• 80 ideas

Things to Draw With Markers

One subject that suits markers per press, with the number of colours it needs and how the ink handles it.

Things to Draw With Markers

Show all 80
  1. Jellyfish glowing on black paper4 colours. White bell first. Once that is dry, a bright colour laid over the white stays bright on black paper.

Next step More ideas for a black surfaceMore subjects for line alone

All 80 ideas

Any markers: flat colour 22

  • Bold flower repeat like wrapping paper 4 colours. One simple five-petal flower, drawn big, small and half off the edge. Fill the gaps with dots.
  • Bunting across the page in a repeating order 5 colours. Two sagging strings of triangles. Keep the five colours in the same order all the way along.
  • Comic sound word bursting out of a star 3 colours. Yellow star, red letters, black outline. Thick line round the outside, thin lines inside.
  • Five ice lollies, each half melted 6 colours. One flat colour per lolly and a puddle to match. Leave a white stripe down one side as the shine.
  • Fruit bowl in flat blocks with no outlines 6 colours. No black at all. Where two fruits touch, leave a hair of white paper so the colours do not run.
  • Fry-up on a white-rimmed plate, from above 5 colours. Egg, toast, beans, tomato. Draw a second circle for the plate rim and leave it white.
  • High-top sneakers with the laces undone 4 colours. Colour the panels flat. Leave the sole, toe cap and laces as white paper, and outline last.
  • Hot-air balloons in a flat blue sky 6 colours. Colour the sky last, round the balloons, with the side of the tip and every stroke the same way.
  • Map of your street with a colour key 5 colours. One colour each for houses, shops, green space and water. Put the key in a box in the corner.
  • Parrot built from flat colour shapes 5 colours. Red head, yellow shoulder, blue wing, each one closed shape. A pale beak and a black eye finish it.
  • Patchwork quilt, a new pattern in every square 8 colours. Stripes, spots, checks, zigzags. Repeat each colour at least three times so the quilt holds together.
  • Retro travel poster of a desert road 5 colours. Flat bands for sky, mesa and road, no blending. One sun circle and a thick border hold it together.
  • Roller skate with rainbow wheels 6 colours. Boot in one flat colour, stripe in a second. Wheels and toe stop take the brightest markers you own.
  • Seven-band rainbow ending in two clouds 7 colours. Work from the outside arc inward. Let each band dry before its neighbour or wet ink can creep.
  • Stack of books with hand-lettered spines 6 colours. Letter the titles first in black, then colour round the letters. Going over black can drag it.
  • Sticker sheet of nine tiny foods 6 colours. Leave a white margin round each drawing, then a thin grey line outside that. Instant sticker.
  • Sweet jar filled with striped sweets 6 colours. Draw the jar outline first and let sweets overlap inside it. Leave a white streak down the glass.
  • Terraced houses, every door a different colour 7 colours. Walls stay pale or white. Doors, window boxes and chimney pots carry all the colour.
  • Three cacti in patterned pots 5 colours. Flat green first. Spines are tiny black crosses added once the green is dry. Each pot gets its own pattern.
  • Tropical leaves overlapping across the page 3 colours. Three greens only. Where leaves overlap the darker green goes behind. Veins stay as bare paper.
  • Watermelon slice with a bite taken out 4 colours. Flat red, a gap of bare paper, then the green rind. Seeds go in last, in black, so they stay crisp.
  • Your name in bubble letters with a drop shadow 3 colours. The shadow sits down and to the right of every stroke, the same width all over. Darkest marker.

Alcohol markers: blends 20

  • Avocado half with a blended stone 4 colours. Yellow centre blending out to green, a dark skin line. The stone is brown with one soft highlight.
  • Betta fish with flowing blended fins 4 colours. Blend the fins from body colour out to a second hue, with flicked strokes that follow the fin rays.
  • Bottle of fizzy drink with condensation 4 colours. Blend the liquid dark at the edges, light in the middle. Droplets are tiny circles with a dark underside.
  • Bubble tea you can see through 4 colours. Milk-tea brown fading up to cream. Pearls are dark circles at the bottom, each with a dot of bare paper.
  • Draped scarf with soft folds 1 colour. One marker. Alcohol ink darkens with each pass: one layer on the ridges, three deep in the folds.
  • Frosted cupcake with a blended swirl 4 colours. Shade under each fold of the swirl and leave its top edge pale. The paper case takes flat stripes.
  • Galaxy blended from blue to magenta 4 colours. Scribble the colours in patches and blend the joins wet. Stars go on last with a white paint marker.
  • Koi with blended orange patches 3 colours. Leave the body as paper. Drop orange patches in and soften their edges with the palest marker.
  • Macaron stack in pastel gradients 5 colours. Each shell blends from pale at the top to a deeper tone at the bottom. The filling is one flat stripe.
  • Marble with a ribbon of colour and a tinted shadow 4 colours. Pale grey round the rim, colour ribbon through the middle, and a cast shadow tinted by the ribbon.
  • Mountain ranges fading into mist 3 colours. Five ranges from three greys: layer each marker twice for the in-between tones. Palest is farthest.
  • Pair of glossy cherries with white highlights 3 colours. Light red all over, mid red on the shadow side, dark at the edge. The highlight is bare paper.
  • Peach with a blush on one cheek 3 colours. Yellow all over, then pink blended into one side while it is still wet. One green leaf.
  • Row of gemstones with hard-edged facets 5 colours. Each facet is one flat tone with no blending inside it. Put the lightest facet next to the darkest.
  • Rubber duck with a soft shadow 3 colours. Yellow, a second pass of yellow under the wing and chin, orange bill. Pale grey shadow on the water.
  • Self-portrait in three tones of one blue 3 colours. Squint at a photo. Bare paper for lights, one pass for mid-tones, three passes for shadows.
  • Shiny apple reflecting a window 4 colours. Yellow-green first, red over it while wet so they merge. Keep a hard-edged window shape white.
  • Sunset sky blended from yellow to violet 4 colours. Lightest first. Bring the next colour in while the ink is wet, then go back over the join.
  • Wobbling jelly with light coming through 3 colours. Light passes through jelly, so the side away from the lamp glows. Blend dark to light across it.
  • Word that fades from one colour to another 3 colours. Letter it in the pale marker. Add the dark one from the bottom up and pull the pale back over the join.

Acrylic paint markers: layers 20

  • Black cat on black paper, highlights only 2 colours. Draw only where light hits: ear edges, whiskers, the curve of the back, two eyes. The paper is the cat.
  • Constellation map on navy card 2 colours. White dots in three sizes for stars, a second colour for the joining lines. Invent your own figures.
  • Dandelion clock in white on dark paper 1 colour. Dot the centre, flick fine lines out in a ball, and end each one in a tiny V. Let three seeds drift off.
  • Fireworks over water on black paper 5 colours. Bursts are lines flicked out from a centre, each tipped with a dot. Mirror them as dashes in the water.
  • Folk-art bird with dots over flat colour 5 colours. Simple teardrop body and wing. All the detail is rows of dots and dashes added over dry colour.
  • Fried egg on toast with one highlight dot 4 colours. Toast, then white over it, then yolk over the white. A single white dot on the yolk makes it wet.
  • Friendly ghosts in white on black paper 2 colours. Solid white shapes with wavy hems. Add faces in black over the dry white: two ovals and a small O.
  • Iced biscuits with piped patterns on top 5 colours. Flat icing colour first. When it is dry, dot and line over it in white. It covers completely.
  • Jellyfish glowing on black paper 4 colours. White bell first. Once that is dry, a bright colour laid over the white stays bright on black paper.
  • Landscape built in dry layers, sky to fence 5 colours. Paint the whole sky, let it dry, then hills over it, then trees over the hills. No gaps to leave.
  • Leopard print in three layers 3 colours. Tan base, darker blobs, then broken black rings round the blobs. Every layer dries before the next.
  • Neon sign word glowing on a dark wall 3 colours. Letter it in white first. Go over it in a bright colour and leave a thin white core down each stroke.
  • Night skyline on black paper with lit windows 4 colours. Paint markers are opaque, so yellow windows go straight over a dark building once it is dry.
  • Planets on black card with a dotted star field 5 colours. Flat circles first. When dry, add bands and a crescent of lighter colour on the sunlit side.
  • Skateboard deck design on a strip of card 5 colours. Cut card to a long rounded shape. One big graphic through the middle, wheels marked as four bare ovals.
  • Snake patterned with dots on dots 4 colours. Flat body colour, big dots along the back, then a smaller dot of a third colour inside each one.
  • Strawberry with seeds dotted on in yellow 4 colours. Red heart shape, green star of leaves on top. Seeds are yellow dots in offset rows over the dry red.
  • Terrazzo pattern of chips over a pale base 6 colours. Cover the page in one pale colour. Angular chips in five colours go over it, none of them touching.
  • Toadstools with white spots added last 4 colours. No need to colour round the spots. Paint the cap solid red, wait a few minutes, dot the white on top.
  • White-line botanical on black paper 1 colour. Shake with the cap on, press the tip to load it, then draw stems first and leaves in pairs.

One black marker 18

  • Big cat face cut into stencil shapes 1 colour. Solid shapes only, no outline: eye patches, nose, stripes. Bare paper bridges keep the shapes apart.
  • Birch forest: white trunks, black marks 1 colour. Trunks are bare paper between two lines. Short horizontal dashes and a few solid eye-shaped knots.
  • Checkerboard that bends into a tunnel 1 colour. Squares shrink toward a point in the middle. Fill every second one solid. A broad tip saves time.
  • Doodle wall of interlocking characters 1 colour. Start in one corner. Every new character shares an outline with its neighbours. No gaps allowed.
  • Face drawn in one continuous line 1 colour. Start at an ear and do not lift until you are back there. Marker will not let you fuss, which helps.
  • Four square tiles that join when repeated 1 colour. Any line leaving a tile at mid-edge meets its neighbour's line. Draw one tile, then copy it three times.
  • High-contrast portrait in solid black shapes 1 colour. Squint until a photo becomes two tones. Fill every shadow solid and leave every light as bare paper.
  • Maze that fills the whole page 1 colour. Draw the true path first as a pencil line, wall it in, then add dead ends until the page is full.
  • Monstera leaf in thick and thin line 1 colour. Thick tip for the outline and the holes, fine tip for the veins. Two line weights are enough.
  • Mountain range under ruled sun rays 1 colour. Solid black peaks with bare snow caps. Rays are ruled lines that stop short of the mountains.
  • One comic panel with heavy ink shadows 1 colour. Light from one side only. Half of every figure goes solid black, and the outline vanishes on that side.
  • Paisley border round the edge of the page 1 colour. Teardrops with curled tips, big and small, each filled with dots and scallops. Thick outline, fine filling.
  • Quote in block capitals with solid shadows 1 colour. Pencil guide lines first. Shadows are filled solid on the right and underneath, never on the left.
  • Skyline silhouette reflected in water 1 colour. Solid buildings above a ruled line. Below it, the same shapes made of broken horizontal dashes.
  • Stacked ridge lines that overlap like hills 1 colour. Wobbly lines across the page, each one stopping where it meets the line in front. Work bottom to top.
  • Whale filled with six different patterns 1 colour. Outline with the thick tip, divide the body into six bands, and give each band its own pattern.
  • Wood grain with knots and flowing lines 1 colour. Place three knots as small ovals. Every other line flows round them like water round stones.
  • Your morning as a six-box storyboard 1 colour. Six boxes, stick figures, thick tip. Marker forces big simple shapes, which is what a storyboard wants.

How it works

What to draw with markers depends on which markers they are, so four of the six groups sort these 80 bold subjects by what you are holding: any markers, alcohol markers, acrylic paint markers, or one black marker. Cute and Easy cut across all four. Each idea gives its colour count and says how the ink handles it.

Read the full guide

Start with flat shapes

A marker tip is pressed fibre, so it lays down one even tone where a pencil would shade. The marker drawing ideas under Any markers lean on that: a watermelon slice in four flat colours, a travel poster in five bands. Leave bare paper for the shine, and outline last so the black stays crisp. Of the 27 easy things to draw with markers, 23 need four colours or fewer.

Alcohol blends, acrylic layers

Things to draw with alcohol markers are blends: a sunset, a glossy cherry, a glass marble. Work light to dark, bring the next colour in while the ink is wet, and slip scrap paper underneath, because the ink bleeds through. Things to draw with acrylic markers run the other way. The paint is opaque, so white toadstool spots go over dry red and yellow windows go over a dark skyline.

  • Alcohol marker ink fades in strong light, so keep finished pieces in a folder.
  • Outline an alcohol-marker drawing with a pigment liner. A pen that is not alcohol-resistant blurs when the marker passes over it.
  • Shake an acrylic marker with the cap on, then press the tip on scrap paper until paint comes through.

Questions and answers

What stuff can I draw with one black marker?

Press One black marker. The 18 ideas swap colour for line weight and solid black: a whale filled with six patterns, a checkerboard that bends into a tunnel. For finer line work, see pen drawing ideas.

Which group fits Posca art ideas, and which fits Sharpie art ideas?

Both are brand names: the first for a water-based paint marker, the second mainly for permanent markers. This site is not affiliated with or endorsed by either maker, and the names belong to their owners. The paint marker art ideas under Acrylic paint markers suit any opaque paint marker, and One black marker suits any permanent marker. Test on scrap paper first.

How do I stop flat colour looking streaky?

Work in small closed shapes, keep every stroke going the same way, and overlap each stroke while the last is still wet. With alcohol markers a second pass evens the tone but darkens it, so start with the lighter marker. The cute things to draw with markers, under Cute, are small and hide streaks well: a fried egg on toast, a rubber duck.

More tools

Show 8 more

Browse Drawing Ideas