20 sketchbook drawing ideas to fill your pages

When the page is blank, draw what’s in front of you, then make it a little strange. These 20 sketchbook prompts run from your own hands to a dragon on your desk, and most take five to fifteen minutes.

Draw what’s around you

1. Your bag, emptied Tip it out and draw every object in a grid, one per box, all at the same size.
2. The view from your seat Block in the big shapes first, like windows, doors and tables, then finish one small area in full detail.
3. One pair of shoes, three ways From the side, the front and above. Draw the laces last.
4. The counter after breakfast Plates, crumbs and a half-finished cup, exactly as they were left.
5. A plant, every leaf Draw each leaf where it overlaps the next. Don’t simplify; this one is about looking.

Hands and people

1. Your hand, five poses Holding a cup, a fist, pointing, open, holding a pen. Your free hand is a model that never leaves.
2. Café people in 30 seconds One quick gesture line for each person’s pose, then move on to the next before they do.
3. Spoon self-portrait Your face reflected in the back of a spoon, stretched and all.
4. Someone asleep A person or a pet napping on the couch. Sleepers hold still, so you have time for the folds.

Objects with faces

1. Teapot character The spout is a nose and the lid is a hat. Decide its mood before you draw the eyes.
2. Tired phone Your phone as a creature with heavy eyelids and a low battery bar drawn as its belly.
3. Vegetable cast Everything in the vegetable drawer, each with a face that matches its shape.

Creatures

1. A dragon on your desk Draw the desk from life first, then a small dragon sitting on the keyboard or sniffing your mug.
2. Two animals in one Owl and cat, deer and fish. Keep the head of one and the body of the other.
3. Eyes in the leaves Draw a real plant, then hide one creature in it with only its eyes and a paw showing.
4. A phoenix in the toaster Flames for feathers, rising out of an ordinary kitchen object.

5-minute challenges

1. One line only Draw a whole object without lifting the pen once.
2. Wrong hand A self-portrait with your other hand. It comes out looser than you expect.
3. Blind contour Draw something without looking at the page at all.
4. Ten circles Draw ten circles, then turn each into something different: a clock, a planet, a face.

Pencil and watercolor, the sketchbook classic

• Sketch loosely in pencil and leave the construction lines in.
• Lay one pale watercolor wash over the whole shape and let it dry.
• Add a second, darker layer only where the shadows are.
• Leave the paper white for highlights instead of painting them on.
• Go back in with pencil over the dry paint for eyes and small details.

For finished picture-book styles, see storybook illustration.

A sketchbook creature in your photo

Tada, an iPhone app, has an AI look called Sketchbook Beast. A storybook creature, like a small dragon, a unicorn or a phoenix, peeks into your photo and plays with something real in it, drawn in loose pencil and watercolor. Your photo stays exactly as it is and the creature moves.

1. Open Tada, tap Add effects and pick a photo.
2. Choose Sketchbook Beast and tap Make it.
3. In about a minute your tada is ready. Tap Save and it goes to Photos as a Live Photo.

It uses 1 AI tada (you get 3 free). To make it, your photo is sent to Tada’s AI partners; Tada asks before your first one. See privacy. To draw your own creature on a photo instead, use Draw; there are more prompts for photos in doodle ideas.

Questions

More you can do

• Doodle art
• Storybook illustration
• Sun and moon drawing
• Doodle ideas
• All guides