; the guardian of the last bus.
Monsters under ordinary beds Try: what it eats; its view of your feet; the monster in daylight.
Oracles and fortunes Try: tea leaves; a fortune machine on a pier; the prophecy misread.
Pandora's box as a parcel Try: what is inside; the lid in mid-air; hope at the bottom.
Persephone's seasons Try: a pomegranate still life; the door between winter and spring; a mother waiting.
Sea monsters and old maps Try: the blank edge of the chart; your own town's unknown quarter; a ship's-eye view.
Shape-shifters Try: the change caught halfway; the clothes left behind; a shadow that lags.
Sleeping kings under hills Try: the cave door; armour under dust; the alarm nobody rings.
Talking animals Try: a council of birds; a fable's moral as a poster; the fox and the grapes in a supermarket.
Tricksters Try: a fox at a committee meeting; a crow with a stolen ring; the aftermath of the prank.
The underworld as a real place Try: the entrance in a car park; the ferryman's timetable; the gift shop.
The world tree Try: a city in its branches; roots through a cellar; a different season on every bough.

How this list was compiled: Original list of 200 themes written for Draw This Next, September 2026. The three angles under each theme are our own suggestions for where a first piece could start. The For a portfolio and For a club groups are our own judgement: portfolio themes can be worked from observation and personal material over many pieces, and club themes are open enough for a group to interpret in one session without sharing anything private. Licence: own work

How it works

This art theme generator deals one theme at a time from a fixed list of 200. Every theme arrives with three angles to take, so you get art themes and ideas for the first piece in one press. Choose a group such as Memory, Place or Myth, or For a portfolio, then press Pick another theme until one makes you want to start.

Read the full guide

A theme, and three ways into it

A theme is not a subject. Inherited objects does not tell you what to draw. It tells you what the next ten drawings are about. Under each theme a line beginning Try gives three angles: a drawer of someone else's tools; one object at three ages; hands using what they were left. Teachers call these big ideas for art, because one can hold a term of work. Copy puts a theme on your clipboard.

Eight groups and two shortcuts

The groups sort the artwork themes into Identity, Place, Memory, Nature and decay, Time, Conflict, The everyday and Myth, 25 in each. Two more cut across them. For a portfolio marks 54 that reward weeks of work from observation, which is what art portfolio themes need. For a club marks 54 that a group can interpret in one session. One group is chosen at a time, and no theme returns until you have seen everything under it.

Turn one theme into a series of five

Most art series ideas stall at piece two, when the first picture has said everything. So plan five. Pieces one to three take the three angles as written. Piece four contradicts the theme: for Rust, something that refuses to age. Piece five zooms in on one detail of an earlier piece until it is nearly abstract. Keep one thing constant, such as the paper size or the viewpoint, and the set reads as one body of work. The full art themes list is written out below the tool.

Press three times and keep the one that annoys you slightly. Comfortable themes for art tend to produce pictures you have already made.
Write the theme on a page and list ten things within reach that fit it. Draw the third, not the first.
Artwork series ideas hold together through something constant. With themes for paintings, choose three colours before you choose a subject.
Art themes for students work best narrowed. Place is too big. The view from one window is a term of work.
On a slow day, use it as a drawing theme generator: take only the first angle and treat it as tonight's prompt.

Questions and answers

What are the main themes in art?

There is no official list. Most artistic themes come back to a few lasting concerns, and this page sorts its 200 under eight: identity, place, memory, nature and decay, time, conflict, the everyday and myth. The sorting is our own, and plenty of themes could sit under two headings. If you came for a themes in art list to read, it is printed in full below the tool.

How is this different from the art prompt generator?

The art prompt generator gives one concrete picture to draw now: a subject, an action, a setting and a limit. This page gives a theme for art that outlasts a sitting, with three angles so the first piece has somewhere to begin. A theme decides what the month is about. A prompt decides what tonight is about.

How do I choose a theme for an art portfolio?

Choose For a portfolio from the list and press five times. Cross out any theme you could not find real material for within a mile of home, because work from observation is easier to keep going than work from imagination alone. Then choose the theme where you can already picture a fourth piece. Requirements differ between schools and courses, so read your own brief first.

Can I use the themes with a class or an art club?

Yes. The For a club group lists 54 themes open enough for a mixed group, such as Before and after, Order and chaos and Modern gods of small things, and none needs anyone to share something private. Deal one, read out the three angles and let each person take a different one.

Where do the themes come from?

All 200 themes and their 600 angles stand in one fixed list. It is a random art theme generator in the plain sense: it picks from the list and never invents anything.