Last Updated on January 19, 2026 by Dee
Staring at a blank page can feel pretty intimidating. You want to draw something, but your mind goes completely blank the moment pencil meets paper. Sound familiar?
I’ve been there more times than I can count. That’s exactly why I put together this massive collection of simple drawing ideas — over 100 easy sketches that anyone can tackle, regardless of skill level. These aren’t complicated masterpieces requiring years of training. They’re quick, approachable doodles designed to get your pencil moving and your creativity flowing.
And because I know how helpful it is to have something to trace or reference, I’ve included free printable drawing templates at the end of this post. Eight pages of cute, beginner-friendly outlines you can download instantly and start using today.
Table of Contents
Why Simple Drawings Are the Best Place to Start
There’s this idea floating around that “real” artists only create complex, detailed work. But here’s the thing — every accomplished artist started with simple shapes. Circles, lines, basic forms. The fundamentals.
Simple drawings teach you to see the world differently. When you break down a cat into basic circles and triangles, suddenly it doesn’t seem so impossible to draw. A coffee cup is just a cylinder. A flower is circles and curved lines. Once you train your eye to spot these shapes, drawing becomes so much less scary.
Plus, there’s genuine joy in completing something quickly. Finishing a cute little doodle in five minutes gives you that lovely hit of accomplishment that keeps you coming back for more. Before you know it, you’ve filled pages and built real confidence.
If you’re looking for more beginner-friendly sketching inspiration, check out my collection of 50+ fun drawing ideas that are perfect for filling your sketchbook.
Nature-Inspired Simple Drawing Ideas
Nature gives us endless inspiration, and the best part? Plants and flowers are incredibly forgiving subjects. Nobody’s going to tell you that your flower has the “wrong” number of petals.
Flowers and Plants to Draw
Start with a simple daisy — five round petals around a circle centre. That’s it. From there, you can try tulips (basically a cup shape with a stem), sunflowers (bigger centre, more petals), or roses (spiralling lines building outward). Succulents are brilliant for beginners because their chunky leaves are easy to capture.
Don’t forget about leaves. A basic leaf shape with a centre vein and a few branching lines looks surprisingly polished. Try different leaf shapes: pointed maple leaves, round eucalyptus, feathery ferns. Each one teaches you something different about line and form.
For more botanical inspiration, have a look at my post on 150+ doodle art flowers — it’s packed with easy floral sketches.
Weather and Sky Elements
Clouds are wonderfully simple. Bunch together a few rounded bumps and you’ve got a fluffy cloud. Add a curved smile and two dots for eyes if you want to make it kawaii-style. Raindrops, snowflakes, lightning bolts, sunshine rays — all of these are quick wins that look adorable on any page.
The moon in its different phases makes for lovely minimalist sketches. A crescent moon takes seconds to draw but adds such a dreamy touch to journal spreads or artwork borders.
Trees and Landscapes
A basic tree is a lollipop shape — round top, straight trunk. From there, you can experiment with pine trees (triangles stacked), palm trees (curved trunk with spiky fronds), or willow trees (droopy lines cascading down). Mountains are simply triangles with a line for snow caps. Rolling hills are gentle curves. Simple, but effective.
Food and Drink Drawing Ideas
There’s something inherently cheerful about drawing food. Maybe it’s because we associate it with comfort and happiness. Whatever the reason, food doodles are crowd favourites.
Sweet Treats
Cupcakes, donuts, ice cream cones — these are perfect starter subjects. A cupcake is a trapezoid bottom with a swirly top. A donut is two circles (one inside the other) with sprinkles. Ice cream cones are triangles with scoops balanced on top.
Cookies, lollipops, slices of cake, macarons… the list goes on. Add little faces to them for extra cuteness. A smiling slice of pizza? Absolutely adorable.
Drinks and Beverages
Coffee cups and tea mugs are essentially rectangles with handles. Add steam swirls rising from the top and you’ve got an instantly cozy drawing. Bubble tea with its tapioca pearls at the bottom is a fun challenge. Smoothie cups, soda cans, wine glasses — all great practice for drawing cylindrical shapes.
Savoury Favourites
Pizza slices, hamburgers, tacos, sushi rolls — these fun food drawings are simple shapes dressed up with toppings. A slice of pizza is a triangle with circles (pepperoni) and squiggles (cheese). Sushi is rectangles and circles. Keep it loose and playful.
Cute Animal Simple Drawing Ideas
Animals can seem intimidating, but when you simplify them down to their basic shapes, they become totally achievable. The secret is starting with circles.
Animal Faces
A cat face is a circle with two triangles on top for ears, two dots for eyes, a tiny triangle nose, and whisker lines. That’s five elements total, and it reads instantly as “cat.” The same approach works for dogs, bears, bunnies, pandas, and pretty much any animal you can think of.
Owl faces are circles within circles. Fox faces are triangles with big ears. Penguin faces are ovals. Once you crack the code of which basic shapes make up an animal’s face, drawing them becomes almost automatic.
I’ve got a whole post dedicated to 50+ cute animal pencil drawings if you want even more animal inspiration.
Full-Body Simple Animals
For full bodies, think about the animal’s silhouette. A bird is an oval body, circle head, triangle beak, and stick legs. A fish is an oval with a triangle tail and fins. Butterflies are symmetrical wing shapes around a narrow body.
Bees, ladybugs, snails, and caterpillars make excellent simple subjects because their bodies are basically circles or ovals strung together. Add stripes, spots, or patterns for personality.
Everyday Objects to Draw
Look around you right now. Your desk, your room, your bag — all filled with simple drawing subjects just waiting to be sketched.
Stationery and Desk Items
Pencils, pens, scissors, notebooks, rulers — these everyday items are brilliant drawing practice because you can reference the real thing right in front of you. Books are rectangles. Pencils are long narrow rectangles with triangular tips. Scissors are two loops connected.
If you’re into journaling, these little stationery doodles make perfect decorations for your spreads. Speaking of which, if you want ideas specifically for journal decoration, my post on 100+ cute little doodles has loads of tiny sketches perfect for margins and corners.
Home and Cozy Objects
Houses, candles, lamps, mugs, plants in pots, books stacked up, cozy blankets, fairy lights — all of these create that lovely hygge aesthetic that’s so popular in journals and artwork. A simple house shape (square with a triangle roof) becomes charming with a few windows and a door. Candles are rectangles with flame shapes on top.
Tech and Gadgets
Cameras, phones, headphones, game controllers — these modern objects have clean geometric shapes that are satisfying to draw. A phone is a rounded rectangle. Headphones are two circles connected by a curve. These make great subjects if you want something a bit different from the usual flowers and animals.
Celestial and Space Drawing Ideas
There’s something magical about space-themed doodles. Stars, moons, planets, constellations — they add a dreamy, whimsical quality to any page.
Stars and Moons
Five-pointed stars are classic, but don’t overlook simple four-pointed sparkles, shooting stars with trailing lines, or clusters of tiny dots representing distant galaxies. Moon phases — new, crescent, quarter, full — make a lovely series when drawn in a row.
Planets and Space Objects
Saturn with its rings is instantly recognisable and surprisingly simple (circle plus curved line). Add basic planets, rockets, UFOs, astronaut helmets, or telescopes for a full cosmic collection.
If celestial themes appeal to you, you might also enjoy my collection of 150 wonderful winter things to draw — lots of stars, snowflakes, and cozy winter magic.
Kawaii-Style Simple Drawing Ideas
Kawaii (the Japanese word for “cute”) style is all about adding faces to everything. And I mean everything. Clouds with smiling faces. Coffee cups with blushing cheeks. Cacti with happy expressions.
The formula is simple: draw any object, then add two dots for eyes, a small curved line for a mouth, and optional pink circles for rosy cheeks. Suddenly, that ordinary object has personality. It’s a technique that never fails to make drawings more endearing.
Kawaii drawings work beautifully in bullet journals, greeting cards, stickers, and anywhere you want to add a touch of cheerful charm.
Seasonal Simple Drawing Ideas
Seasonal subjects give you built-in themes to work with throughout the year.
Spring Drawings
Flowers blooming, baby birds, butterflies, rain boots, umbrellas, Easter eggs, bunny rabbits — spring offers fresh, hopeful imagery. Pastel colours work beautifully with spring doodles.
Summer Drawings
Sunglasses, ice lollies, beach balls, sandcastles, flip-flops, watermelons, sailboats, palm trees — summer drawings have a relaxed, holiday vibe. Think bright, cheerful, sun-soaked.
Autumn Drawings
Falling leaves, acorns, pumpkins, cozy jumpers, hot drinks, mushrooms, hedgehogs, apple pies — autumn brings that gorgeous warm palette of oranges, reds, and browns. Perfect for cozy-themed journal spreads. My post on 70 fall things to draw has loads more autumn inspiration.
Winter Drawings
Snowflakes, mittens, scarves, hot chocolate, snowmen, pine trees, presents, fairy lights — winter drawings capture that magical, festive feeling. Add sparkles and stars for extra charm.
Best Supplies for Simple Drawings
You really don’t need fancy equipment to start drawing. That said, having a few quality basics does make the process more enjoyable.
For simple sketching, I recommend starting with a decent set of graphite pencils. The Faber-Castell graphite pencils (2H-6B) give you a lovely range from light to dark. If you want to ink your drawings, the Mogyann Drawing Pens are affordable and come in multiple tip sizes.
For a complete starter kit with everything you need in one package, the KALOUR 76-piece Drawing Kit is brilliant value. It includes pencils, charcoal, blending stumps, erasers, and a sketchbook — basically everything a beginner needs.
And don’t underestimate the power of a good sketchbook. Having dedicated pages for practice (rather than random scraps of paper) makes you take your drawing more seriously. Plus, it’s lovely to flip back and see your progress over time.
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Tips for Making Simple Drawings Look More Polished
Want your simple drawings to look a bit more finished? Here are a few quick tips.
First, vary your line weight. Pressing harder on outer edges and lighter on inner details adds dimension without any shading. Second, don’t be afraid of imperfection. Slightly wobbly lines have charm. Third, group your doodles thoughtfully on the page — balanced spacing looks intentional, even if it’s random.
Finally, consider adding tiny details. Dots for texture, small lines for shading, little sparkles for magic. These finishing touches take seconds but elevate simple sketches significantly.
For more tips on improving your drawing skills quickly, check out my post on 80+ easy doodle drawings for beginners.
What’s Inside the Free Printable Drawing Templates
Here’s a sneak peek at what you’ll get in this free 8-page printable pack. Each sheet has been designed with beginners in mind — clean black outlines on white backgrounds, perfect for tracing or using as reference. You’ll find over 100 simple drawing ideas organised by theme: nature, food, animals, everyday objects, celestial designs, plants, and adventure motifs.
Grab the Free Printable Simple Drawing Templates HERE (below)!
Every freebie and tutorial on Artsydee is made with love (and plenty of coffee!)
☕ If you’d like to say thanks, you can buy me a coffee here → ko-fi.com/artsydee
Start Drawing Today
The hardest part of drawing is just starting. Now you’ve got over 100 simple ideas to choose from, plus free templates to trace and reference whenever you need them.
Pick one idea that catches your eye. Just one. Grab whatever pencil and paper you have nearby. Give yourself five minutes. You might surprise yourself with what you create.
And remember — every single artist, no matter how skilled, started exactly where you are now. With simple shapes. Basic doodles. Small steps. Those small steps add up faster than you’d think.
Happy drawing!
Dee x
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