You’re staring at a blank piece of paper. It’s white. It’s blinding. It’s honestly kind of intimidating, isn't it? You want to create something, but your brain keeps insisting that you can't even draw a straight line, which, for the record, is a total lie because nobody actually draws perfectly straight lines without a ruler anyway.
The barrier to entry for art is weirdly high in our heads. We see hyper-realistic charcoal portraits on TikTok and think, "Well, if I can't do that, why bother?" But that is exactly how you kill a hobby before it even starts. Finding easy things to draw isn't about laziness; it's about building muscle memory and, more importantly, convincing your brain that the act of drawing is allowed to be fun rather than a performance.
Why Your Brain Hates Blank Paper
Drawing is mostly observation. Most people try to draw what they think an object looks like rather than what they actually see. If I ask you to draw an eye, you'll probably draw a football shape with a circle in the middle. But if you look at a real eye, it’s a mess of overlapping skin folds, wet reflections, and tiny veins.
That’s why we start simple.
When you look for easy things to draw, you are looking for "low-stakes" subjects. These are things that don't have a "wrong" way to look. If you draw a person and the nose is two inches too low, it looks like a monster. If you draw a botanical leaf and the vein is a bit wonky? It just looks like a different kind of leaf. Nature is very forgiving.
The Magic of the Houseplant
Plants are the ultimate cheat code for beginners. Start with a Monstera leaf. It’s basically a big heart shape with some deep cutouts. You don’t need to worry about shading or perspective yet. Just get that iconic silhouette down.
Then there are succulents. A succulent is basically just a series of overlapping pebbles or teardrop shapes. You start in the center with a tiny "U" shape and then keep layering larger "U" shapes around it. If you mess up the symmetry, who cares? Plants in the real world are asymmetrical, sun-scorched, and weird. Your drawing can be too.
Everyday Objects That Are Secretly Masterpieces
Look at your coffee mug. No, really look at it. From the side, it's just a rectangle with a "C" attached to it. From the top, it's two circles—one inside the other.
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The trick to finding easy things to draw is breaking things down into their most basic geometric components. A lightbulb? That's just a circle on top of a square. A slice of pizza? A triangle with a bumpy rectangle for the crust.
The Desktop Landscape
If you’re sitting at a desk, you have a goldmine of references.
- Paperclips: These are just continuous loops. It’s a great exercise for line control.
- Envelopes: A rectangle with a "V" shape in the middle.
- Washi Tape: Two ovals, one inside the other, with a slight vertical height.
I once spent an entire afternoon drawing just the different pens on my desk. Some were clicky, some had caps, some were chewed at the ends. By the time I was done, I wasn't just "doodling"—I was practicing technical illustration without the stress of "Art" with a capital A.
Doodling as a Gateway Drug
There is a huge difference between "Drawing" and "Doodling." Doodling is what you do while you’re on a boring Zoom call. It’s mindless. But it’s also where some of the best easy things to draw come from.
Take "Zentangles" for example. It’s a branded term for something we’ve all done since middle school: filling a square with repetitive patterns. You draw a few wavy lines to divide the space into sections. In one section, you do dots. In another, you do stripes. In the third, you do tiny scales.
It’s meditative. It lowers your heart rate. According to a study published in The Arts in Psychotherapy, creative activity can significantly reduce cortisol levels, regardless of skill level. You don’t have to be Picasso to get the neurological benefits of putting pen to paper.
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The "Wrong" Way to Use a Pencil
Most people hold their pencil like they’re writing a grocery list. That’s fine for details, but it’s terrible for sketching.
Try holding the pencil further back. Grip it loosely. Let your whole arm move from the shoulder rather than just flicking your wrist. This makes your lines lighter and more fluid. When you’re looking for easy things to draw, like a simple mountain range, using your whole arm helps create those long, sweeping peaks that look natural rather than jagged and nervous.
Clouds and Weather
You literally cannot mess up a cloud. There is no such thing as a "wrong" cloud shape.
- Cumulus: The classic fluffy cotton ball.
- Cirrus: Wispy, hair-like strokes.
- Stratus: Long, flat smears across the horizon.
Drawing weather is about texture. Use the side of your pencil lead to create soft shadows. Smudge it with your finger. Real artists use fancy blending stumps, but your index finger works just as well when you’re just starting out.
Beyond the Basics: Adding Personality
Once you’re comfortable with shapes, start adding "faces" to things. This is the "Kawaii" style of drawing that originated in Japan. A toaster isn't just a toaster; if you give it two tiny dots for eyes and a little "v" for a mouth, it becomes a character.
This is one of the most popular easy things to draw because it relies on "pareidolia"—the human tendency to see faces in inanimate objects. We are wired to respond to faces. By adding a face to a taco or a piece of sushi, you’ve instantly created a piece of art that people will find "good" because it evokes an emotional response.
Landscapes for the "I Can't Draw" Crowd
If you want to draw a scene but feel overwhelmed, use the "Rule of Thirds." Divide your paper into three horizontal strips.
- The bottom strip is your foreground (grass, a road, a fence).
- The middle strip is your subject (a single tree, a house, a mountain).
- The top strip is the sky.
Keep the details in the foreground and the middle. The further away things are, the less detail they need. A forest in the distance is just a dark, jagged line. You don't need to draw ten thousand individual leaves.
Common Mistakes Beginners Make (And How to Stop)
The biggest mistake? Pressing too hard. If you press into the paper, you leave an indentation that will never go away, even if you erase the graphite. Keep it ghost-light. You should barely be able to see your first few marks.
Another one is the "hairy line." This is when you draw a long line using a bunch of tiny, overlapping scratches. It makes the drawing look fuzzy and unsure. Instead, ghost the movement of the line in the air above the paper a few times, then commit to one solid stroke. It’s okay if it’s not perfect.
Actionable Steps to Start Today
Don't go buy a $50 set of Copic markers or a fancy Moleskine notebook. High-quality supplies actually make it harder to start because you feel like you have to produce something "worthy" of the price tag.
1. Grab a cheap ballpoint pen. Pens are actually better than pencils for beginners because you can't erase. It forces you to accept your mistakes and incorporate them into the design. If a line goes rogue, just make it part of a shadow.
2. Set a timer for 5 minutes. Five minutes is nothing. You can't feel pressured to create a masterpiece in five minutes. Pick one object—your keys, a banana, a remote control—and just draw it until the timer goes off.
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3. Use the "Blind Contour" technique. This is a classic art school exercise. Look at an object. Put your pen on the paper. Now, draw the object without ever looking down at your paper and without lifting the pen. It will look like a total disaster. It will look like a bird’s nest. But it trains your eyes to communicate directly with your hand, bypassing the part of your brain that tries to "correct" what you see.
4. Follow a "Prompt List." If you’re truly stuck, use the alphabet. A is for Apple. B is for Balloon. C is for Cat. By the time you get to Z, you’ve practiced twenty-six different shapes and textures.
Art isn't a gift from the gods given to a select few. It’s a mechanical skill, like typing or driving. The more you do it, the more the "easy" things start to look like professional things. Start with the coffee mug. Start with the wonky leaf. Just start.