Staring at a white page is actually painful. You’ve got the pencil, the expensive sketchbook you bought three months ago, and exactly zero ideas. It’s a specific kind of paralysis. Most people think they need to be Leonardo da Vinci just to doodle, but honestly, that’s where they get it wrong. You don’t need a masterpiece. You just need an easy thing to draw that doesn’t make you want to snap your graphite in half.
Drawing is less about "talent" and way more about just moving your hand. Seriously. If you can write the letter 'O' or a 'V', you have the motor skills to make something look decent. We overcomplicate it. We try to draw a photorealistic dog when we should probably just start with a potato that has legs.
Why You Struggle to Find an Easy Thing to Draw
Most beginners fail because they choose subjects with complex proportions. Human faces? Absolute nightmare. Even pros struggle with the spacing between eyes or the way a nose shadows the upper lip. If you're looking for an easy thing to draw, stay away from anything with a heartbeat for a minute.
Think about inanimate objects. Why? Because they don't move, and if the proportions are slightly off, nobody notices. A slightly wonky coffee mug just looks like a handmade ceramic piece. A slightly wonky face looks like a character from a horror movie. Experts like Betty Edwards, who wrote Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain, emphasize that drawing is really just "seeing." You aren't drawing a "chair"—you're drawing a series of lines and negative spaces.
Start with the "Boxy" Method
Forget circles. Circles are hard. Even Giotto, the Italian painter, used a perfect circle to prove his mastery, which should tell you everything you need to know about how difficult they are. Instead, look for square stuff.
Books are the ultimate starting point.
They're basically just rectangles with a bit of depth.
Perspective?
Sure, that matters later, but for now, just draw a rectangle. Add a spine. You’re done.
If you want to get fancy, draw a stack of them. It teaches you how objects overlap without the stress of anatomy. Plus, books have built-in textures. You can scribble little lines to represent text or draw a tiny bookmark sticking out. It’s satisfying. It feels like "Art" with a capital A, but it took you four minutes.
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The Secret of Botanical Doodles
Plants are the great equalizer in the art world. If you look at the work of illustrators like Johanna Basford—the queen of adult coloring books—most of her "complex" designs are just tiny, simple shapes repeated over and over.
Leaves are essentially two curved lines that meet at a point.
That's it.
If the curve is a bit flat? It’s a different species.
If the edges are jagged? Now it’s an oak leaf.
You can't mess it up because nature is inherently messy.
Try drawing a succulent in a pot. The "leaves" are just plump teardrop shapes. You start in the middle and layer them outwards. It's a meditative process. You aren't worried about symmetry because real succulents aren't perfectly symmetrical anyway. This is a top-tier easy thing to draw because it builds confidence through repetition. You do one leaf, then another, then ten more. Suddenly, you’ve filled a page and your brain is finally in that "flow state" people keep talking about.
Daily Objects as Muse
Look at your desk right now. There’s probably a pen, a pair of glasses, or maybe a half-eaten bag of chips.
The glasses are a classic exercise.
Two circles (or squares) and a bridge.
The magic happens in the shadows.
Don't worry about the glass. Just draw the frames.
A paperclip is another weirdly satisfying choice. It’s one continuous line that loops. It helps you practice "line weight"—that's artist-speak for how hard you press down on the paper. Darker lines for the parts in front, lighter lines for the parts behind. It’s a tiny lesson in three-dimensional thinking disguised as a boring office supply.
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Why Simple Silhouettes Beat Detail Every Time
We often get bogged down in the "inside" of a drawing. The eyes, the buttons, the wood grain. But if the silhouette—the outline—isn't clear, the drawing feels "off."
Take a mountain range.
Just a jagged line across the page.
Add a few diagonal lines coming down from the peaks to show ridges.
Throw a sun (a half-circle) behind it.
Boom.
You’ve created a landscape. You didn't need to draw every individual pine tree or rock. The viewer's brain fills in the gaps. This is a concept called Gestalt in psychology—our minds want to see the whole rather than just the parts. By giving the brain a clear silhouette, you're letting the "audience" do half the work for you. It's a shortcut to making your sketches look more professional than they actually are.
The "Cloud" Technique for Trees
Trees are intimidating until you realize they are just clouds on sticks.
Don't draw every leaf. Please don't.
Draw a trunk—two lines that flare out at the bottom.
Then draw a big, fluffy, irregular cloud shape on top.
Add some "scumble" (those messy, curly-cue scribbles) inside the cloud to represent texture.
This works because it captures the essence of the tree. If you look at landscape sketches from the 19th century, like those by John Constable, he wasn't obsessed with every leaf. He was obsessed with the mass and the light. For a beginner, mastering the "mass" of a tree is a huge win.
Common Misconceptions About What's "Easy"
People will tell you to draw a lightbulb.
"It's just a circle and a rectangle!" they say.
They're lying.
Glass is incredibly hard to draw because you have to handle reflections and transparency.
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Another trap? Fruit bowls.
Apples are fine, but grapes? Grapes are a nightmare of overlapping spheres and light sources.
Stick to a single banana.
It’s a yellow crescent.
It has distinct ridges that make it easy to shade.
It’s the perfect easy thing to draw when you want to practice shading without crying.
Tools Actually Matter (But Not the Way You Think)
You don't need a $100 set of Copic markers. Honestly, a cheap Bic pen is sometimes better than a pencil because you can't erase. When you can't erase, you stop being a perfectionist. You just keep going.
If you use a pencil, get a 2B. It’s soft enough to get dark shadows but hard enough that it won't smudge everywhere the second your hand touches it. Professional artists at the ArtStudents League of New York often start students with charcoal because it forces you to look at big shapes rather than tiny details, but for a quick doodle at home, a simple ballpoint is king.
Turning Doodles Into a Habit
The goal isn't to create art for a gallery. The goal is to bridge the gap between "I can't draw" and "I draw for fun."
Try the "Coffee Cup Challenge."
Every time you sit down with a drink, spend 60 seconds sketching the cup.
The first one will suck.
The tenth one will look okay.
By the thirtieth one, you’ll start noticing the way the steam curls or how the light hits the rim.
This is how you actually get better. You don't get better by reading about it; you get better by doing the boring, easy stuff until it becomes second nature. It’s about building muscle memory in your fingers and "seeing" memory in your brain.
Actionable Next Steps to Start Drawing Now
Instead of scrolling through more "ideas," do this right now:
- Find a single key. Not a bunch of them, just one. Look at the jagged teeth and the round hole at the top. Trace the outline with your eyes first, then try to match that movement on paper.
- Limit your time. Give yourself exactly two minutes. When the timer goes off, you stop. This kills the "perfectionist" voice in your head because there's no time for it to complain.
- Draw your own hand. Put your non-dominant hand in a simple "claw" shape on the table. Focus on the wrinkles at the knuckles. They're just little horizontal dashes. Hands are "hard," but a "study" of a knuckle is an easy thing to draw that feels very technical.
- Embrace the "Bad" Drawing. Tell yourself, "I am going to make a purposefully ugly sketch of this toaster." Taking the pressure off usually leads to a better result anyway.
- Use Reference Photos. There is no "cheating" in art. Even the greats used models and still lifes. Open a tab, find a simple icon of a lightbulb or a paper plane, and try to replicate it. It’s training wheels for your eyes.
The reality is that your first 50 drawings are going to be pretty mediocre. That’s the "Gap," a term coined by Ira Glass. Your taste is good enough to know your work isn't great, but your skills haven't caught up yet. The only way through the Gap is to keep producing. Pick up a pen, find a boring object, and just start.