• 120 prompts

Drawing Prompts for Adults

Deal three prompts, each enough to fill an evening, and see how long it should take before you sharpen the pencil.

Drawing Prompts for Adults

All 120
  1. A five-value study of three objects: white, light, mid, dark, black45 min. Make the five swatches first, down the page edge. Every area of the drawing must match one of them.
  2. Paisley teardrops, nested and filled45 min. The motif is a teardrop with a curved upper end. Draw three large ones, then echo each outline inwards.
  3. Your bedside table exactly as it is20 min. Lamp, book, glass, charger. The cable trailing over the edge gives the still life a way out of the frame.

Next step More subjects that reward a fine penTurn evenings into a 30-day plan

All 120 prompts

From memory 20

  • A beach, lake or park from one childhood summer, no photographs 45 min. Horizon first. Then three things you did there, each placed where it happened.
  • A carpet, curtain or wallpaper pattern you grew up with 30 min. Memory keeps the colours and loses the repeat. Draw one unit, then tile it until it feels right.
  • A grandparent's hands, busy with what they always did 30 min. Peeling, knitting, shuffling cards. Draw the task first, then fit the hands round it.
  • A pet you once had, asleep in its favourite spot 30 min. Start with the curl of the spine. Fur goes in last, and only along the edges that catch the light.
  • A room you walked through today, drawn without going back to look 20 min. List ten things in the room before you start. Afterwards, check what you moved, shrank or invented.
  • A toy you lost and still think about 20 min. Draw it at the size it was in your hands. Worn patches and missing parts are what made it yours.
  • An object studied for one minute, then drawn with your back to it 10 min. A Paris drawing master of the 1800s trained memory this way: study, turn away, draw, then compare.
  • The back seat of the first car you remember 20 min. The view between two front headrests. The seat pattern comes back before the dashboard does.
  • The corner shop where your pocket money went 30 min. Counter, jars, the shelf that was at eye level back then. Draw it from a child's height.
  • The family table at a celebration, seen from directly above 45 min. Plates as circles, chairs as squares, dishes in the middle. Mark each place with an initial.
  • The floor plan of the first home you remember 20 min. Walk through it in your head, door by door. Mark the windows and shade where the morning light fell.
  • The playground you knew best, equipment and all 30 min. Start with the biggest structure. Your hands remember the bars better than your eyes, so draw the grips.
  • The tree you climbed, or always meant to 30 min. Trunk, then the first fork, then the branch you could reach. Draw the footholds the way you used them.
  • The view from a bedroom window you no longer have 30 min. Frame first, then the skyline, then whatever was nearest the glass. Leave the uncertain parts as loose line.
  • The walk to your first school, drawn as a map 30 min. A ribbon of road with landmarks strung along it. What you remember goes in large. What you forgot stays blank.
  • Yesterday, hour by hour, as a strip of six panels 20 min. Small boxes, not finished pictures. One object per panel is enough to bring each hour back.
  • Your childhood kitchen, seen from the doorway 30 min. Sketch the floor plan small in a corner first. Then the table, the window and one object you are sure of.
  • Your desk at your first job 20 min. Monitor, mug, phone, in-tray. Draw what was always there, then the thing you stared at when you were stuck.
  • Your old classroom, from the seat you sat in 30 min. One-point perspective does the work: desks shrink towards the board. Add whatever hung on the back wall.
  • Your own face with no mirror, then with one 20 min. Ten minutes blind, ten minutes checking. The differences between the two drawings are the useful part.

From life, slowly 20

  • A bare branch held up against the window 30 min. Draw the spaces between the twigs as shapes. Once the gaps are right, the branch appears on its own.
  • A bicycle from life, with no guessing 60 min. Follow each tube to where it really joins the next. A diamond frame is two triangles sharing the seat tube.
  • A coat hanging from a hook, as a study in drapery 45 min. Folds start at the point of support and fall from it. Find the hook first and lead every fold back to it.
  • A cut pomegranate, pepper or lemon, cross-section facing you 30 min. Outer ring, then the chambers, then the seeds. A wet surface needs one sharp highlight and no more.
  • A glass of water standing on a patterned cloth 30 min. Look through the glass, not at it. The pattern behind bends, stretches and breaks at the water line.
  • A kitchen drawer, opened and drawn exactly as found 45 min. No arranging. Start with whatever lies on top and work down through the layers.
  • A pair of worn boots as a portrait of whoever wears them 45 min. Creases across the toe, a heel worn down on one side. Draw the wear more carefully than the boot.
  • A paper bag standing open, lit from one side 45 min. A classic studio exercise. Each crease makes a flat plane, and each plane gets one value.
  • A self-portrait in the back of a spoon 30 min. The curve bends the whole room round your nose. Draw the distortion you see, not the face you know.
  • A view through one doorway into a second room 45 min. A frame inside a frame. Keep the near door frame dark and plain so the far room holds the detail.
  • An unmade bed, every fold 45 min. Squint to find the three biggest folds. Shade the valleys and leave the ridges as bare paper.
  • The kitchen reflected in a kettle or toaster 45 min. Reflections follow the form. On a curved side, straight worktops bow and windows shrink to bright slivers.
  • One shelf of a bookcase, including everything that is not a book 45 min. Spines lean. Draw the gaps and the leaning books first and the upright ones fill themselves in.
  • The same banana, once a day, for five days 10 min. Same spot, same light, same size on the page. By day five the spots are doing most of the drawing.
  • Someone asleep on the sofa, before they move 20 min. Block in the whole pose in two minutes in case they turn. Detail goes on only once the big shapes are safe.
  • Supermarket flowers, still in their wrapper 45 min. The cellophane is the hard part. Draw only its brightest creases and let the rest stay invisible.
  • Three white objects on a white cloth 45 min. A cup, an egg, a folded napkin. With no colour to lean on, every edge is a change in value.
  • Your face in a mirror, lit by one lamp from the side 45 min. Chiaroscuro at home. Join all the shadows into one dark shape before you draw a single feature.
  • Your free hand wrapped round a mug 30 min. Draw the mug first as a plain cylinder. Fingers wrap it in three segments, each one turning a corner.
  • Your legs stretched out on the sofa, feet furthest away 30 min. Foreshortening: each shin shrinks to very little while the feet stay nearly full size. Measure, then trust it.

Slow patterns 20

  • A freehand honeycomb, cell by cell 30 min. Hexagons share walls, so draw each wall once. Start in the middle of the page and grow outwards.
  • A Greek key border round the whole page 30 min. One continuous line turning at right angles. Pencil a band of squares first so the corners land cleanly.
  • A hatched gradient from paper white to near black in ten steps 20 min. Closer lines, then a crossed layer, then a third. Tone comes from spacing and layers, not from pressing harder.
  • A herringbone floor, plank by plank 30 min. Rectangles about twice as long as wide, in zigzag rows at right angles. After the first four, it runs itself.
  • A radial pattern grown from the centre, ring by ring 60 min. Rule eight wedges through one point. Whatever you draw in one, repeat in the other seven before moving out.
  • A seven-circuit labyrinth with a single path 30 min. A labyrinth has one route and no dead ends, unlike a maze. The classical design winds through seven circuits.
  • A sphere built from dots alone 45 min. Stippling: denser dots make a darker tone. Work the shadow edge first and thin out towards the light.
  • A tessellation made from one altered square 45 min. Cut a bite from one side of a card square, tape it to the opposite side, and trace. No gaps, no overlaps.
  • A wall of pebbles, each one touching its neighbours 45 min. Draw one stone, then fit the next against it. Darken only the gaps and the pebbles round themselves.
  • Basket weave, over and under, across half a page 30 min. Short pairs of lines in a checkerboard, upright then sideways. Shade wherever a strip dives under.
  • Circles spreading from five dots until they collide 30 min. Ring after ring, like rain on a pond. Where two sets meet, stop both and let the border draw itself.
  • Contour lines for a mountain you invent, two peaks and a saddle 45 min. Each line joins points of equal height. Close lines mean steep ground; wide spacing means a gentle slope.
  • Knitted stocking stitch, row upon row of interlocked Vs 30 min. Each stitch is a small V sitting in the V below. Keep the columns straight and let the rows wobble.
  • Nine pattern tiles, each filled with a different stroke 30 min. Rule a 3 by 3 grid of 5 cm squares. One repeated mark per tile: no picture, no plan, no rubbing out.
  • One looping line across the page, every closed section filled differently 45 min. Let the line cross itself a dozen times. Put dense fills beside open ones so the sections separate.
  • Overlapping wave scales, row upon row 30 min. Concentric arcs stacked like fish scales. Each new row sits in the dips of the row below.
  • Paisley teardrops, nested and filled 45 min. The motif is a teardrop with a curved upper end. Draw three large ones, then echo each outline inwards.
  • Parallel lines that swell over a hidden shape 30 min. Pencil a few light shapes, then run lines across the page that arch over each one. The flat page bulges.
  • Quarter-circle tiles turned at random until paths appear 45 min. Square grid, two arcs per tile joining the midpoints of adjacent sides. Flip a coin for each tile's turn.
  • Wood grain flowing round three knots 30 min. Place the knots first. Every grain line after that swerves round them and never crosses another.

Out and about 20

  • A bridge, seen from the bank below 45 min. The span is one confident curve. Its reflection is the same curve broken into short flat strokes.
  • A building site: crane, hoarding and scaffolding 45 min. Scaffolding is a grid in perspective. Uprights first, then the levels, then the diagonal braces.
  • A café table from your seat at it: cup, receipt, the chair opposite 20 min. Start with the ellipse of the cup. The table edge is one angled line, and the chair can stay half finished.
  • A clock tower, church or town hall from the pavement opposite 60 min. Looking up, the verticals lean inwards. Mark the top and bottom first so the building fits the page.
  • A doorway you pass every day and have never looked at 30 min. Count the steps, the panels, the letterbox. Drawing from direct observation means finding out what is there.
  • A market stall with produce stacked in crates 45 min. Awning and table as one big shape. Fruit is rows of circles, and only the front row needs detail.
  • A museum object, from the bench in front of it 45 min. Ask at the desk which materials are allowed, and take a pencil in case. Draw the plinth too, for scale.
  • A park bench and whoever happens to be on it 20 min. Draw the bench first. It will still be there when the sitter leaves, and the next one can finish the pose.
  • A row of shopfronts across the street, signs and all 45 min. Roofline and pavement line first. The shops are boxes between them, and the lettering goes in last.
  • A street corner with its lamp post, signs and wires 45 min. Two-point perspective in the wild: each street runs off to its own vanishing point at your eye level.
  • A supermarket car park at dusk 30 min. Unlovely places make good drawings. Lamp posts give the rhythm, and the lit shop front is the one bright shape.
  • A waiting room, self-service laundry or station concourse, while you wait 30 min. Fixed things first: seats, signs, machines. Add people last, as simple shapes, and only those who stay.
  • Bicycles chained to a railing 45 min. A tangle. Draw the wheels as ellipses, then pick one frame and follow it through before starting another.
  • Boats and their reflections at a harbour, canal or riverside 45 min. Hulls are simple curves and rigging can be three lines. A reflection sits directly below and wobbles.
  • The inside of a train or bus from your seat 30 min. Seat backs overlap like cards. Draw the nearest one large and let the rest shrink towards the far door.
  • One page of street furniture: bollard, postbox, bin, bench, hydrant 30 min. Small studies, each drawn where it stands. Write the street name beside each as a record of place.
  • Parked cars along a kerb, shrinking into the distance 30 min. The nearest car is a big box; each one after is a smaller box tucked behind. Wheels are ellipses.
  • People in a queue, thirty seconds each 20 min. They will move. Catch the tilt of the shoulders and which leg holds the weight, then start the next person.
  • Rooftops and chimneys from an upstairs window 45 min. Work from the nearest roof backwards. Each ridge overlaps the next, and the far ones lose their tiles.
  • Your own street from your front step 60 min. Eye level is your horizon. Rooflines above it slope down towards it; kerbs below it slope up.

20-minute evening 20

  • The best thing you saw today, in a frame the size of a playing card 20 min. A small frame forces a simple picture. Decide the one shape that matters and let it touch two edges.
  • The coat hooks, fully loaded 20 min. One dark mass with a scalloped top edge. Find where one coat ends and the next begins only at the hems.
  • Dinner's ingredients on the board before you cook them 20 min. Overlap them. An onion, a knife and a bunch of herbs make a composition; ten things make a list.
  • Everything that came out of your pockets tonight 20 min. Tip it out and leave it where it lands. Coins are ellipses and receipts are crumpled planes.
  • The kitchen windowsill line-up 20 min. Pots, bottles, a plant, the washing-up liquid. Treat it as a skyline: heights and gaps first.
  • The last thing you look at before the light goes off 20 min. Usually a lamp, a book or a window. Date the page. A month of these becomes a diary.
  • One houseplant leaf, drawn at actual size 20 min. Lay the midrib down as a single curve. Measure the leaf against your pencil so the drawing matches.
  • One lamp-lit corner, with everything else left dark 20 min. Tone the whole page mid-grey, lift the pool of light with an eraser, then darken the far corners.
  • The pile by the front door: shoes, bags and post 20 min. Floor line and door frame, then the heap as one shape. Pick out three objects and leave the rest vague.
  • The spice rack or the row of bottles by the stove 20 min. The same shape repeated with small differences. Draw the shoulders of each bottle, not the labels.
  • The stove, with the pans still on it 20 min. Every burner and pan rim is an ellipse. The ones nearer to you, seen from more directly above, are rounder.
  • Today's sky, remembered as a study the size of a postcard 20 min. Three tones: cloud light, cloud shadow, sky. Smudge the soft edges with a finger and keep one edge crisp.
  • Tonight's hot drink and the ring it leaves behind 20 min. Two ellipses and a handle. The ring on the table is a third, thinner ellipse that matches the base.
  • The view from the sofa in three values only 20 min. White paper, one mid-grey, one dark. Every shape must join one of the three. No outlines allowed.
  • The washing-up in the rack, before anyone puts it away 20 min. Plates are ellipses all leaning at one angle. Draw the wires of the rack last, passing in front.
  • Whatever is on the arm of the sofa right now 20 min. Remote, book, mug, glasses. Draw it as found, with the curve of the sofa arm as the ground line.
  • Your bedside table exactly as it is 20 min. Lamp, book, glass, charger. The cable trailing over the edge gives the still life a way out of the frame.
  • Your glasses, watch and phone where you put them down 20 min. Three objects, three materials: clear, metal, black glass. Give each its own kind of highlight.
  • Your reflection in a dark window 20 min. You and the room float over the night outside. Keep everything faint except the brightest lamp.
  • Your toothbrush, its mug and the tiles behind 20 min. The tile grid gives you free measuring lines. Let the brush lean across two of them.

Technique studies 20

  • A blind contour portrait from a mirror 10 min. Eyes on your reflection, never on the paper, pen moving slowly without lifting. The wonky result is the point.
  • A chair drawn only as the shapes between its legs and rungs 30 min. Negative space: shade the gaps and leave the chair as untouched paper. Gaps are easier to judge than legs.
  • A composition set on the rule-of-thirds grid, then broken on purpose 30 min. Put the subject on a crossing point, then redraw it dead centre. Decide which has more tension, and why.
  • A drawing copied from a museum's open-access collection, line for line 60 min. Choose a drawing, not a painting. Follow the order the artist worked in: big shapes, then line, then tone.
  • A five-value study of three objects: white, light, mid, dark, black 45 min. Make the five swatches first, down the page edge. Every area of the drawing must match one of them.
  • A landscape in three planes: dark foreground, grey middle, pale distance 30 min. Aerial perspective: far things lose contrast and detail. Three flat tones are enough to open up miles.
  • A line drawing copied upside down 30 min. With the subject unrecognisable you copy angles and gaps, not noses and hands. Turn it over only at the end.
  • A notan of the view in front of you: black and white, no grey 30 min. Decide for every shape: light side or dark side. A good notan still reads at the size of a stamp.
  • A pointing arm, aimed straight at you 30 min. Foreshortening: the hand is large, the forearm nearly vanishes, the shoulder is small. Use a mirror or a friend.
  • A room in one-point perspective, from a seat facing the far wall 45 min. Draw the far wall as a rectangle, mark eye level, and run every receding edge to a single point on it.
  • A silhouette test of five objects in solid black 20 min. Fill each shape in completely. If a stranger could still name it, the outline is doing its job.
  • A stack of cups and bowls: ellipses above, at and below eye level 30 min. A rim at eye level is a straight line. The further above or below it sits, the rounder the ellipse opens.
  • A still life measured with a pencil at arm's length 45 min. Lock your elbow, close one eye, and compare widths to heights with your thumb on the pencil. Mark, then draw.
  • A street corner invented in two-point perspective 45 min. Horizon line, a point at each end, one vertical for the corner. Every other edge heads for one of the points.
  • A tonal drawing made by erasing 45 min. Cover the page with soft graphite, rub it smooth, then lift out the lights with an eraser cut to a sharp edge.
  • Lines wrapped like string round a pepper, a gourd or your fist 30 min. No outline at all. The wrapping lines curve more tightly as the surface turns away from you.
  • One object rendered three ways: hatching, cross-hatching, stippling 45 min. Same light, same outline, three small drawings. Notice which method suits the surface: cloth, metal or skin.
  • One subject drawn three times: ten minutes, one minute, ten seconds 20 min. Do them in that order. The ten-second version shows which lines the drawing could not live without.
  • Six thumbnail compositions of one scene before committing to any 20 min. Boxes of 4 by 6 cm. Move the horizon, crop tighter, turn the frame upright. Circle the one that works small.
  • Twenty gestures of thirty seconds each 10 min. Set the 30 second timer and use people nearby, a pet or sport on screen. One line for the spine, then limbs.

How it works

These drawing prompts for adults assume a sketchbook, a pencil and more patience than you had at nine. There are 120 in six groups: from memory, from life, slow patterns, out and about, 20-minute evenings and technique studies. Each shows a time from 10 to 60 minutes and the decision that gets it started. Adult here means complex, never explicit.

Read the full guide

Prompts only you can draw

A child is happy with a dragon. An adult usually wants a reason to look harder, so 20 prompts lean on memory: Your childhood kitchen, seen from the doorway exists in no photograph. The method is old. Horace Lecoq de Boisbaudran, a Paris teacher of the 1800s, sent students to study a painting at the Louvre and draw it from memory back in the studio.

Twenty minutes on a weeknight

The timer runs 20 minutes, not five. The 20-minute evening group holds 20 prompts that need only the room you are in after dinner, such as The washing-up in the rack, before anyone puts it away. Out and about follows the first rule of urban sketching: draw on location, from direct observation.

  • Choose by the minutes, not the mood: People in a queue, thirty seconds each fits 20, and Your own street from your front step takes the full 60.
  • Too tired to observe? Slow patterns are this list's doodle ideas for adults: steady hand, no likeness. Start with A freehand honeycomb, cell by cell.
  • Date every page. The same banana, once a day, for five days only works in order.

Questions and answers

How do these differ from prompts for children?

A children's prompt names a subject and leaves the rest to imagination. These ask for sustained looking, memory or a named technique. Three white objects on a white cloth has no story at all; the whole job is judging values. Nothing on the list is explicit, so a teenager can use it too.

What materials do I need?

A sketchbook and one pencil or pen cover nearly all 120. A few ask for more: A tonal drawing made by erasing wants soft graphite and an eraser, and A tessellation made from one altered square needs card, scissors and tape. In a museum, ask at the desk which materials are allowed.

What do notan, blind contour and negative space mean?

Notan is a Japanese word for light and dark; as a study it reduces a scene to flat black and white shapes. Blind contour is drawing with your eyes on the subject, never the paper. Negative space is the gaps around and between things, which is why A chair drawn only as the shapes between its legs and rungs works.

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